After receiving an order from President Nixon at 3:35pm on March 15, 1969, for “immediate implementation of Breakfast plan,” Kissinger transmits Nixon’s decision to begin the secret bombing of Cambodia, to the Secretary of Defense. “K said to lay on above for Monday afternoon our time, Tuesday morning their time. L said he would,” according to the summary. Kissinger warns Laird that “there is to be no public comment at all from anyone at any level, either complaining or threatening.” This is intended to be a TOP SECRET operation.

Only hours before the first secret aerial bombing of Cambodia, Kissinger briefs Nixon on preparations. “K said it is all in order,” according to the summary of their phone conversation. The two comment on how South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu has already agreed to private talks.

Kissinger gets a short briefing from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Earle Wheeler on the success of the initial bombing raids. He advises the military to undertake additional “hits.” “HAK said they should put in 2 or 3 more hits along the whole area if we get the right intelligence.” Kissinger also shares his assessment of the impact of the sudden, secret raids: “Psychologically, the impact must have been something,” he states. In response, General Wheeler suggests the shock of the bombing will force the North Vietnamese back to the Paris peace talks: “Wheeler said they probably already had their speech written for Paris.”

In the wake of a year of secret bombing raids, President Nixon remains anxious about the Cambodian situation. In this telephone call, Nixon orders Kissinger to direct bombing attacks on North Vietnamese forces there ”tomorrow.” He wanted to ”hit everything there,” using the ”big planes” and the ”small planes.” ”I don't want any screwing around,” Nixon says.

A few minutes after receiving Nixon’s call on Cambodia, Kissinger telephones his military assistant, Alexander Haig, about the orders from ”our friend.” After he describes Nixon’s instructions for a ”massive bombing campaign” involving ”anything that flys [sic] on anything that moves,” the notetaker apparently heard Haig ”laughing.” Both Haig and Kissinger knew that what Nixon had ordered was logistically and politically impossible so they translated it into a plan for massive bombing in a particular district (not identifiable because the text is incomplete). These two phone calls illustrate an important feature of the Nixon-Kissinger relationship: while Nixon would, from time to time, make preposterous suggestions (no doubt depending on his mood), Kissinger would later decide whether there was a rational kernel in what Nixon had said and whether, and/or how, to follow up.

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover transmits a TOP SECRET report to Attorney General John Mitchell on Kissinger’s request for telephone surveillance on four U.S. officials “to determine if a serious security problem exists.” According to the memo, the names have been brought to the FBI by Kissinger’s military deputy, Col Alexander Haig, who states that the matter is “of most grave and serious consequence to our national security.” Nixon and Kissinger had directed the FBI to begin a leak investigation and wiretaps almost immediately after the New York Times broke the story on the secret bombing raids over Cambodia.

In one of a series of reports to President Nixon on individuals targeted for wiretap surveillance by Kissinger’s office, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover shares information on three individuals: London Sunday Times reporter Harry Brandon; Kissinger’s former aide Morton Halperin, and State Department official William Sullivan, who is overheard speaking to former ambassador W. Averell Harriman. The wiretaps capture innocuous conversations by Brandon’s wife about opposition to Kissinger’s Vietnam policies among his former Harvard colleagues, and Halperin’s plans to quietly resign from the White House staff where he has been a part time consultant since stepping down as a top specialist on Kissinger’s NSC. The wiretap on Sullivan produces information that Ambassador Harriman plans to host a gathering at his home of State Department officials who had signed a letter of protest against the secret bombing of Cambodia. The FBI subsequently uses this information to physically surveil the meeting at Harriman’s house—a fact that emerges in congressional hearings on the wiretap scandal four years later.

After the wiretap scandal breaks into the media, Nixon orders a report on wiretapping under previous administrations. He calls Kissinger in anger to tell him: “Let’s get away from the bullshit. Bobby Kennedy was the greatest tapper.” He accuses the former attorney general of tapping the phones of 300 people in 1963 and tells Kissinger that he is going to publish the names of those individuals Kennedy had placed under surveillance. “And let the[se] assholes know that they’re going to get this, Henry.” Kissinger responds: “I think you should.” “They started it,” Nixon reiterates. “They want to have a g[ood] fight; they’re going to get one, Henry, you understand.”

In one of a number of conversations with Attorney General Edward Levi, Kissinger complains about how the Justice Department is handling the Halperin suit against him. Halperin’s lawyers are telling the press that there are “inconsistencies” between his story and other testimony in the case [likely witnesses such as Alexander Haig stating that Kissinger provided the names for the FBI of individuals to be put under surveillance as potential leakers.] Kissinger complains that the lawsuit is undermining his ability to do his job. “Right now the Secretary of State is being accused of lying, perjury, [and] conflicts are being printed in newspapers,” he tells the Attorney General. “I had a senior official of the Russian Embassy ask me whether my effectiveness was being damaged the other day.” Kissinger adds: “My philosophy is when in doubt attack.”

In this brief conversation, Henry Kissinger berates his aide after learning that the State Department’s Latin America bureau has issued a demarche to the Argentine military junta for escalating death squad operations, disappearances and reports of torture following the coup in March 1976. The demarche was recommended by Ambassador Robert Hill and conveyed by him to Foreign Minister Guzzetti on May 27. A similar message was given to the Argentine ambassador in Washington, D.C., by one of Shlaudeman’s deputies, Hewson Ryan. But the demarche appears to contradict a message that Kissinger had personally given to Guzzetti during a private meeting in Santiago on June 10; to act ”as quickly as possible” to repress leftist forces in Argentina. Now Kissinger demands to know ”in what way is it [the demarche] compatible with my policy.” He tells Shlaudeman: ”I want to know who did this and consider having him transferred.”

As a follow up to a meeting they held in Santiago in June, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Argentine Foreign Minister César Guzzetti meet again at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City and discuss the Argentine military regime’s repressive campaign to eradicate the left. Kissinger offers U.S. support: “Look, our basic attitude is that we would like you to succeed. I have an old-fashioned view that friends ought to be supported. What is not understood in the United States is that you have a civil war. We read about human rights problems but not the context. The quicker you succeed the better.”

U.S. Ambassador Robert Hill sends this protest to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that he has emboldened the Argentine military by not giving Foreign Minister Guzzetti a strong disapproval from Washington for their human rights violations. ”Guzzetti's remarks both to me and to the Argentine press since his return are not those of a man who has been impressed with the gravity of the human rights problem as seen from the U.S.” Ambassador Hill reports. “Both personally and in press accounts of his trip Guzzetti’s reaction indicates little reason for concern over the human rights issue. Guzzetti went to US fully expecting to hear some strong, firm, direct warning of his govt’s human rights practices. Rather than that, he has returned in a state of jubilation. Convinced that there is no real problem with the USG over this issue.” Hill concludes that “While that conviction lasts it will be unrealistic and unbelievable for this embassy to press representations to the GOA over human rights violations.”

In his memo to Kissinger dated August 30, 1976, Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs Harry Shlaudeman advises him on the U.S. position on Condor assassination plots: ”What we are trying to head off is a series of international murders that could do serious damage to the international status and reputation of the countries involved.” Shlaudeman’s memo requests approval from Kissinger to direct the U.S. ambassador to Uruguay, Ernest Siracusa, to proceed to meet with high officials in Montevideo and present the Condor demarche.

In this cable, sent from Lusaka where Kissinger was traveling, the Secretary of State refuses to authorize sending a telegram to U.S. ambassador to Uruguay Ernest Siracusa instructing him to proceed with the Condor demarche. Kissinger then broadens his instructions to cover the delivery of the demarche in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay: ”The Secretary has instructed that no further action be taken on this matter.” These instructions effectively end the State Department initiative to warn the Condor military regimes not to proceed with international assassination operations, since the demarche has not yet been delivered in Chile or Argentina. Five days later, former Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and his colleague, Ronni Moffitt, are assassinated by a car bomb in Washington, D.C., planted by Chilean secret intelligence operatives.

V. KISSINGER AND THE SOUTH ASIA CRISIS

Kissinger’s indifference to human rights extended to what the head of the U.S. Consulate in Dacca, Archer Blood, called “genocide” in East Pakistan, committed by Pakistan’s military dictator, General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan (Yahya). Estimates of mass murder range as high as three million civilians in East Pakistan in the spring of 1971; but Nixon and Kissinger’s policies tacitly supported Yahya, who played a secret role in the administration’s efforts to negotiate an opening with China. Archive analyst Sajit Gandhi created a comprehensive dossier, “The Tilt and the South Asian Crisis of 1971” that contains dozens of documents recording reports of the genocide and the Nixon/Kissinger policies. The famous “Blood Telegram” and an example of Nixon and Kissinger’s positions are below:

In one of the first ”Dissent Cables,” Consul General Archer Blood transmits a message denouncing U.S. policy towards the South Asia crisis. The transmission suggests that the United States is ”bending over backwards to placate the West Pak [sic] dominated government and to lessen likely and deservedly negative international public relations impact against them.” The cable goes on to question U.S. morality at a time when “unfortunately, the overworked term genocide is applicable.”

Kissinger presents Nixon with U.S. policy options directed towards the crisis in East Pakistan. Nixon and Kissinger both feel the third option is the best, as Kissinger writes, because it "would have the advantage of making the most of the relationship with Yahya, while engaging in a serious effort to move the situation toward conditions less damaging to US and Pakistani interests." At the end of the last page Nixon writes, "To all hands: Don't squeeze Yahya at this time. “

On the eve of Indonesia’s full-scale invasion of East Timor, Kissinger accompanied President Ford to Jakarta to meet with General Suharto. The meeting focuses on wider U.S.-Indonesian security cooperation. In the middle of a discussion of guerrilla movements in Thailand and Malaysia, Suharto raises the issue of East Timor and his plans to take “rapid or drastic action” against the newly independent former colony of Portugal. This memorandum of conversation records both Ford and Kissinger supporting the invasion. “We will understand and will not press you on the issue. We understand the problem and the intentions you have,” Ford responds. [See pages 8,9, and 10 of the memcon.] Kissinger stresses that “the use of US-made arms could create problems,” but then adds, “It depends on how we construe it; whether it is in self-defense or is a foreign operation.” In any case, Kissinger states: “It is important that whatever you do succeeds quickly.” Suharto deploys his troops into East Timor the next day, with an understanding of approval from the Ford White House.

VII. KISSINGER AND CUBA

In mid-1974, Secretary of State Kissinger initiated protracted historic and secret diplomatic talks to normalize relations with Cuba — which included furtive meetings between U.S. and Cuban emissaries at La Guardia airport and an unprecedented three-hour negotiating session at the five-star Pierre Hotel in New York City. At the time, this secret back-channel diplomacy marked the most significant and promising effort to bring about a Caribbean détente and end what Kissinger called “the perpetual hostility” in U.S.-Cuba relations.

But his diplomatic initiative unraveled after Fidel Castro decided to send Cuban troops to support the anti-colonial struggle in Angola in the fall of 1975. In Oval Office meetings with President Ford, Kissinger angrily referred to the Cuban leader as a ”pipsqueak” whose bold deployment of military forces on the African continent threatened U.S. geopolitical strategies in the Third World. Concerned that Castro would eventually broaden his military incursion beyond Angola, Kissinger counseled Ford that they would have to ”crack the Cubans.” ”If they move into Namibia or Rhodesia, I would be in favor of clobbering them,” Kissinger told the president.

This conciliatory message approved by Secretary of State Kissinger was given to the Cuban side at the first furtive meeting between U.S. and Cuban representatives in January 1975, which took place at a cafeteria in La Guardia airport. ”We are meeting here to explore the possibilities for a more normal relationship between our two countries,” it begins. The objective is to ”determine whether there exists an equal determination on both sides to settle the differences that exist between us.” While the ideological differences are wide, Kissinger expresses hope that such talks will ”be useful in addressing concrete issues which it is in the interest of both countries to resolve.” As a gesture to the Cubans, the U.S. will permit Cuban diplomats (accredited to the UN) to travel from New York to Washington and may begin granting additional visas to Cubans for cultural, scientific and educational meetings. For Kissinger, ”no purpose is served in attempting to embargo ideas.”

As a vote in the OAS to end the multilateral trade sanctions against Cuba looms in the summer of 1975, Kissinger instructs his top aides to make another attempt to set up a negotiating session on normalizing relations. “It is better to deal straight with Castro,” he instructs them. “Behave chivalrously; do it like a big guy, not like a shyster. Let him know: We are moving in a new direction; we’d like to synchronize…steps will be unilateral; reciprocity is necessary.” The effort to reach out to Cuba leads to the first serious set of negotiations to normalize relations since the Cuban revolution, held secretly a month later at the Pierre Hotel in New York city between Kissinger and Castro’s top aides.

After Castro decides to send Cuban troops to Angola, Kissinger sours on pursuing talks to normalize relations. During a conversation with President Ford in the Oval Office, Kissinger raises the issue of Cuba’s military incursion into Angola, implying that Latin American nations are concerned about a ”race war” because of Cuba’s efforts in Africa. ”I think we are going to have to smash Castro. We probably can't do it before the elections.” The president responds, ”I agree.”

In another Oval Office conversation, Kissinger raises the Cuban military involvement in Africa and expresses concern that Castro may deploy troops elsewhere in the region. ”I think sooner or later we have to crack the Cubans … I think we have to humiliate them.” He continues to argue that, ”If they move into Namibia or Rhodesia, I would be in favor of clobbering them. That would create a furor … but I think we might have to demand they get out of Africa.” When President Ford asks, “what if they don't?” Kissinger responds, ”I think we could blockade.”

Kissinger convenes The Washington Special Actions Group—a small, elite team of national security officials—on March 24 to discuss a range of options and capabilities to move against Cuba. ”We want to get planning started in the political, economic and military fields so that we can see what we can do if we want to move against Cuba,” he explains. “In the military field there is an invasion or blockade.” Kissinger shares his domino theory of Cuban military involvement in the region. ”If the Cubans destroy Rhodesia then Namibia is next and then there is South Africa. It might only take five years,” Kissinger argues. In discussing military options, he states, “if we decide to use military power it must succeed. There should be no halfway measures - we get no reward for using military power in moderation.” Kissinger orders the group to secretly draw up plans for retaliation if Cuban troops go beyond Angola.

This document is a summary of the Cuban Contingency survey considering the possible U.S. diplomatic, economic and military responses to continued Cuban and USSR "Angola style" intervention. Among the options are “a series of military actions on a graduated scale of seriousness which would involve the possibility of hostilities and would be considered acts of war.”

VIII. THE KISSINGER TELEPHONE CONVERSATIONS (TELCONS)

In 2001, the National Security Archive drafted a legal complaint directed at the State Department and the National Archives for abdicating their duty under the Federal Records Act to recover the Kissinger “telcon” documents, which were produced on government time with government resources. “Most, if not all, the telephone transcripts are agency records as defined by federal law,” the suit stated, “and Mr. Kissinger had no authority to remove them under the governing federal statutes and regulations.” A previous legal effort by reporters using the FOIA two decades earlier had failed to force Kissinger to return thousands of pages of transcripts his secretaries produced from listening to and recording his phone calls; Kissinger had resisted earlier efforts by the U.S. government to access these important records. “Mr. Kissinger,” the Archive’s draft lawsuit stated, “who has no legal authority to restrict access to agency records by federal officials charged with preserving such records, continues to assert unbridled discretion to control access to and maintain the secrecy of the telephone transcripts.”

The State Department Legal Adviser William Howard Taft IV agreed with the Archive’s legal arguments; he asked the Archive to postpone filing its legal action; Taft then formally notified Kissinger that he was required to return the documents or complete copies thereof and sent a team of lawyers to arrange the transfer. When Kissinger finally relinquished the records in August 2001—almost 24 years after he had misrepresented U.S. government documentation as “personal” papers and taken them—the Archive promptly filed a FOIA request for the telcons. After obtaining over 15,500 telcons in 2004, the Archive has since published the conversations in the Digital National Security Archive series through the online publisher ProQuest—and has also made them available through multiple postings such as this one.

The telephone conversations record Kissinger’s conversations with U.S. presidents, with several CIA directors, other cabinet members, foreign ministers and diplomats, including Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin, as well as celebrities such as Frank Sinatra. They also capture his many conversations with major reporters who actively sought information from him, and who Kissinger sought to influence for advantageous press coverage. As a collection of records, the telcons remain a unique treasure trove of history. Since obtaining them, the Archive has made a maximum effort to call international attention to these papers that record the conversations, policies, actions and attitudes that are a profound and revealing part of Henry Kissinger’s historical legacy.

Rather than sue Henry Kissinger, in early 2001 the National Security Archive targeted the two U.S. government agencies that “failed to initiate action…as required by federal law, to recover the telephone transcripts.” The draft complaint, written by Archive general counsel Kate Martin and the Archive’s pro-bono counsels Lee H. Rubin and Craig Isenberg from Mayer, Brown, & Platt, proved so compelling that U.S. Government lawyers acted upon its arguments to regain possession of the Kissinger telcons before it was ever filed. The complaint contains a statement of facts that reveals how Kissinger stored the transcripts in a set of “personal” files, removed U.S. government records, some of them clearly classified, and selectively used them for personal gain in violation of federal regulations and to the detriment of accurate history for over two decades when they were in his possession.

In one of the most dramatic conversations recorded by Kissinger’s secret taping system, he receives a late-night call from wire service reporter Ken Fried who informs him that Saigon has fallen and General Duong Van Minh (”Big Minh”) had unconditionally surrendered to the "VC" (Viet Cong), a reference to North Vietnam's People's Liberation Armed Forces. “Is it true?” Kissinger asks initially, before attempting to disguise the fact that he had not yet heard this history-changing news that the Vietnam war was finally over and that the U.S. had lost.

In this wide-ranging telephone conversation, journalist Ted Koppel converses with Kissinger about the prospects for the November 1976 election and whether Kissinger will remain in office or not. Koppel bets Kissinger five dollars that Ford will lose, but Kissinger insists “I think Carter is beatable.” At one point, Kissinger jokes that Jimmy Carter, who is leading President Ford in the polls, might actually keep him on as secretary of state. Koppel tells Kissinger that he is going to take a break from journalism to write a political novel in which the central figure “resembles you—you will be terribly pleased.” The fictional Kissinger-esque character will be named “Vanderburg.”

As Kissinger prepares to leave for Moscow for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), he calls Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin about a difficult subject—the Moscow Signal. For decades, the Soviets have been transmitting microwave energy beams at the U.S. Embassy building in an apparent effort to recharge listening devices planted in the walls. The current U.S. ambassador is threatening to brief the staff about the health issues related to the constant microwave exposure. “Maybe you could turn it off until I get there,” Kissinger presses, attempting to use a bit of humor to impress Dobrynin with the gravity of the situation. “And then you could switch it back on again,” Dobrynin responds. “You could give me a radiation treatment,” Kissinger banters. “Then you will be radioactive,” Dobrynin concludes. Worried about a leak which could cause an uproar in U.S. relations with the Kremlin, Kissinger warns Dobrynin that “We really are sitting on it here but too many people know about it.”

After Seymour Hersh’s front page New York Times story on December 22, 1974, reveals CIA domestic operations against U.S. anti-Vietnam war movements, Kissinger calls White House Chief of Staff Donald Rumsfeld about the revelations. Kissinger denounces Hersh as a “son-of-a-bitch,” but claims he did not know about the activities himself. Kissinger agrees with Rumsfeld that Colby should prepare a report for the President. Eventually the CIA’s internal investigation compiles a slew of domestic spying operations and other illegal activities that become known as “the family jewels.”

Kissinger's friendship with Frank Sinatra dated back to Nixon's first term, and reflected his famous hob-knobbing with major celebrities. Sinatra’s call is about arrangements for a major dinner for Israeli Prime Minister Itzhak Rabin being held at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles. But the conversation begins and ends with Sinatra joking “do you want me to straighten out Angola for you?” With the U.S. Congress barring CIA intervention in Angola, Kissinger responds that he needs some of Sinatra's "enforcers" to solve the Angola problem. Sinatra asks Kissinger to speak at the Rabin event after the band plays and tells him “I will bring the formula for Angola.”