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Only Sky @ May 27, 2023 is the 100th birthday of Henry Alfred Kissinger, born Heinz Alfred Kissinger.

ML Clarke
A US statesman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and estimated to have caused between three and four million deaths through decisions that extended and accelerated wars, contributed to massacres, and supported military coups: in Asia, in the Middle East, in Latin America, and in Africa.

On occasions such as this centennial anniversary, journalists do critical work by renewing their scrutiny and rehashing key historical narratives around such notable people. We may not always have formal truth and reconciliation committees, and not everyone whose actions call for trials will face them, but we have these opportunities to revisit the cornerstone myths and contentions that shape our modern world, and to decide how we will reckon with them going forward.

The danger on this occasion is that, amid all our fixation on the man, in keeping with the “Great Man Theory” of history, we will fail to address the broader culture that bolstered Kissinger’s rise to power in the first place: a culture uncannily similar to the groundswell uplifting “controversial” figures in US politics today.

Continue reading @ Only Sky.

Kissinger’s Century, And US Complicity

Only Sky @ May 27, 2023 is the 100th birthday of Henry Alfred Kissinger, born Heinz Alfred Kissinger.

ML Clarke
A US statesman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and estimated to have caused between three and four million deaths through decisions that extended and accelerated wars, contributed to massacres, and supported military coups: in Asia, in the Middle East, in Latin America, and in Africa.

On occasions such as this centennial anniversary, journalists do critical work by renewing their scrutiny and rehashing key historical narratives around such notable people. We may not always have formal truth and reconciliation committees, and not everyone whose actions call for trials will face them, but we have these opportunities to revisit the cornerstone myths and contentions that shape our modern world, and to decide how we will reckon with them going forward.

The danger on this occasion is that, amid all our fixation on the man, in keeping with the “Great Man Theory” of history, we will fail to address the broader culture that bolstered Kissinger’s rise to power in the first place: a culture uncannily similar to the groundswell uplifting “controversial” figures in US politics today.

Continue reading @ Only Sky.
Henry Kissinger Only Sky

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