Prolongation of the Vietnam War for reasons of electoral tactics
Kissinger, as foreign policy advisor to US President Nixon, was co-responsible for the prolongation
of the Vietnam War. Although in 1969 conditions were ripe for a peace treaty, the War was continued
in order not to endanger Nixon's re-election in 1972.
In the hope of winning the Vietnam War, Nixon was re-elected and the war was ended only in
1973 at
the cost of over 20,000 American and
over 160,000 Vietnamese victims.
The USA helped bring Pinochet to power in Chile
With the aid of the USA (Kissinger as foreign minister), the democratically elected
socialist government of Chile was overthrown in 1973 and
a military dictatorship under
General Pinochet established, This dictatorship trampled on human rights: until its
end in 1990, it continued to kidnap, torture and murder political opponents. The US government
justified this meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign country by appealing to the need
to contain communism in Latin America.
