Bourdain doesn’t pull a lot of punches in A Cook’s Tour or his other excellent books. A few of his targets, maybe Jamie Oliver, do not seem to merit his milder criticism. But Kissinger does. Would he have claimed publicly to support a democratically elected government, actually supported a corrupt and incompetent pretender, carpet bombed an innocent people destroying their food supply and livelihoods and many lives, then did nothing while millions were killed - including anyone who was educated - for no actual real strategic benefit, than joked about it while eschewing any responsibility… would this have happened if he really felt all peoples were equal? There is a reason this was secret, and millions of Americans at the time were furious when the truth was revealed.
Though I believe he kept the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize.
Tom Lehrer: « Satire died when the Peace Prize went to Kissinger. »
Well, that cleared up where the horseshit argument that Obama’s drone strikes were in any way comparable to carpet bombing Cambodia came from. Straight out of the horse’s ass:
Kissinger was labeled a “war criminal” by many activists and critics, though he continued to defend his record throughout his life, saying the bombings were milder than American drone attacks in recent years, according to a 2014 interview. Historians dispute his accounts, however, and many also say the carpet bombings contributed to the rise of the Khmer Rouge totalitarian regime that carried out a genocide of minority groups in Cambodia.
From the WP article linked at the Snopes article:
In later decades of his life, particularly as declassified documents detailed the extent of the U.S. assault on Cambodia, Kissinger drew intense criticism for his leading role and was labeled by some as a “war criminal.” He dismissed these critiques and maintained that the Cambodia bombing was milder than later U.S. bombing campaigns.
“I bet if one did an honest account, there were fewer civilian casualties in Cambodia than there have been from American drone attacks,” he said in a 2014 interview with NPR. Many researchers dispute this. Historian Greg Grandin, who wrote the book “Kissinger’s Shadow,” said that at least one area in Cambodia known to have “sizable concentrations” of civilians was bombed nearly 250 times.
The Nobel Peace Prize is about as indicative of saintly virtue and moral courage as left-handedness is of vice and corruption. Winning the Nobel Peace Prize is pretty much a lottery that only people who have somehow figured in recent world events can enter.
Don’t even get me started on the “The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences”. ChatGPT could be fed a few macroecon textbooks, shat out some grammatically correct gibberish, and have equal claim to compete for that prize, except for not being an actual living person, of course.
Stranger
Yes, there was the Barack « Thank God he’s not George W. Bush » Obama award, really granted to commemorate the American voters coming to their senses.
Until 2016.
Yeah, but just think of the awesome award whoever follows the next R president will get. Whenever that may be.
Well, Elinor Ostrom did some good work.
Which, unfortunately, has not found its way into any application in government or corporate policy as far as I can tell. But I like the nod; once in a blind pig moon the Nobel Committee did something right outside of the sciences.
Stranger
You are entirely correct. Just by using a different word, some think that blatant murder is OK.
There is a Nobel Prize for Fiction (Literature), which makes the Ncbel Prize for Economic Sciences kind of redundant.
What did Kissinger get the Nobel Prize for? Im sure ive read about it before, but now i cant remember.
(Wiki)
Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ were jointly offered the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for their work on the Paris Peace Accords which prompted the withdrawal of American forces from the Vietnam war. Lê Đức Thọ declined to accept the award on the grounds that peace had not actually been achieved in Vietnam. Kissinger donated his prize money to charity, did not attend the award ceremony and later offered to return his prize medal after the fall of South Vietnam to North Vietnamese forces 18 months later.
It is rather like the NY Times printing the occasional correction: the effect is to make one think everything else it’s published is accurate and true.
To be fair to Kissinger, he did have nicer legs than Hitler and bigger tits than Cher.
I think he got it for teaching crabs to dance…
The New York Times: “We’re right about almost everything except the time we convinced the American public to back a foreign invasion based upon fraudulent information that was never independently verified, and then gave a backhanded apology for embroiling the country in a decade-long conflict of historic cost. Oh, and we’re cutting our sports section.”
Stranger
“Remember the Maine!”
Conrad ‘Connie’ Brean: You’re goddamn right, then it’s got nothing to do with the B-3 Bomber!
John Levy: There is no B-3 bomber.
Conrad ‘Connie’ Brean: [Knowingly] I just said that! There is no B-3 bomber, and I don’t know why these rumors get started!
— Wag The Dog
Also:
Conrad ‘Connie’ Brean: Well, if Kissinger can win the Peace Prize, I wouldn’t be surprised to wake up and find out I’d won the Preakness.
Stanley Motss: Well, yes but, our guy DID bring peace.
Conrad ‘Connie’ Brean: Yeah, but there wasn’t a war.
Stanley Motss: All the greater accomplishment.
Stranger