Death. Kissinger was definitely the architect of policies which are highly controversial in retrospect. I think our entire conduct of the Cold War is suspect in retrospect. I think we should have stayed out of things like Chile, not to mention Vietnam. We had so much less to fear from communism than we thought at the time. Communism was never going to be a threat to capitalism. Or western democracy. It collapsed under its own weight, which I think it might have done even sooner if we’d left all the meddling to Russia, and let communism suffer under the weight of its own flaws.

But it was almost impossible to see that from the vantage point of the ‘70s. In 1960, we thought the Soviets were leading the way technologically and would overtake us economically by the end of the decade. It was the same kind of economic boogeyman lurking under the bed that Japan became, and China is now. Something about our national psyche since becoming a world power - we never recognize our own strength, always thinking we’re about to be dethroned by some evil but inherently superior “other”.

Kissinger was helping shape American policy against that backdrop. I think he was pursuing our national interests as the mainstream saw it, coming off the red scares of the ‘50s, not just trying to slaughter people like McVeigh. Sure, you can say he underemphasized the human misery created by his policies. Jimmy Carter’s presidency collapsed in part because he tried to increase that emphasis on human rights after the Nixon/Ford years. A majority of the country considered him too naive for the job as a result.

So, I see this as another part of the extreme left’s propensity to judge historical figures against current day ethical standards, without any perspective of the era of the historical figures.