Kissinger approved the bombing and invasion of Cambodia, an act so disruptive of the delicate Cambodian society that it can be considered an important factor in the rise of the murderous Pol Pot regime in that country.  After he and the representatives of North Vietnam had negotiated a peace agreement to end the war in late 1972, he approved the breaking off of the talks and the brutal bombardment of residential districts in Hanoi by the most ferocious bombing plane of the time, the B-52.

Kissinger’s biographers describe his role:  “If he had disapproved of Nixon’s policy, he could have argued against the Cambodian attack.  But there is no sign that he ever mustered his considerable influence to persuade the President to hold his fire.  Or that he ever condisered resigning in protest.  Quite the contrary, Kissinger supported the policy.”

- Howard Zinn – Declarations of Independence

Wondering what has changed? Read about it here.

Then there were the lies of President John Kennedy and Secretary of State Dean Rusk when they told the public the United States was not responsible for the 1961 invasion of Cuba, although in fact the invasion had been organized by the CIA.

The escalation of the war in Vietnam started with a set of lies – I n August 1964 – about incidents in the Gulf of Tonkin.  The United States announced two “unprovoked” attacks on U.S. destroyers by North Vietnamese boats.  One of them almost certainly did not take place.  The other was undoubtedly provoked by the proximity (ten miles) of the destroyer to the Vietnamese coast and by a series of CIA-organized raids on the coast.

The lies then multiplied.  One of them was President Johnson’s statement that the U.S. Air Force was only bombing “military targets.”  Another was a deception by President Richard Nixon; he concealed from the American public the 1969-1970 massive bombing of Cambodia, a country which we were supposed to be at peace.

- Howard Zinn – Declarations of Independence

Wondering what has changed? Read about it here.

For  a year, Machiavelli was ambassador to Cesare Borgia, conqueror of Rome.  He describes one event that “is worthy of note and of imitation by others.”  Rome had been disorderly, and Cesare Borgia decided he needed to make the people “peaceful and obedient to his rule.”  Therefore, “he appointed Messer Remirro de Orco, a curel and able man, to whom he gave the fullest authority” and who, in a short time, made Rome “orderly and united.”  But Cesare Borgia knew his policy had aroused hatred so,

“In order to purge the minds of the people and to whin them over completely, he resolved to show that if any cruelty had taken place it was not by his orders, but through the harsh disposition of his minister.  And having found the opportunity he had him cut in half and placed one morning in the public square at Cesena with a piece of wood and blood-stained knife by his side.”

In recent American history, we have become familiar with the technique of rulers letting subordinates do the dirty work, which they can later disclaim.  As a result of the Watergate scandals in the Nixon administration (a series of crimes committed by underlings in his behalf), a number of his people (former CIA agents, White House aides, and even the attourney-generral) were sent to prison.  But Nixon himself, although he was forced to resign his office, escaped criminal prosecution, arranging to be pardoned when his vice-president, Gerald Ford, became president.  Nixon retired in prosperity and, in a few years, became a kind of elder statesman, a Godfather of politics, looked to for sage advice.

- Howard Zinn – Declarations of Independence

Wondering what has changed? Read about it here.

There is the same limited choice in public policy.  During the Vietnam War, the argument for a long time was between those who wanted a total bombing of Indochina and those who wanted a limited bombing.  The choice of withdrawing from Vietnam altogether was not offered.  Daniel Ellsberg, working for Henry Kissinger n 1969, was given the job of drawing a list of alternative policies on Vietnam.  As one possibility on his long list he suggested total withdrawal from the war.  Kissinger looked at the possibilities and crossed that one off the list before giving the list to President Richard Nixon.

- Howard Zinn – Declarations of Independence

Wondering what has changed? Read about it here.

The coolest part of Mosaic.  That watch.