NEW YORK -- Recently released documents from the U.S. National Security Archive shed important light on former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger's role in Argentina. These documents indicate that Kissinger approved of the Argentinian military junta's ruthless tactics to eliminate any opposition to its rule. The information serves as a severe indictment of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, lending support to journalist Christopher Hitchens' denunciation of Kissinger's alleged responsibility for human rights abuses worldwide -- a case Hitchens makes in his book "The Trial of Henry Kissinger."
One key document, dated Oct. 19, 1976, indicates that Argentina's then foreign minister, Navy Adm. Cesar Augusto Guzzetti, returned from Washington, D.C., "in a state of jubilation" when he became convinced, after meeting with Kissinger, who was then secretary of state in the Ford administration, that U.S. officials approved of the terror campaign against the opposition.
Although Guzzetti assured Kissinger that the campaign against "terrorist organizations" would soon be finished, the killings increased in late 1976 and harsh repression continued until 1978.