Henry Kissinger has been in the news lately for giving a quasi-endorsement of Joe Biden’s presidency, noting, “I like him as a person. We often disagreed on foreign policy, but if he becomes president, I’m convinced he will be moderate and thoughtful in his foreign policy.” Mr. Kissinger is, of course, the man who urged the Argentinian Videla dictatorship to disappear (imprison and murder) left-wing activists quickly, before congress was back in session;

Who attempted a coup against Chile’s democratically-elected Allende government in 1970 as part of “Track II” of the U.S.’s Chile policy and then supported Pinochet’s dictatorship when it took power by coup, including by preventing the State Department from taking action to stop the assassinations of dissidents;

And who told Suharto, dictator of Indonesia, that an invasion of East Timor would be supported by the United States with diplomacy and arms sales, an invasion that led to the East Timor Genocide, in which the Indonesian Military killed more than 200,000 civilians.

Mr. Kissinger, who experienced persecution from the Nazis while growing up in Germany, had this to say about the plight of Jews in the Soviet Union: “if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern.”

That’s not even mentioning Mr. Kissinger’s crimes in Cambodia and Vietnam, which could fill up a thousand more emails. Anyway, congratulations to Mr. Kissinger on his Nobel Peace Prize.

See you all at practice,

Lev “No funny nickname this time, it’s a serious email” Bernstein

Secretary, Quiz Bowl at NYU, 2020-2021