The Trial of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens

Fourth, the comedic irony that now in the 21st century, decades after the fact, with Kissinger in his eighties, we get a call for a war crimes trial. I think Henry called it 'realpolitik.' Third, the slippery irony of Kissinger working for Democrat Lyndon Johnson, liberal Republican Nelson Rockefeller, and conservative Republican Richard Nixon, while having loyalty only to his own lust to power and his delight in exercising it. Second, the bizarre irony of Kissinger being a German Jew with relatives who died in the concentration camps becoming a man who ends up regarding his fellow human beings with the same sort of cattle to the slaughter mentality that characterized the Nazis. Maybe I should win the literary prize for writing this review.

But then one recalls that Yasser Arafat also won one of those. What I care about here is: First, the incredible irony of Kissinger being a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. I would say, one wonders why, but I really don't care. I also thought it strange that Jarecki doesn't include Hitchens in the credits. In a strange way the plural title of this documentary almost suggests The Struggles of Henry Kissinger, which would be irony number one. By the way, note the slight, but perhaps significant difference in the title: the book is The Trial (singular) of Henry Kissinger. In this 80-minute documentary, director Eugene Jarecki follows the intent of the book by Christopher Hitchens, which was to put Kissinger on trial before a world court with himself as prosecutor. I'm not planning on doing that myself, time constraints and other things to do being what they are. You'll have to read Kissinger's memoirs for the defense.

The Trial of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens