Henry Kissinger’s mixed legacy in Southeast Asia: from ‘war criminal’ in Vietnam to ‘close friend’ of Singapore

Many Vietnamese think Kissinger ‘crippled the country’, while a critic accused him of culpability in ‘genocide in East Timor’ by endorsing Indonesia’s invasion

In Singapore he is remembered as a friend of first PM Lee Kuan Yew, who supported US’ Vietnam war as ‘crucial for the future of a non-Communist Southeast Asia’

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Henry Kissinger speaks during an interview in Singapore on November 6, 2018. Photo: AFP

Published: 8:54pm, 30 Nov 2023Updated: 4:22pm, 1 Dec 2023

The legacy of former US diplomat Henry Kissinger, who has died aged 100, sharply divides Southeast Asia, where he is respected in Singapore as a pivotal anti-Communist ally, but reviled from Vietnam to East Timor for sacrificing the lives of millions in his ruthless pursuit of American interests.

The former US secretary of state and presidential adviser to Richard Nixon – and his successor Gerald Ford – was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1973 for carving out a peace agreement with North Vietnam.

But the accolade has since been undermined by documentation of his penchant for war, disregard for human rights and the sovereignty of faraway nations; a Cold War “realpolitik” that unleashed chaos and bloodshed as he sought to untangle the United States from its Vietnam quagmire.

To get to “peace with honour” in Vietnam, he orchestrated one of the most intensive bombing campaigns ever seen on North Vietnamese positions, especially on Hanoi.

The annual gala of the National Committee on US-China Relations in New York on October 24, where former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger was a speaker. Photo: Khushboo Razdan

Concurrently, a three-year carpet-bombing operation on supply lines in neighbouring Cambodia killed tens of thousands and dangerously destabilised the country.

The bombardment boosted support for the bloodthirsty Khmer Rouge, which eventually swept away the US-backed administration of Lon Nol. The regime killed a quarter of Cambodia’s population.