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  • Senator Bernie Sanders has called Henry Kissingerone of the most destructive secretaries

  • of state in the modern history of this country”.

  • Kissinger most notably approved the carpet-bombing of Cambodia around the 1970s.

  • This bombing campaign led to instability, allowing Pol Pot [PAWL PAWT]’s genocidal

  • Khmer Rouge (kuh-MEHR rouge) regime to commit mass atrocities.

  • More recently, documents were discovered showing how Kissinger’s close relations with Argentina

  • prevented the US from stopping mass killings in the country in the late 1970s.

  • So we wanted to know, what other evidence has there been of the United States supporting

  • genocidal regimes?

  • Well, by 1979, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million

  • people; roughly a fifth to a quarter of the country’s population.

  • After years of terror, Pol Pot eventually lost power and fled to the Thai border.

  • However, according to journalist John Pil-jer, records from the Congressional Research Service

  • suggest that the US was secretly funding the exiled dictator.

  • Between 1980 and 1986, some $85 million dollars were allegedly sent to the border where Khmer

  • Rouge leaders were hiding.

  • Even during their reign, President Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor was quoted as encouraging

  • China to support Pol Pot, ostensibly in order to curb the influence of communism from Vietnam

  • and the Soviet Union.

  • Around that same time, in Central America, Guatemala was undergoing a three and a half

  • decade long civil war.

  • During the war, General EFF-rainos Mon-tt seized power through a military coup in 1982.

  • During the 17 months he was in power, his regime was responsible for genocide against

  • the indigenous Mayan Ixil (ih-SHIL) population, who were suspected of supporting communism.

  • This anti-communist stance led to US and Israeli military and intelligence support of the dictator.

  • The United States sent millions of dollars of military equipment to the genocidal Montt

  • regime.

  • The United Nations reports that throughout the war, as many as 200,000 people died, with

  • about 93% of killings committed by the government.

  • Roughly 80% of the massacres, sexual violence, death squads and other criminal acts from

  • this war occurred around the time of the dictator’s brief reign.

  • But the clearest involvement of the United States in genocide was during the 1960s in

  • Indonesia.

  • A military coup by Major General sue-HAR-toe led to mass killings in an attempt to stop

  • communist influence.

  • As many as 1 million people were murdered in one year by military and civilian death

  • squads.

  • Most documents on American involvement are still classified.

  • But, a director at the National Security Archive alleges that there is declassified information

  • which shows that the US provided economic, technical, and military aid during the genocide.

  • Former CIA agents of the time have even admitted that they compiled lists of suspected communists

  • for the Indonesian government, which were believed to have been used to track down and

  • kill civilians.

  • The CIA has officially denied involvement.

  •  

  • United States foreign policy has had some unsavory ties to war crime, genocide, illegal

  • invasions, and more.

  • As the huge archive of classified foreign policy documents in the 20th century slowly

  • expires and becomes public, there will likely be further discoveries into the US’s shady

  • dealings.

  • Even when genocides are public knowledge, it doesn’t mean theyre publicly acknowledged.

  • Many people deny genocides, from the Holocaust to mass killings by the Ottoman Empire.

  • So what do genocide deniers have to gain?

  • Why do people deny genocide?

  • Find out by watching this video.

  • (sound up) Thanks for watching Seeker Daily, don’t forget to like and subscribe for new

  • videos every day.

Senator Bernie Sanders has called Henry Kissingerone of the most destructive secretaries

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