The Trials of Henry Kissinger

Plot Summary

Is Henry Kissinger, Nobel Laureate and the most famous diplomat of his generation, also a war criminal? Provoked by the Christopher Hitchens book (The Trial of Henry Kissinger, Verso, 2001), filmmakers Eugene Jarecki and Alex Gibney construct a documentary that is both brilliant legal brief and chilling psycho-drama. Confronting the charges that Kissinger undermined LBJ’s Vietnam peace talks (in order that Nixon be elected), engineered the secret bombing of Cambodia, orchestrated the coup that toppled Chilean President Allende, and approved Indonesia’s use of U.S. arms to massacre 100,000 East Timorese, The Trials of Henry Kissinger explores how a young boy who fled Nazi Germany grew up to become one of the most powerful men in U.S. history. The Trials of Henry Kissinger also tackles the question of whether principles of international law applied by Americans to their enemies are also applicable to Americans ¾ or whether such laws are only written for the losers of conflicts. The film caused a sensation when it played at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in 2002 and was a national hit in its 2003 theatrical run. Featuring previously unseen footage, newly declassified government documents, and revealing interviews with both ardent Kissinger supporters such as Alexander Haig, Brent Scowcroft and William Safire, and detractors like Seymour Hersh, William Shawcross, and Christopher Hitchens, The Trials of Henry Kissinger is “a movie that informs and fascinates – truly stranger than fiction.” (Newsday)