(FILES) US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger announces during a press conference in Washington that the evacuation of Americans from Vietnam and Saigon is complete, thus ending US involvement 29 April 1975. Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, a key figure of American diplomacy in the post-World War II era, died November 29, 2023 at the age of 100, his association said. (Photo by GENE FORTE / CONSOLIDATED NEWS PICTURES / AFP)
(FILES) US National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger (R) shakes hand with Le Duc Tho, leader of North-vietnamess delegation, after the signing of a ceasefire agreement in Vietnam war, 23 January in Paris. Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, a key figure of American diplomacy in the post-World War II era, died November 29, 2023 at the age of 100, his association said. (Photo by AFP)
(FILES) Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gestures during a birthday reception for Kissinger’s 90th birthday in Berlin, on June 11, 2013. Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, a key figure of American diplomacy in the post-World War II era, died November 29, 2023 at the age of 100, his association said. (Photo by GERO BRELOER / POOL / AFP)
(FILES) Protesters shout “Arrest Henry Kissinger for war crimes” as (L-R) Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger; former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz and and former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright wait to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee January 29, 2015 in Washington, DC. Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, a key figure of American diplomacy in the post-World War II era, died November 29, 2023 at the age of 100, his association said. (Photo by WIN MCNAMEE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz (R) pushes away protesters shouting “Arrest Henry Kissinger for war crimes” as former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (L) watches prior to the two testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee January 29, 2015 in Washington, DC. Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, a key figure of American diplomacy in the post-World War II era, died November 29, 2023 at the age of 100, his association said. (Photo by WIN MCNAMEE / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger listens while he is introduced at a ceremony honoring his diplomatic career on May 9, 2016 at the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, a key figure of American diplomacy in the post-World War II era, died November 29, 2023 at the age of 100, his association said. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP)
(FILES) US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is pictured, on August 10, 1976 during a rest time in France. Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, a key figure of American diplomacy in the post-World War II era, died November 29, 2023 at the age of 100, his association said. (Photo by AFP)
BANGKOK—As global tributes to late US diplomat Henry Kissinger poured in, his death stirred fury across Southeast Asia.
Homage has been paid to Kissinger’s realpolitik and intellectual heft as secretary of state to US presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.
But in Southeast Asia, millions have remembered when the United States bombed swathes of Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam War, an onslaught ordered by Kissinger and Nixon.
“Every single time I hear Kissinger’s name, my blood boils,” Sera Koulabdara, who fled Laos with her family at age six, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The bombing was a failed attempt to disrupt rebel movements and strengthen Washington’s hand as it pulled out of Vietnam.
This photo taken on December 1, 2023 shows Pham Ngac, a former Vietnamese diplomat and interpreter for North Vietnam’s delegation during the Paris Peace Accord negotiation, showing an old photo, featuring himself and the-then US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, at his home in Hanoi. Pham Ngac said Kissinger was “outstanding” in the negotiations. “He was the most… persuasive diplomat, to the benefit of the US,” the 88-year-old told AFP. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / AFP)
Koulabdara said her father remembered the bombing.
“He described it as a roaring rain, but instead of water, it was flames.”
Laos became the world’s most-bombed country per capita from 1964 to 1973 as the United States dropped more than two million tons of ordnance, equal to a plane load of bombs every eight minutes.
Since then, unexploded ordnance (UXO) in the impoverished country has killed or wounded at least 20,000 Laotians.
“The life-threatening problem that exists in Laos is a direct result of the US’ barbaric decisions and one of the main architects, Kissinger,” said Koulabdara, who heads advocacy group Legacies of War.
Demining work continues.
“Laos is still the country most polluted by cluster munitions in the world,” said Reinier Carabain of Handicap International—Humanity & Inclusion, an organization that has destroyed nearly 47,000 pieces of UXO since 2006.
“Every day, civilians in a quarter of the villages in Laos run the risk of being killed or injured by explosive remnants.”
(FILES) US National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger speaks to the press in Paris on January 13, 1973 before the ceasefire agreement in Vietnam war signed on January 27, 1973. Former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger, a key figure of American diplomacy in the post-World War II era, died November 29, 2023 at the age of 100, his association said. (Photo by AFP).
‘I am hopeless’
In neighboring Cambodia, the bombing campaign helped fuel the rise of the Khmer Rouge regime, which killed about two million Cambodians between 1975 and 1979 in acts later ruled as genocide by the kingdom’s UN-backed court.
Former leader Hun Sen had long called for Kissinger to be charged with war crimes.
UXO still litter the countryside, killing an estimated 20,000 Cambodians in the past four decades.Heng Ratana, director general of the Cambodian Mine Action Center, told AFP the decision to bomb “our beautiful country and peaceful people by destroying everything” was Kissinger’s true legacy.
“I am hopeless,” said 60-year-old Cambodian Sam En, who was blinded and lost the use of both arms after he tried to remove a cluster bomb at his Kratie province home in 2014.
En, who relies on his daughter for care, said he felt differently about Kissinger after his death.
“Before I felt angry. But now he has died, so as a Buddhist follower, I forgive him.”
This photo taken on December 1, 2023 shows Pham Ngac, a former Vietnamese diplomat and interpreter for North Vietnam’s delegation during the Paris Peace Accord negotiation, displaying a photo, showing himself (top L) watching the-then US secretary of state Henry Kissinger (3rd R) and North Vietnam’s delegation shaking hands after a meeting in Gif-sur-Yvette near Paris in June 1973, at his home in Hanoi. Pham Ngac said Kissinger was “outstanding” in the negotiations. “He was the most… persuasive diplomat, to the benefit of the US,” the 88-year-old told AFP. (Photo by Nhac NGUYEN / AFP)
‘Suffering’
In Vietnam, where some see Kissinger’s rapprochement with China as paving Beijing’s rise to dominance in the region, he leaves a complex legacy.
Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiations to end the Vietnam War, even though the conflict did not immediately finish and his North Vietnamese counterpart, Le Duc Tho, declined to accept the prize.
Pham Ngac, an interpreter for North Vietnam during the Paris Peace Accords negotiation, called Kissinger an “outstanding” diplomat.“He was the most … persuasive diplomat, to the benefit of the US,” the 88-year-old former diplomat told AFP.
Neither the Vietnamese nor Cambodian governments responded to AFP requests for comment on Kissinger’s death.
“He was the one that helped cause a lot of suffering for Vietnamese people,” Tran Quy Tuyen, a soldier in Hanoi’s air defense division between 1965 and 1973, told AFP.
“I guess many Vietnamese would say that he should have died years ago,” the 78-year-old said.
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