Protest to Reject Honoring Henry Kissinger by New-York Historical Society

Online, October 30, 2011 (Newswire.com) - On Monday, November 7, protesters will gather outside the Waldorf Astoria Hotel to express their outrage at the honoring or former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger by the New-York Historical Society (N-YHS). Demonstrators will gather from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at 301 Park Ave. (between 49 & 50 St.) in Manhattan to condemn the honoring of the accused war criminal by the society at a $1000 a ticket gala.

"It is incredible how this war criminal keeps avoiding accountability for his crimes," said Stephanie Rugoff of War Criminals Watch, a sponsor of the upcoming protest. "Instead of feting him with honors, Kissinger should prosecuted for his crimes."

"Kissinger's policies were from the 1% for the 1%, and the 99% suffered the consequences," said John M. Miller, National Coordinator of the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN). "The survivors of those policies can not forget and neither should we."

Historians criticized the politicization of the society: "With this honor, the society throws away 200 years of distinction, sacrificing its standing, subverting and junking a major historical institution by politicizing it. While N-YHS has a right to its politics, there's no doubt that in bestowing this honor on Kissinger those politics are vile. The trustees of this once-great Society should resign. We need a new New York Historical Society," wrote Jesse Lemisch, Professor of History Emeritus, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York and Staughton Lynd, Independent Historian said in a statement.

"We will be at the gala to remind people about Henry Kissinger's sordid and criminal history concerning East Timor, Vietnam, Cambodia, Chile, South Africa, Cyprus, Bangladesh, Angola, West Papua, and elsewhere. Kissinger is responsible for millions of deaths, millions maimed, and millions made homeless," said Tom Keough from Brooklyn for Peace, Anti Militarism Committee.

Among the organizers of the upcoming demonstration are ETAN, War Resisters League NYC, War Criminals Watch, Code Pink, Campaign for Peace and Democracy, World Can't Wait, and Veterans for Peace-NYC Chapter 34.

BACKGROUND

Kissinger is to receive the 2011 History Makers Award from the NYHS. Below is a sampling of some of the history he has made and the consequences.

Between 1969 and 1977, Kissinger as National Security Advisor and then Secretary of State designed and implemented policies which lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths, the overthrow of democratically-elected governments, and the invasion and occupation of sovereign countries. Among his action were:

* On behalf of Richard Nixon's candidacy for president, Kissinger is alleged to have secretly scuttled the Paris peace agreement reached by the Johnson Administration to end the war in Vietnam. The war continued for 7 more years. during which 32,000 US military personnel and hundreds of thousand of Indochinese died;

* As Nixon's National Security Advisor, Kissinger suggested and oversaw the illegal bombing of Laos and Cambodia from 1969 and the 1970 military invasion of Cambodia, followed by the overthrow of its government.;

* Approval and direction of the overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende in 1973, and unqualified support for brutal military dictatorships in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Uruguay, and elsewhere in Latin America;

* In 1971, Kissinger tilted toward the government of Pakistan as its troops massacred hundreds of thousands in rebellious East Pakistan;

* Kissinger refused to intervene to halt the plot by the ruling fascist Greek generals to overthrow of the democratically elected leader of Cyprus. Turkey invaded in response and the island nation remains divided to this day.

* Kissinger supported and illegally-armed Indonesian dictator Suharto's invasion and occupation of East Timor which resulted in the massacre of up to 184,000.

* Kissinger provided unwavering diplomatic and intelligence support to the apartheid regime in South Africa, including the provision of military support to the apartheid government's military intervention in Angola.