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Ever since The Trial of Henry Kissinger came out linking the former Secretary of State to illegal bombing in Cambodia, genocide in East Timor, and a coup in Chile there has been a renewed interest in discovering more about Kissinger and his conduct as a government official. That renewed interest has led to another discovery of Kissinger’s complicity in human rights abuses.

A new document ties Henry Kissinger to the crimes in Argentina during the so-called Dirty War.

In April 1977, Patt Derian, a onetime civil rights activist whom President Jimmy Carter had recently appointed assistant secretary of state for human rights, met with the US ambassador in Buenos Aires, Robert Hill. A memo recording that conversation has been unearthed by Martin Edwin Andersen, who in 1987 first reported that Kissinger had told the Argentine generals to proceed with their terror campaign against leftists (whom the junta routinely referred to as “terrorists”)…

[Argentine Foreign Minister] Guzzetti, according to that document, told Kissinger, “our main problem in Argentina is terrorism.” Kissinger replied, “If there are things that have to be done, you should do them quickly. But you must get back quickly to normal procedures.” In other words, go ahead with your killing crusade against the leftists.

Unfortunately the killing spree, once started, could not so quickly be stopped as the situation in Argentina degenerated quickly. The so-called “Dirty War” would leave scars on Argentinian  society still felt today from the torture and killings unleashed by the military junta that we now know was blessed by the US representative, Henry Kissinger.

The meeting detailed in the memo was confirmed later by Kissinger who said he wanted the military junta in Argentina to quickly kill off their political opponents because he feared the US Congress was going to pass human rights laws making it difficult for the US to maintain good relations with Argentina if the government was systematically torturing and murdering their political opponents.

In August 1976, according to the new memo, Hill discussed “the matter personally with Kissinger, on the way back to Washington from a Bohemian Grove meeting in San Francisco.” Kissinger, Hill told Derian, confirmed the Guzzetti conversation and informed Hill that he wanted Argentina “to finish its terrorist problem before year end.” Kissinger was concerned about new human rights laws passed by the Congress requiring the White House to certify a government was not violating human rights before providing US aid. He was hoping the Argentine generals could wrap up their murderous eradication of the left before the law took effect.

In other words, we might have to start pretending to care about human rights again please kill everyone you need to before that happens.

The question is – is Henry Kissinger a particularly malevolent national security state official or just one that keeps getting exposed?