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This post was originally published on Sports Politika Substack.
Tributes from the sports world to Henry Kissinger leave out horrifying parts of his legacy
Hours after the world found out about the passing of Henry Kissinger—one of the most reviled war criminals of the 20th century—last week, the International Olympic Committee published a statement mourning the loss of a “longtime friend of the Olympic Movement.”
The statement went on to refer to Kissinger as a tireless advocate of the “power of the Olympic Games to bring the world together in peaceful competition” and how he was “instrumental in shaping the broader role of the IOC and the Olympic Games within society.”
Furthermore, the statement included quotes from IOC President Thomas Bach, who noted that Kissinger gave him “invaluable advice in all the many geopolitical issues the world and sport had to face in recent years.”
What the statement failed to mention, however, was the controversial American diplomat’s morally reprehensible policies during his tenure as Secretary of State of the United States, as well as the war crimes he orchestrated in Southeast Asia.
One of the most significant and controversial aspects of Kissinger’s legacy is his role in the Vietnam War. As National Security Advisor under President Richard Nixon, Kissinger was a key architect of the policies that prolonged the conflict.
However, his actions went beyond mere policy implementation.
Kissinger authorized a secret carpet bombing campaign in Cambodia and Laos without the consent or knowledge of Congress, which he knew would not approve such an attack on a neutral country that was not at war with the United States. Between 1969-73, the U.S. dropped half-a-million tons of bombs on Cambodia alone, killing more than 100,000 people and leading to the eventual destabilization of the country.
It is partly due to the indiscriminate nature of these bombings, as well as the lack of strategic justification for the attacks that led to Kissinger being labeled a war criminal. However, instead of standing trial, Kissinger was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1973.
Another troubling chapter in Kissinger’s legacy is his role in the 1973 coup in Chile that toppled the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende. Documents declassified in recent years reveal that Kissinger, as Secretary of State, actively supported and encouraged the military junta led by General Augusto Pinochet. This support was extended despite knowledge of the junta’s human rights abuses, including the infamous “Caravan of Death.”
Over the years, plenty of activists and human rights lawyers have sought Kissinger’s prosecution for alleged war crimes. Yet instead of being held to account, Kissinger was awarded distinctions such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Medal of Liberty in 1986. He also continued to be embraced by Washington’s political elites.
How Henry Kissinger used sports to his advantage
Beyond his influence in Washington, Henry Kissinger also knew how to leverage sports as part of his diplomatic arsenal. He was an avid football fan who helped arrange Pelé’s move to New York Cosmos in 1975 as part of a plan to improve relations between the US and Brazil. He also attended the 1978 World Cup in Argentina as the guest of honour of dictator Jorge Rafael Videla.
According to declassified documents from the US Department of State, US Ambassador to Argentina Raul Castro expressed concern “that Kissinger’s repeated high praise for Argentina’s action in wiping out terrorism and his stress on the importance of Argentina may have gone to some considerable extent to his hosts’ heads. Despite his disclaimers that the methods used in fighting terrorism must not be perpetuated, there is some danger that Argentines may use Kissinger’s laudatory statements as justification for hardening their human rights stance.”
Kissinger also served on the Olympics 2000 Commission, which sought to draft reforms in response to the 2002 Winter Olympic bid bribery scandal. He was later made an IOC honorary member.
In his later years, Kissinger sought to distance himself from his warmongering past by becoming a spokesperson for the Olympics as a harbinger of peace.
Kissinger attended the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics despite concerns over China’s human rights record. He later told Chinese state media that “one should separate Olympics as a sporting event from whatever political disagreements people may have had with China.”
In a 2019 LA Times oped, he wrote: “The Olympic Games offer a glimpse of a wider truth: The presence of competition does not necessitate the advent of conflict. The Games demonstrate our shared capacity to make commonality, and not difference, and, in so doing, opens the possibility of compartmentalizing our national and regional interests, contending with each other in one area while collaborating in another.
“Of course, the Games alone cannot prevent wars or end conflicts. But, by providing a framework in which competition and cooperation coexist, the Olympics may be taken as inspiration in an international search for understanding through and alongside contestation.”
While Kissinger utilized sports as a diplomatic tool, his morally reprehensible policies and orchestration of war crimes in Southeast Asia cast a shadow over his supposed commitment to peace. This stark hypocrisy not only raises questions about the sincerity of Kissinger’s advocacy but also highlights a broader concern about the integrity of the Olympic movement itself.
Henry Kissinger has the blood of at least three million people on his hands, yet he managed to live long enough to reinvent himself as a peace advocate through sports. If this doesn’t shake your confidence in sports as a catalyst for meaningful change, it’s hard to imagine what would.
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