Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Jonathan Pollard

2012-09-06T23:06:28Z

Pubjabi20: /* Background */

[[Image:Jonathan Pollard.JPG|right|thumb|Jonathon Pollard]]
'''Jonathan Pollard''' (born 7 August 1954, [[Indiana]]) was convicted of spying for [[Israel]] against the [[United States of America]] in 1986 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Pollard, a [[U.S. Navy]] intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty to providing Israel with information about the military capabilities of [[Arab]] states, including [[Iraq]].

==Background==
In the mid 1980's Pollard had discovered that information about [[weapons of mass destruction]] possessed by Israel's enemies was being withheld by the United States government for reasons of U.S. national security. Israel was legally entitled to this information according to a 1983 Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries, but the U.S. was under no obligation to provide it, in order to protect U.S. capabilities and interests. The information being withheld from Israel included [[Syria]]n, [[Iraq]]i, [[Libya]]n and [[Iran]]ian nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare capabilities being developed. It also included information on ballistic missile development by these countries and information on planned terrorist attacks against Israeli civilian targets.

When Pollard discovered this policy and asked his superiors about it, he was informed of the official U.S. policy pertaining to release of that information.
Pollard was of the opinion that Israeli lives were being put in jeopardy as a result of this U.S. government policy on sharing foreign intelligence information. In stark violation of U.S. law and the pledge he made to the U.S. Navy to protect U.S. intelligence information, Pollard began to illegally provide classified information to Israel directly.<ref>The Facts of the Pollard Case [http://www.jonathanpollard.org/facts.htm Justice for Jonathan Pollard]. Accessed 27 December 2007.</ref> Such disclosure constitutes treason under U.S. law.

Pollard was put under investigation in 1985 when a coworker anonymously reported his removal of classified information. He was arrested by the FBI at the gates of the Israeli Embassy on November 21, 1985. He had attempted to flee there to seek asylum, but had been forced out by embassy security officials. His wife was also arrested for assisting him, but before her arrest, she managed to warn Aviem Sella, the Israeli Air Force officer who had recruited him. As a result, Pollard's handler, Yossi Yagur, and Irit Erb, an Israeli embassy secretary who took the documents Pollard stole, were also warned. All three managed to flee the US and escape to Israel before the FBI could stop them. Aviem Sella was later indicted by a Federal grand jury. He is currently considered a fugitive from justice by the US government, and is still under Federal indictment.

Pollard pled guilty in 1986, and on March 4, 1987, was sentenced to life imprisonment by Federal judge Aubrey Robinson. The reasons for the life sentence are believed to be in a classified affidavit provided to the court by US Defense Secretary [[Caspar Weinberger]].

After spending seven years in solitary confinement and one year in a mental hospital, Pollard was transferred to FCI Butner, a medium-security Federal prison in North Carolina, where he is currently incarcerated.

On 11 May 1998, Israel formally acknowledged Pollard had been an Israeli agent, handled by high ranking authorities within Lekem (''Lishkat Kishrei Mada'' "Bureau of Scientific Relations"), which collected scientific and technical intelligence. Lakem was disbanded following Pollard's arrest.<ref>Document: Official Recognition as An Agent by the State of Israel. [http://www.jonathanpollard.org/1998/051198d.htm jonathonpollard.org]. Accessed 27 December 2007.</ref>

Israeli Prime Ministers have repeatedly asked for US Presidents to commute Pollard's sentence to the time already served. In 1997, Benjamin Netanyahu made Pollard's release one of the conditions for his signing of the Wye River Agreement with the Palestinians. Bill Clinton was on the verge of freeing Pollard, but backed down when CIA Director George Tenet threatened to resign. Netanyahu later visited Pollard in prison in 2002. Israel mulled exchanging Pollard for Yosef Amit, an Israeli military intelligence officer who was arrested for spying for the United States, but Amit himself torpedoed the proposal. According to a report by Israeli State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, the Israeli government made many efforts to obtain his release, none of which were successful.

At the time of Pollard's arrest, there was an obscure law stipulating mandatory parole after 30 years for Federal inmates sentenced to life imprisonment who have displayed good behavior. Assuming Pollard remains on good behavior, he will be released on November 21, 2015. As he has renounced his US citizenship and is solely an Israeli citizen, he will be deported to Israel in the event of his release.

At the time of Pollard's arrest, there was an obscure law stipulating mandatory parole after 30 years for Federal inmates sentenced to life imprisonment who have displayed good behavior. Assuming Pollard remains on good behavior, he will be released on November 21, 2015. As he has renounced his US citizenship and is solely an Israeli citizen, he will be deported to Israel in the event of his release.

==Sentencing controversy==
Pollard's supporters consider
his life sentence to be disproportionate
when compared to the sentences of others who spied against the United States for allied nations. He is the only person in the history of the United States to receive a life sentence for spying for an American ally{{fact}}; the maximum sentence today for such an offense is 10 years.
The median sentence for this offense is 2 to 4 years{{fact}}.

==Wall Street Journal==
On February 15 February 1991 The Wall Street Journal published a letter from Pollard, written to his [[Rabbi]] in 1989, in which he stated that:
*''any objective examination of the record will show that no American agent, facility or program was compromised as a result of my actions - not one. But this salient fact was conveniently overlooked by [[Caspar Weinberger|Mr. Weinberger]], who felt that I deserved the [[Capital punishment|death penalty]] for having had the audacity to make Israel "too strong."'' With reference to the type of intelligence that Pollard turned over to Israel, he stated: ''The problem ... lay in the fact that many of the photos that I turned over to the Israelis were of a number of Iraqi chemical weapons manufacturing plants which the government did not want to admit existed. Why? Well, if no one knew about these facilities the State and Defense Departments would have been spared the embarrassing task of confronting Iraq over its violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which banned the use of chemical weapons in war. You have to remember... that at the time of my sentencing the massacre of Kurdish civilians in Halabja had not yet occurred, and what little concern was being voiced over Iraq's apparent use of poison gas was largely ignored by the administration which did not want to anger the Arab world by criticizing the use of such barbaric weapons against Iran. The photos I gave Israel, though, if "compromised" would have jeopardized the administration's policy of callous indifference to this issue, in that they constituted hard, irrefutable proof that Iraq was indeed engaged in the production and wide scale use of chemical weapons. What the administration was really concerned about was being placed in a position where it would have to admit that it had tacitly condoned the creation of an Iraqi chemical weapons manufacturing capability.''<ref>'''Pollard, J.''' "Appeasement of Iraq Made Me A Spy" (1989) [http://www.jonathanpollard.org/1991/021591.htm jonathonpollard.org]. Accessed 27 December 2007.</ref>

It is notable that nowhere in this letter did Pollard deny illegally providing U.S. intelligence information to a foreign government.

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.jonathanpollard.org/ Justice for Jonathan Pollard]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pollard,Jonathan}}

[[Category:Israel]]
[[Category:Spies]]

Jonathan Pollard

2012-09-06T23:01:18Z

Pubjabi20: /* Background */

[[Image:Jonathan Pollard.JPG|right|thumb|Jonathon Pollard]]
'''Jonathan Pollard''' (born 7 August 1954, [[Indiana]]) was convicted of spying for [[Israel]] against the [[United States of America]] in 1986 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Pollard, a [[U.S. Navy]] intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty to providing Israel with information about the military capabilities of [[Arab]] states, including [[Iraq]].

==Background==
In the mid 1980's Pollard had discovered that information about [[weapons of mass destruction]] possessed by Israel's enemies was being withheld by the United States government for reasons of U.S. national security. Israel was legally entitled to this information according to a 1983 Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries, but the U.S. was under no obligation to provide it, in order to protect U.S. capabilities and interests. The information being withheld from Israel included [[Syria]]n, [[Iraq]]i, [[Libya]]n and [[Iran]]ian nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare capabilities being developed. It also included information on ballistic missile development by these countries and information on planned terrorist attacks against Israeli civilian targets.

When Pollard discovered this policy and asked his superiors about it, he was informed of the official U.S. policy pertaining to release of that information.
Pollard was of the opinion that Israeli lives were being put in jeopardy as a result of this U.S. government policy on sharing foreign intelligence information. In stark violation of U.S. law and the pledge he made to the U.S. Navy to protect U.S. intelligence information, Pollard began to illegally provide classified information to Israel directly.<ref>The Facts of the Pollard Case [http://www.jonathanpollard.org/facts.htm Justice for Jonathan Pollard]. Accessed 27 December 2007.</ref> Such disclosure constitutes treason under U.S. law.

Pollard was put under investigation in 1985 when a coworker anonymously reported his removal of classified information. He was arrested by the FBI at the gates of the Israeli Embassy on November 21, 1985. He had attempted to flee there to seek asylum, but had been forced out by embassy security officials. His wife was also arrested for assisting him, but before her arrest, she managed to warn Aviem Sella, the Israeli Air Force officer who had recruited him. As a result, Pollard's handler, Yossi Yagur, and Irit Erb, an Israeli embassy secretary who took the documents Pollard stole, were also warned. All three managed to flee the US and escape to Israel before the FBI could stop them. Aviem Sella was later indicted by a Federal grand jury. He is currently considered a fugitive from justice by the US government, and is still under Federal indictment.

Pollard pled guilty, and was sentenced to life imprisonment by Federal judge Aubrey Robinson. The reasons for the life sentence are believed to be in a classified affidavit provided to the court by US Defense Secretary [[Caspar Weinberger]].

On 11 May 1998, Israel formally acknowledged Pollard had been an Israeli agent, handled by high ranking authorities within Lekem (''Lishkat Kishrei Mada'' "Bureau of Scientific Relations"), which collected scientific and technical intelligence. Lakem was disbanded following Pollard's arrest.<ref>Document: Official Recognition as An Agent by the State of Israel. [http://www.jonathanpollard.org/1998/051198d.htm jonathonpollard.org]. Accessed 27 December 2007.</ref>

Israeli Prime Ministers have repeatedly asked for US Presidents to commute Pollard's sentence to the time already served. In 1997, Benjamin Netanyahu made Pollard's release one of the conditions for his signing of the Wye River Agreement with the Palestinians. Bill Clinton was on the verge of freeing Pollard, but backed down when CIA Director George Tenet threatened to resign. Israel mulled exchanging Pollard for Yosef Amit, an Israeli military intelligence officer who was arrested for spying for the United States, but Amit himself torpedoed the proposal. According to a report by Israeli State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, the Israeli government made many efforts to obtain his release, none of which were successful.

At the time of Pollard's arrest, there was an obscure law stipulating mandatory parole after 30 years for Federal inmates sentenced to life imprisonment who have displayed good behavior. Assuming Pollard remains on good behavior, he will be released on November 21, 2015. As he has renounced his US citizenship and is solely an Israeli citizen, he will be deported to Israel in the event of his release.

==Sentencing controversy==
Pollard's supporters consider
his life sentence to be disproportionate
when compared to the sentences of others who spied against the United States for allied nations. He is the only person in the history of the United States to receive a life sentence for spying for an American ally{{fact}}; the maximum sentence today for such an offense is 10 years.
The median sentence for this offense is 2 to 4 years{{fact}}.

==Wall Street Journal==
On February 15 February 1991 The Wall Street Journal published a letter from Pollard, written to his [[Rabbi]] in 1989, in which he stated that:
*''any objective examination of the record will show that no American agent, facility or program was compromised as a result of my actions - not one. But this salient fact was conveniently overlooked by [[Caspar Weinberger|Mr. Weinberger]], who felt that I deserved the [[Capital punishment|death penalty]] for having had the audacity to make Israel "too strong."'' With reference to the type of intelligence that Pollard turned over to Israel, he stated: ''The problem ... lay in the fact that many of the photos that I turned over to the Israelis were of a number of Iraqi chemical weapons manufacturing plants which the government did not want to admit existed. Why? Well, if no one knew about these facilities the State and Defense Departments would have been spared the embarrassing task of confronting Iraq over its violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which banned the use of chemical weapons in war. You have to remember... that at the time of my sentencing the massacre of Kurdish civilians in Halabja had not yet occurred, and what little concern was being voiced over Iraq's apparent use of poison gas was largely ignored by the administration which did not want to anger the Arab world by criticizing the use of such barbaric weapons against Iran. The photos I gave Israel, though, if "compromised" would have jeopardized the administration's policy of callous indifference to this issue, in that they constituted hard, irrefutable proof that Iraq was indeed engaged in the production and wide scale use of chemical weapons. What the administration was really concerned about was being placed in a position where it would have to admit that it had tacitly condoned the creation of an Iraqi chemical weapons manufacturing capability.''<ref>'''Pollard, J.''' "Appeasement of Iraq Made Me A Spy" (1989) [http://www.jonathanpollard.org/1991/021591.htm jonathonpollard.org]. Accessed 27 December 2007.</ref>

It is notable that nowhere in this letter did Pollard deny illegally providing U.S. intelligence information to a foreign government.

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.jonathanpollard.org/ Justice for Jonathan Pollard]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pollard,Jonathan}}

[[Category:Israel]]
[[Category:Spies]]

Jonathan Pollard

2012-09-06T22:58:20Z

Pubjabi20: /* Background */

[[Image:Jonathan Pollard.JPG|right|thumb|Jonathon Pollard]]
'''Jonathan Pollard''' (born 7 August 1954, [[Indiana]]) was convicted of spying for [[Israel]] against the [[United States of America]] in 1986 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Pollard, a [[U.S. Navy]] intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty to providing Israel with information about the military capabilities of [[Arab]] states, including [[Iraq]].

==Background==
In the mid 1980's Pollard had discovered that information about [[weapons of mass destruction]] possessed by Israel's enemies was being withheld by the United States government for reasons of U.S. national security. Israel was legally entitled to this information according to a 1983 Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries, but the U.S. was under no obligation to provide it, in order to protect U.S. capabilities and interests. The information being withheld from Israel included [[Syria]]n, [[Iraq]]i, [[Libya]]n and [[Iran]]ian nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare capabilities being developed. It also included information on ballistic missile development by these countries and information on planned terrorist attacks against Israeli civilian targets.

When Pollard discovered this policy and asked his superiors about it, he was informed of the official U.S. policy pertaining to release of that information.
Pollard was of the opinion that Israeli lives were being put in jeopardy as a result of this U.S. government policy on sharing foreign intelligence information. In stark violation of U.S. law and the pledge he made to the U.S. Navy to protect U.S. intelligence information, Pollard began to illegally provide classified information to Israel directly.<ref>The Facts of the Pollard Case [http://www.jonathanpollard.org/facts.htm Justice for Jonathan Pollard]. Accessed 27 December 2007.</ref> Such disclosure constitutes treason under U.S. law.

Pollard was put under investigation in 1985 when a coworker anonymously reported his removal of classified information. He was arrested by the FBI at the gates of the Israeli Embassy on November 21, 1985. He had attempted to flee there to seek asylum, but had been forced out by embassy security officials. His wife was also arrested for assisting him, but before her arrest, she managed to warn Aviem Sella, the Israeli Air Force officer who had recruited him. As a result, Pollard's handler, Yossi Yagur, and Irit Erb, an Israeli embassy secretary who took the documents Pollard stole, were also warned. All three managed to flee the US and escape to Israel before the FBI could stop them. Aviem Sella was later indicted by a Federal grand jury. He is currently considered a fugitive from justice by the US government, and is still under Federal indictment.

Pollard pled guilty, and was sentenced to life imprisonment by Federal judge Aubrey Robinson. The reasons for the life sentence are believed to be in a classified affidavit provided to the court by US Defense Secretary [[Caspar Weinberger]].

On 11 May 1998, Israel formally acknowledged Pollard had been an Israeli agent, handled by high ranking authorities within Lekem (''Lishkat Kishrei Mada'' "Bureau of Scientific Relations"), which collected scientific and technical intelligence. Lakem was disbanded following Pollard's arrest.<ref>Document: Official Recognition as An Agent by the State of Israel. [http://www.jonathanpollard.org/1998/051198d.htm jonathonpollard.org]. Accessed 27 December 2007.</ref>

Israeli Prime Ministers have repeatedly asked for US Presidents to commute Pollard's sentence to the time already served. In 1997, Benjamin Netanyahu made Pollard's release one of the conditions for his signing of the Wye River Agreement with the Palestinians. Bill Clinton was on the verge of freeing Pollard, but backed down when CIA Director George Tenet threatened to resign. Israel mulled exchanging Pollard for Yosef Amit, an Israeli military intelligence officer who was arrested for spying for the United States, but Amit himself torpedoed the proposal. According to a report by Israeli State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, the Israeli government made many efforts to obtain his release, none of which were successful.

==Sentencing controversy==
Pollard's supporters consider
his life sentence to be disproportionate
when compared to the sentences of others who spied against the United States for allied nations. He is the only person in the history of the United States to receive a life sentence for spying for an American ally{{fact}}; the maximum sentence today for such an offense is 10 years.
The median sentence for this offense is 2 to 4 years{{fact}}.

==Wall Street Journal==
On February 15 February 1991 The Wall Street Journal published a letter from Pollard, written to his [[Rabbi]] in 1989, in which he stated that:
*''any objective examination of the record will show that no American agent, facility or program was compromised as a result of my actions - not one. But this salient fact was conveniently overlooked by [[Caspar Weinberger|Mr. Weinberger]], who felt that I deserved the [[Capital punishment|death penalty]] for having had the audacity to make Israel "too strong."'' With reference to the type of intelligence that Pollard turned over to Israel, he stated: ''The problem ... lay in the fact that many of the photos that I turned over to the Israelis were of a number of Iraqi chemical weapons manufacturing plants which the government did not want to admit existed. Why? Well, if no one knew about these facilities the State and Defense Departments would have been spared the embarrassing task of confronting Iraq over its violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which banned the use of chemical weapons in war. You have to remember... that at the time of my sentencing the massacre of Kurdish civilians in Halabja had not yet occurred, and what little concern was being voiced over Iraq's apparent use of poison gas was largely ignored by the administration which did not want to anger the Arab world by criticizing the use of such barbaric weapons against Iran. The photos I gave Israel, though, if "compromised" would have jeopardized the administration's policy of callous indifference to this issue, in that they constituted hard, irrefutable proof that Iraq was indeed engaged in the production and wide scale use of chemical weapons. What the administration was really concerned about was being placed in a position where it would have to admit that it had tacitly condoned the creation of an Iraqi chemical weapons manufacturing capability.''<ref>'''Pollard, J.''' "Appeasement of Iraq Made Me A Spy" (1989) [http://www.jonathanpollard.org/1991/021591.htm jonathonpollard.org]. Accessed 27 December 2007.</ref>

It is notable that nowhere in this letter did Pollard deny illegally providing U.S. intelligence information to a foreign government.

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.jonathanpollard.org/ Justice for Jonathan Pollard]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pollard,Jonathan}}

[[Category:Israel]]
[[Category:Spies]]

Jonathan Pollard

2012-09-06T22:52:23Z

Pubjabi20: /* Background */

[[Image:Jonathan Pollard.JPG|right|thumb|Jonathon Pollard]]
'''Jonathan Pollard''' (born 7 August 1954, [[Indiana]]) was convicted of spying for [[Israel]] against the [[United States of America]] in 1986 and sentenced to life imprisonment. Pollard, a [[U.S. Navy]] intelligence analyst, pleaded guilty to providing Israel with information about the military capabilities of [[Arab]] states, including [[Iraq]].

==Background==
In the mid 1980's Pollard had discovered that information about [[weapons of mass destruction]] possessed by Israel's enemies was being withheld by the United States government for reasons of U.S. national security. Israel was legally entitled to this information according to a 1983 Memorandum of Understanding between the two countries, but the U.S. was under no obligation to provide it, in order to protect U.S. capabilities and interests. The information being withheld from Israel included [[Syria]]n, [[Iraq]]i, [[Libya]]n and [[Iran]]ian nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare capabilities being developed. It also included information on ballistic missile development by these countries and information on planned terrorist attacks against Israeli civilian targets.

When Pollard discovered this policy and asked his superiors about it, he was informed of the official U.S. policy pertaining to release of that information.
Pollard was of the opinion that Israeli lives were being put in jeopardy as a result of this U.S. government policy on sharing foreign intelligence information. In stark violation of U.S. law and the pledge he made to the U.S. Navy to protect U.S. intelligence information, Pollard began to illegally provide classified information to Israel directly.<ref>The Facts of the Pollard Case [http://www.jonathanpollard.org/facts.htm Justice for Jonathan Pollard]. Accessed 27 December 2007.</ref> Such disclosure constitutes treason under U.S. law.

Pollard was put under investigation in 1985 when a coworker anonymously reported his removal of classified information. He was arrested by the FBI at the gates of the Israeli Embassy on November 21, 1985. He had attempted to flee there to seek asylum, but had been forced out by embassy security officials. His wife was also arrested for assisting him, but before her arrest, she managed to warn Aviem Sella, the Israeli Air Force officer who had recruited him. As a result, Pollard's handler, Yossi Yagur, and Irit Erb, an Israeli embassy secretary who took the documents Pollard stole, were also warned. All three managed to flee the US and escape to Israel before the FBI could stop them.

Pollard pled guilty, and was sentenced to life imprisonment by Federal judge Aubrey Robinson. The reasons for the life sentence are said to be in a classified affidavit provided to the court by US Defense Secretary [[Caspar Weinberger]].

On 11 May 1998, Israel formally acknowledged Pollard had been an Israeli agent, handled by high ranking authorities within Lekem (''Lishkat Kishrei Mada'' "Bureau of Scientific Relations"), which collected scientific and technical intelligence. Lakem was disbanded following Pollard's arrest.<ref>Document: Official Recognition as An Agent by the State of Israel. [http://www.jonathanpollard.org/1998/051198d.htm jonathonpollard.org]. Accessed 27 December 2007.</ref>

==Sentencing controversy==
Pollard's supporters consider
his life sentence to be disproportionate
when compared to the sentences of others who spied against the United States for allied nations. He is the only person in the history of the United States to receive a life sentence for spying for an American ally{{fact}}; the maximum sentence today for such an offense is 10 years.
The median sentence for this offense is 2 to 4 years{{fact}}.

==Wall Street Journal==
On February 15 February 1991 The Wall Street Journal published a letter from Pollard, written to his [[Rabbi]] in 1989, in which he stated that:
*''any objective examination of the record will show that no American agent, facility or program was compromised as a result of my actions - not one. But this salient fact was conveniently overlooked by [[Caspar Weinberger|Mr. Weinberger]], who felt that I deserved the [[Capital punishment|death penalty]] for having had the audacity to make Israel "too strong."'' With reference to the type of intelligence that Pollard turned over to Israel, he stated: ''The problem ... lay in the fact that many of the photos that I turned over to the Israelis were of a number of Iraqi chemical weapons manufacturing plants which the government did not want to admit existed. Why? Well, if no one knew about these facilities the State and Defense Departments would have been spared the embarrassing task of confronting Iraq over its violation of the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which banned the use of chemical weapons in war. You have to remember... that at the time of my sentencing the massacre of Kurdish civilians in Halabja had not yet occurred, and what little concern was being voiced over Iraq's apparent use of poison gas was largely ignored by the administration which did not want to anger the Arab world by criticizing the use of such barbaric weapons against Iran. The photos I gave Israel, though, if "compromised" would have jeopardized the administration's policy of callous indifference to this issue, in that they constituted hard, irrefutable proof that Iraq was indeed engaged in the production and wide scale use of chemical weapons. What the administration was really concerned about was being placed in a position where it would have to admit that it had tacitly condoned the creation of an Iraqi chemical weapons manufacturing capability.''<ref>'''Pollard, J.''' "Appeasement of Iraq Made Me A Spy" (1989) [http://www.jonathanpollard.org/1991/021591.htm jonathonpollard.org]. Accessed 27 December 2007.</ref>

It is notable that nowhere in this letter did Pollard deny illegally providing U.S. intelligence information to a foreign government.

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
*[http://www.jonathanpollard.org/ Justice for Jonathan Pollard]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pollard,Jonathan}}

[[Category:Israel]]
[[Category:Spies]]

Jury

2012-09-02T21:52:46Z

Pubjabi20: /* Juries are not used in all countries */

{{merge from|Jury trial}}

A '''jury''' is a group of ordinary citizens who make the final decision, called the ''verdict,'' in some court cases. Such cases are called ''jury trials.''

Jury trials are a fundamental part of the system of justice in the United States. The Constitution says that "The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury" and the Sixth Amendment amplifies this:
:In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

Most trials, of any kind, take place in [[state court]]s, and are governed by state [[law]]. Although the constitution guarantees the right to a jury trial in criminal cases, the details are left to the states and vary from state to state. A jury often but not always consists of twelve persons. In civil cases—where no crime is involved—parties do not necessarily have the right to a trial by jury.

==Role of judge and jury==

In a jury trial, the general principle is that the judge rules on issues involving the ''law,'' but the jury decides on the ''facts.'' For example, suppose a car hits a pedestrian. Usually that's the driver's fault. But suppose this particular accident actually seems to have been caused by the pedestrian. The judge would study the particular law in that particular state for that particular kind of situation. Maybe that state's law says a pedestrian who is hit by a car is ''always'' entitled to damages. Maybe that state's law says a pedestrian who is hit by a car is not entitled to damages if it's completely the pedestrian's fault. Maybe the law says it depends on whether the pedestrian is at least ''half'' at fault. Most likely there are many different laws that apply. Most likely the law is complicated and requires a legal expert, like a judge, to figure out how it applies to the particular case. The judge will be listening to the lawyers on both sides. The lawyers on each side will do their best to point out any detail in the law that helps their client. The judge makes the final call on what the ''law'' means.

But it is the jury, not the judge, listens to the driver's and pedestrian's stories, listens to what other witnesses and the police said, and decides who is at fault, and by how much.

==Jury selection==

Juries are supposed to be impartial and unbiased. They swear a solemn oath, and most jurors take that oath very seriously. The process of jury selection tries to guarantee that juries will be unbiased. Of course, the lawyers on both sides are trying their best to make sure that the jury selection ''is'' biased—to favor their own client. The process varies from state to state and locale to locale. It consists of several steps.

Typically citizens are chosen at random, perhaps from the voting rolls. They are mailed a "summons" to report for jury duty. Jury duty can take days, weeks, or more. A juror must take time off from work. Sometimes jurors are paid a small amount but it is usually much less than they would have earned at their regular job.

Busy people may want to avoid serving. People in some professions, such as doctors and policemen, may be excused from serving, and there can be other reasons to exempt people from serving.

The people who arrive at the courthouse to serve are typically assigned to a jury pool, containing more jurors than the number needed for the trial. They are told something about the case. In a process called the ''voir dire,'' the jurors are
questioned to see whether there are any reasons why they could not be impartial. For example, the judge might ask the jurors to raise their hands if they are friends or acquaintances of any of the people involved in the case. Those jurors would be dismissed, because a juror that who was a friend of a witness, for example, would be inclined to believe that witness.

The lawyers for each side also get a chance to ask questions. If a juror gives an answer that the judge agrees shows a lack of impartiality, the juror can be dismissed "for cause." For example, a juror that says he is against the death penalty could not be an impartial juror in a death penalty case. Each lawyer is usually also allowed a certain limited number of "peremptory challenges." That is, the lawyer can ask for a juror to be dismissed without giving a reason.

==Juries are not used in all countries==

Although Americans think of jury trials as fundamental to justice, they are by no means universal. They are characteristic of the British and French systems of justice. Jury trials were introduced in Russia in 1864, abolished by the Russian revolution in 1917, and reintroduced in 1993. To this day, most first-world nations and democracies have jury systems, and many Westerners find it baffling and inappropriate to hand over such an important step in the administration of justice to a panel of non-expert citizens.

However, [[Israel]] and [[Singapore]], two highly-developed Western democracies, as well as [[India]] and [[South Africa]], two fairly well-developed democracies, do not have jury trials. Singapore abolished the jury system in 1969. Former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, a former trial lawyer, told the BBC that "I had no faith in a system that allowed the superstition, ignorance, biases, and prejudices of seven jurymen to determine guilt or innocence". South Africa abolished civil jury trials under the apartheid era and replaced them with juries of elected officials dominated by the ruling party. The end of apartheid did not bring about the restoration of the jury system, but there have been moves to reintroduce it. India abolished jury trials on grounds that they would be susceptible to media and public influence. Israel never had jury trials in its legal history, as its penal code is largely inherited from the old British Mandate one, which lacked any juries. The British had decided that with Jews and Arabs living as two mutually-hostile communities, jury trials would not have worked in Palestine. Trials in these countries are held before either a single judge or panels consisting of multiple judges.

[[category:law]]
[[Category:Judicial]]

Jury

2012-09-02T21:45:09Z

Pubjabi20: /* Juries are not used in all countries */

{{merge from|Jury trial}}

A '''jury''' is a group of ordinary citizens who make the final decision, called the ''verdict,'' in some court cases. Such cases are called ''jury trials.''

Jury trials are a fundamental part of the system of justice in the United States. The Constitution says that "The Trial of all Crimes, except in Cases of Impeachment, shall be by Jury" and the Sixth Amendment amplifies this:
:In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense.

Most trials, of any kind, take place in [[state court]]s, and are governed by state [[law]]. Although the constitution guarantees the right to a jury trial in criminal cases, the details are left to the states and vary from state to state. A jury often but not always consists of twelve persons. In civil cases—where no crime is involved—parties do not necessarily have the right to a trial by jury.

==Role of judge and jury==

In a jury trial, the general principle is that the judge rules on issues involving the ''law,'' but the jury decides on the ''facts.'' For example, suppose a car hits a pedestrian. Usually that's the driver's fault. But suppose this particular accident actually seems to have been caused by the pedestrian. The judge would study the particular law in that particular state for that particular kind of situation. Maybe that state's law says a pedestrian who is hit by a car is ''always'' entitled to damages. Maybe that state's law says a pedestrian who is hit by a car is not entitled to damages if it's completely the pedestrian's fault. Maybe the law says it depends on whether the pedestrian is at least ''half'' at fault. Most likely there are many different laws that apply. Most likely the law is complicated and requires a legal expert, like a judge, to figure out how it applies to the particular case. The judge will be listening to the lawyers on both sides. The lawyers on each side will do their best to point out any detail in the law that helps their client. The judge makes the final call on what the ''law'' means.

But it is the jury, not the judge, listens to the driver's and pedestrian's stories, listens to what other witnesses and the police said, and decides who is at fault, and by how much.

==Jury selection==

Juries are supposed to be impartial and unbiased. They swear a solemn oath, and most jurors take that oath very seriously. The process of jury selection tries to guarantee that juries will be unbiased. Of course, the lawyers on both sides are trying their best to make sure that the jury selection ''is'' biased—to favor their own client. The process varies from state to state and locale to locale. It consists of several steps.

Typically citizens are chosen at random, perhaps from the voting rolls. They are mailed a "summons" to report for jury duty. Jury duty can take days, weeks, or more. A juror must take time off from work. Sometimes jurors are paid a small amount but it is usually much less than they would have earned at their regular job.

Busy people may want to avoid serving. People in some professions, such as doctors and policemen, may be excused from serving, and there can be other reasons to exempt people from serving.

The people who arrive at the courthouse to serve are typically assigned to a jury pool, containing more jurors than the number needed for the trial. They are told something about the case. In a process called the ''voir dire,'' the jurors are
questioned to see whether there are any reasons why they could not be impartial. For example, the judge might ask the jurors to raise their hands if they are friends or acquaintances of any of the people involved in the case. Those jurors would be dismissed, because a juror that who was a friend of a witness, for example, would be inclined to believe that witness.

The lawyers for each side also get a chance to ask questions. If a juror gives an answer that the judge agrees shows a lack of impartiality, the juror can be dismissed "for cause." For example, a juror that says he is against the death penalty could not be an impartial juror in a death penalty case. Each lawyer is usually also allowed a certain limited number of "peremptory challenges." That is, the lawyer can ask for a juror to be dismissed without giving a reason.

==Juries are not used in all countries==

Although Americans think of jury trials as fundamental to justice, they are by no means universal. They are characteristic of the British and French systems of justice. Jury trials were introduced in Russia in 1864, abolished by the Russian revolution in 1917, and reintroduced in 1993. To this day, most first-world nations and democracies have jury systems, and many Westerners find it baffling and inappropriate to hand over such an important step in the administration of justice to a panel of non-expert citizens.

However, [[Israel]] and [[Singapore]], two highly-developed Western democracies, as well as [[India]] and [[South Africa]], two fairly well-developed democracies, do not have jury trials, though there have been moves at re-establishing the jury system in South Africa.

[[category:law]]
[[Category:Judicial]]

Talk:Conservapedia

2012-07-23T21:57:15Z

Pubjabi20:

.

Where are the claims of bias? The controversial aspects? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliability_of_Wikipedia#Notable_incidents Even Wikipedia says] it has been controversial. --[[User:Gert3|Gert3]] 09:07, 13 July 2010 (EDT)

== Cannot edit? ==

When I view this page the "edit button" isn't there, is this a purposeful measure? I wanted to change ''...Conservapedia originally contained mostly history articles, it has grown over '''two years''' to be a general reference...'' because if Conservapedia was launched in 2006 that would make it nearly 5 years old. [[User:MaxFletcher|MaxFletcher]] 22:07, 14 March 2011 (EDT)
: I think that means the page has been 'protected'. Only some of the more senior users (administrators?) have access. You can ask for it to be temporarily unprotected, probably ask ASchlafly. [[User:CharlieJ|CharlieJ]] 22:17, 14 March 2011 (EDT)
::I think I have already bothered him enough today (I couldn't find the help index despite it being right in the menu!). Hopefully a senior user will see this. [[User:MaxFletcher|MaxFletcher]] 22:23, 14 March 2011 (EDT)
:::Hi Max, good catch! I made that change for you: I made it "grown over several years". If there were any other changes you wanted to make, let me know or I'll unlock the article for you. [[User:AddisonDM|AddisonDM]] 13:07, 15 March 2011 (EDT)
::::Thanks Addison! [[User:MaxFletcher|MaxFletcher]] 15:27, 15 March 2011 (EDT)

== Differences with Wikipedia Section ==

Under this section, it might be helpful to add a wiki link to this page: [[Conservapedia:How Conservapedia Differs from Wikipedia]]. One of the better differences, in my opinion, is that Conservapedia allows primary sources while Wikipedia does not. According to Wikipedia, if the liberal media has not mentioned it, then it must not exist. This is the same tactic liberals used when [[ClimateGate]] went public; they simply ignored the story and hoped it would disappear.

Secondary sources can be very helpful in explaining a more complex topic, but an encyclopedic approach would be to cite the primary and secondary sources, which Wikipedia does not allow. This means that Wikipedia is a source for less reliable, second-hand citations; unless a page is completely unrelated to politics of any kind, Wikipedia references mostly liberal opinions with a bias view discussing a primary source. Even then, Wikipedia's non-political pages still can't use primary research as a citation. In my opinion, primary sources are more encyclopedic than the opinions of HuffPo writers, MSNBC reporters and the vast liberal media machine. [[User:DerekE|DerekE]] 21:32, 19 August 2011 (EDT)

: Wow, that's a superb insight! I added the link as you suggested.--[[User:Aschlafly|Andy Schlafly]] 21:55, 19 August 2011 (EDT)

== Blocked user listed as influential ==
In the "influential users" list, "JacobB" is still listed even though that user was blocked for inserting false information. Was leaving this user on the list intended or an oversight? [[User:CWest|CWest]] 12:41, 8 June 2012 (EDT)

The following was mailed to me by SamHB. [[User:JudyJ|JudyJ]] 14:29, 10 June 2012 (EDT)

I take exception to the suggestion that user JacobB was "blocked for inserting false information". That is not true. Jacob was more knowledgeable about mathematics than everyone here, past or present, put together. He was caught up in some kind of internet password spoofing incident, and the "good guys vs. traitors" mindset kicked in. I believe he was allowed to come back briefly, but he quickly lost interest and moved on to other things. In his case, grad school in mathematics. He never inserted false information. You should show some respect, OK? If his user page showing as a redlink bothers you, why not just restore the page?

Another matter. While I had bitter fights with Terry Koeckritz, I was saddened to learn of his death. I think the existing entry does not show respect the way it should. The phrase "RIP" is used in many ways, from extremely solemn (Requiescat In Pacem) to downright silly and flippant (hanging an "RIP" sign on a computer.) Someone reading his entry wouldn't really know what was intended. They could even conclude that he was simply banned. I would suggest changing the line to something like

*[[User:TK|TK]] made many substantive contributions since coming to Conservapedia in 2007, and was known for his vigilance against vandals prior to his sudden passing in December, 2010.

:I meant no disrespect. I was not the one that made the block; I only joined this site about a week ago. Personally, the red link does not bother me; I did notice it and checked the reason for the block, but I simply wanted to check with the sysops. Even if I did restore the page, it may be deleted again anyway. There has been another instance where I redid something a sysop had undone and I caught some heat for it. I do not wish for that to happen again. Also, as I did not mention anything to do with that second paragraph, I will leave that part alone without replying. [[User:CWest|CWest]] 09:40, 11 June 2012 (EDT)

== Only for Americans? ==

I read people stating one forum that this site is only accessible to American IPs, with people from other countries complaining that they were not given access, though a Canadian said he did manage to get in. Is this true, or just propaganda? I'm moving to Israel, so I'd still like to be able to access this site.--[[User:Pubjabi20|Pubjabi20]] 17:57, 23 July 2012 (EDT)

Henry Kissinger

2012-07-22T06:28:58Z

Pubjabi20: /* Middle East */

[[Image:Kissinger Henry.jpg|frame|right]]
'''Henry Kissinger''' (1923- ), American statesman and exponent of "realism" in foreign policy; he dominated foreign policy in the the administrations of presidents [[Richard Nixon]] and [[Gerald Ford]], as [[Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs|National Security Advisor]] and [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]], holding both positions for a time. He won the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for reaching a peace that ended the [[Vietnam War]]. In close collaboration with Nixon, he created a '''[[détente]] policy''' that called for an end to the [[Cold War]] and for friendly relations with both the [[Soviet Union]] and [[China]]. His position on détente was rejected by [[Ronald Reagan]] in the 1976 campaign for the presidential nomination. But Reagan lost the election to Ford, and in turn Ford was defeated by Democrat [[Jimmy Carter]], as Kissinger retired to write his highly revealing memoirs and consult for businesses worldwide.
==Life==
Kissinger was born in Fürth, Germany, on May 27, 1923 to a middle class Jewish family. They fled Nazi persecution, and arrived in New York in 1938, where he changed his first name from Heinz to Henry and rapidly Americanized in everything except his thick accent. He attended public schools and City University before being drafted at age 19. He returned to Europe during World War II fighting with the U.S. Army; he was in the infantry at first, but his heroism, courage, and daring got him promoted to intelligence. He was discharged as a sergeant in 1946. He spent a year as a civilian instructor in ''de-Nazification'' at an Army school in Germany; charged with de-Nazifying a German town, he did so with remarkable ease. He had power and responsibility far beyond his years because of his intelligence, his energy, and his commitment to opposing the Nazis.

In the army, Kissinger was informally tutored by Fritz Kraemer, a fellow refugee with two PhD's. In 1950 Kissinger earned his B.A. ''summa cum laude'' at Harvard with a 377 page essay on "The Meaning of History: Reflections on Spengler, Toynbee and Kant."<ref> William Y. Elliott was his director but only read half of it; the Government Department thereupon ruled that future senior theses could not exceed 40,000 words.</ref> He finished his Ph.D. in 1956 at Harvard, with a dissertation on "A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace 1812-22," a study praising how the conservative diplomats of the era built a stable and peaceful international system after the Napoleonic wars.

He married Ann Fleischer in 1949 and was divorced in 1964. There were two children, Elizabeth and David. In 1974 he married Nancy Maginnes.

==Harvard professor==
Kissinger became a full professor in Harvard's Department of Government in 1962. As the director of Harvard's University Summer International Seminar, 1952-69, he brought in nearly 700 young European and Asian scholars, many of whom became high officials in their own country. Kissinger met practically every intellectual in international relations at home and abroad.

Kissinger was eager to serve on national commissions. He served as Study Director, Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy, for the Council of Foreign Relations from 1955 to 1956; Director of the Special Studies Project for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund from 1956 to 1958; and Director of the Harvard Defense Studies Program from 1958 to 1971. He resigned from Harvard in January 1971 when his two-year leave of absence expired.

In 1957 Kissinger published ''Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy,'' which proposed a flexible defense posture, including provision for "limited warfare" and the strategic employment of nuclear weapons as an alternative to the doctrine of "massive retaliation" against direct foreign aggression, which dominated military thinking during the mid-1950s. The book brought Kissinger to national attention, and he became an mid-level advisor on security questions under presidents [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], [[John F. Kennedy]], and [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]; he was foreign policy advisor in [[Nelson Rockefeller]]'s 1968 quest for the Republican party nomination, but Nixon won the nomination and Kissinger switched to the winner.

Kissinger was consultant to the Department of State (1965-68), United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1961-68), Rand Corporation (1961-68), [[National Security Council]] (1961-62), Weapons Systems Evaluation Group of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1959-60), Operations Coordinating Board (1955), Director of the Psychological Strategy Board (1952), Operations Research Office (1951), and Chairman of the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America (1983-84). In 2001 he was not appointed to head the commission studying the [[9-11 Attack]] because he was too controversial.

==National Security Advisor and Secretary of State==
In 1969 Nixon appointed him his top advisor on foreign affairs as "Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs" )or "National Security Advisor") in charge of the [[National Security Council]] staff, which he made his base of power. He and Nixon largely ignored the State Department in setting the main lines of foreign policy. In 1973, Kissinger gained the additional role as secretary of state. He was the only person ever to hold the two top national security roles at the same time, and in 1975 he was replaced as head of the NSC.

Kissinger's approach to foreign policy was shaped by his vision of world peace achieved through a global balance of power; and accordingly Kissinger believed that effective U.S. diplomacy needed to be backed by force and guided by the pragmatism of Realpolitik rather than by high ideals and abstract causes. In practice his diplomacy, which mixed a highly visible, personal style with secret, behind-the-scenes maneuverings, was marked by bold, often controversial, initiatives and by frequent travel between world capitals in what came to be known as "shuttle diplomacy".
===Nuclear strategy===
On taling office Nixon and Kissinger were briefed on the US nuclear war plan, the [[Single Integrated Operational Plan]] (SIOP). Appalled by the catastrophic scale of the SIOP, Nixon and Kissinger sought military options that were more credible than massive nuclear strikes. Participants in the Air Force Nuclear Options project also supported more flexible nuclear war plans. Although Kissinger repeatedly asked Defense Department officials to construct limited options, they were skeptical that it would be possible to control nuclear escalation or to introduce greater flexibility without weakening the SIOP. Interagency studies presented a mixed verdict about the desirability of limited options; nevertheless, continued White House pressure encouraged Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird to sponsor a major review of nuclear targeting. In 1972 the John Foster panel developed concepts of limited, selective, and regional nuclear options that were responsive to Kissinger's interest in credible nuclear threats. The Foster panel's report led to the controversial "Schlesinger Doctrine" and further efforts to revise the SIOP, but serious questions endured about the whole concept of controlled nuclear warfare.<ref> William Burr, "The Nixon Administration, the 'Horror Strategy,' and the Search for Limited Nuclear Options, 1969-1972: Prelude to the Schlesinger Doctrine." ''Journal of Cold War Studies'' 2005 7(3): 34-78. Issn: 1520-3972 Fulltext: [[Project Muse]]; Aaron L. Friedberg, "A History of U.S. Strategic 'Doctrine'—1945 to 1980," ''Journal of Strategic Studies,'' Vol. 3, No. 4 (December 1980), pp. 37-71; Scott Sagan, ''Moving Targets: Nuclear Strategy and National Security'' (1989). </ref>
===Détente with Soviet Union and China===
Kissinger's first priority in office was the achievement of détente with the Soviet Union and China, and playing them off against each other . Recognizing and accepting the Soviet Union as a superpower, Kissinger sought both to maintain U.S. military strength and to inaugurate peaceful economic, cultural, and scientific exchanges to engage the Soviet Union in the international system. This policy flourished under Kissinger's direction and led in 1972 to the signing of the first [[Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty]] (SALT I). At the same time Kissinger successfully engineered a rapprochement with Communist China, leading to the astonishing news in 1971 that Nixon would visit China, which he and Kissinger did in 1972.<ref> Margaret Macmillan, ''Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World'' (2008)</ref>

Aware that China and the Soviet Union were at sword's point, with rival claims to be the true Communists, Kissinger used the "Soviet card" to win over China by playing up the Soviet threat to the Chinese as a way of promoting closer relations with China. He even hinted at a US-China alliance to oppose the Soviets, and, with Nixon's trips to Moscow, hinted that China had better come to terms lest the US form an alliance with Moscow. The tactics worked, resulting in a friendly relationship with both Beijing and Moscow. As part of the détente, both powers reduced or ended their aid to North Vietnam, thus allowing a settlement of the [[Vietnam War]].<ref>Evelyn Goh, "Nixon, Kissinger, and the 'Soviet Card' in the U.S. Opening to China, 1971-1974." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(3): 475-502. </ref>

"In the Soviet Union, there is really nobody left who has any memory of an entrepreneurial tradition," said Kissinger. "In China, there are many people left who participated in Chinese entrepreneurial life." He believed that a Sino-US alliance to oppose Soviet aggression could encourage internal reform within the Chinese system while promoting a more peaceful international order. After China made such reforms, hundreds of millions were lifted out of poverty.<ref>http://www.huliq.com/37702/rising-economic-growth-in-china-india-contributes-to-food-inflation "...hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty in the past few decades"</ref>

===Vietnam===
Kissinger worked to achieve a disengagement of U.S. forces fighting in Vietnam. He promoted Nixon's policy of "Vietnamization," aimed at turning the burden of actual combat over to the South Vietnamese, with repeated shows of U.S. air strength, notably in the bombings of Cambodia and North Vietnam. Kissinger met secretly with North Vietnamese leaders in Paris from 1969 on, finally concluding a cease-fire in January 1973, for which he and chief North Vietnamese negotiator [[Le Duc Tho]] were awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize. Later rumors to the effect that Kissinger knew the South Vietnamese government was too weak to survive long were wrong; Kissinger and Nixon had built South Vietnam into one of the strongest militaries in Asia--much stronger than the North Vietnamese--and they had stripped away much of Hanoi's support from Moscow and Beijing. The problem was that Saigon put all its future on the continuation of Nixon in office and his promises to intervene militarily if necessary. Nixon collapsed unexpectedly (because of Watergate) and his personal promises were gone. Saigon despaired and desperately fought back when Hanoi did invade in 1975, after Nixon was gone and Congress forbad further American intervention.

Demographic evidence indicates that the US bombings of Cambodia, especially the Menu bombings, ultimately killed about 40,000 Cambodian combatants and civilians.<ref>Marek Sliwinski, Le Génocide Khmer Rouge: Une Analyse Démographique (L’Harmattan, 1995), pp41-8.</ref> Some estimates go as high as 100,000 killed by the bombing.<ref>http://www.yale.edu/cgp/Walrus_CambodiaBombing_OCT06.pdf</ref> The US Seventh Air Force argued that the bombing prevented the fall of Phnom Penh in 1973 by killing 16,000 of 25,500 Khmer Rouge fighters besieging the city. Documents uncovered from the Soviet archives after 1991 reveal that the North Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia in 1970 was launched at the explicit request of the Khmer Rouge and negotiated by Pol Pot's then second in command, Nuon Chea.<ref>Dmitry Mosyakov, “The Khmer Rouge and the Vietnamese Communists: A History of Their Relations as Told in the Soviet Archives,” in Susan E. Cook, ed., Genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda (Yale Genocide Studies Program Monograph Series No. 1, 2004), p54ff. Availible online at: http://128.36.236.77/workpaper/pdfs/GS20.pdf "In April-May 1970, many North Vietnamese forces entered Cambodia in response to the call for help addressed to Vietnam not by Pol Pot, but by his deputy Nuon Chea. Nguyen Co Thach recalls: “Nuon Chea has asked for help and we have liberated five provinces of Cambodia in ten days.”"</ref>

The communist leaders had expected that the ceasefire terms would favor their side. But Saigon, bolstered by a surge of U.S. aid received just before the ceasefire went into effect, began to roll back the Vietcong. The communists responded with a new strategy hammered out in a series of meetings in Hanoi in March 1973, according to the memoirs of Tran Van Tra.

As the Vietcong's top commander, Trà participated in several of these meetings. With U.S. bombings suspended, work on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and other logistical structures could proceed unimpeded. Logistics would be upgraded until the North was in a position to launch a massive invasion of the South, projected for the 1975–1976 dry season. Trà calculated that this date would be Hanoi's last opportunity to strike before Saigon's army could be fully trained.

In 1974, Congress voted not to enforce the commitments agreed to in the Paris Peace Accords. Air support for Cambodia, South Vietnam, and Laos was cut off. The military aid promised was scaled back or never materialized, and the North was allowed to resume support for the Khmer Rouge. "After Nixon stepped down over Watergate," said one Communist commander, "we knew we would win."<ref>http://www.grunt.com/scuttlebutt/corps-stories/vietnam/north.asp</ref> Without the logistical support provided by the Ho Chi Minh trail, the North would not have been able to launch an invasion of South Vietnam by 1975, which it predicted would be its "last chance" before the South was self-sufficiently able to defend itself.<ref>http://www.grunt.com/scuttlebutt/corps-stories/vietnam/north.asp</ref> The US canceled the bombing of Communist positions on the trail. In Cambodia, last minute efforts on the part of the US to arrange for a peace settlement involving Sihanouk ended in failure. When the US Congress vetoed [[Ford]]'s call for a resumption of air support in Cambodia, panic and a sense of doom filled the capital, which was mercilessly shelled for more than a year by the Communists. President Ford openly predicted a "bloodbath" and stated that the Congress's decision to abandon Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge, in particular, would lead to "an unbelievable horror story".<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/cambodia/bloodbath1.pdf</ref> The US frantically abandoned Saigon, and the Pathet Lao advanced throughout Laos. President Ford's prediction that the Khmer Rouge would murder at least one million people<ref>Washington Post, June 4, 23, 1975</ref> was laughed off by liberal reporters. Some journalists, mocking the claims of a bloodbath, were so bold as to sing the following lyrics to the tune of "''She Was Poor But She Was Honest''": "Oh will there be a dreadful bloodbath/ When the Khmer Rouge come to town?/ Aye, there'll be a dreadful bloodbath/ When the Khmer Rouge come to town."<ref>http://jim.com/canon.htm#ch2 From an important study by genocide survivor Sophal Ear. Note that the source is, of all people, William Shawcross.</ref>

In [[Vietnam_War#Aftermath| the largest act of genocide since the Nazi Holocaust]], the victorious Communists murdered 4-5 million people throughout Indochina, including slightly over 2 million killed by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia alone.

===Middle East===
One challenge to détente under Kissinger came with the outbreak of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Faced with a threat of Soviet intervention, Kissinger successfully urged that U.S. forces be placed on worldwide alert. With Israel facing possible defeat at the hands of the Arab aggressors, President Nixon launched the largest airlift in military history to replenish Israel's stocks (the left would condemn his actions no matter how big or how small, Nixon said, so "''let's make it big''"). Kissinger had urged Nixon to delay the airlift so as to let Israel "bleed a little", in the hopes that a badly bruised Israel would be more pliable to concessions in post-war negotiations, but Nixon refused.

When the Israelis surrounded the Egyptian Third Army at the end of the war, Kissinger believed that the United States had a tremendous opportunity. Egypt was now dependent on solely the United States for the survival of its Third Army, and Kissinger hoped that the United States could mediate the dispute and wean Egypt from Soviet influence. As a result, he exerted intense pressure on Israel not to destroy the Third Army and to allow it to receive non-military supplies. Among other things, he threatened that the United States would resupply the Third Army by helicopter, support a UN resolution demanding an Israeli withdrawal to positions held before the Third Army's encirclement, and falsely told the Israelis that the Soviet Union had threatened to intervene over the Third Army.

Kissinger then employed shuttle diplomacy to secure disengagement agreements between Israel and the Arab states and to restore U.S.-Egyptian diplomatic ties, broken since 1967. Kissinger's goal was to drive the Soviets out of Egypt by showing the Egyptians that only the United States could persuade Israel to make concessions. The US assisted in a vast rescue operation conducted by Israeli forces to save Egyptian troops stranded in the Sinai.<ref>The Times, UK, June 15, 1967.</ref> US-brokered peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt continued past Nixon's term. Though negotiations were tough, with both sides sometimes intransigent, President Ford ended up securing the first peace agreements between Israel and Egypt, which would be finalized under President Carter. In turn, [[Jordan]] felt compelled to reach a separate peace, which resulted in a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan in 1994.

Kissinger and Nixon approved a covert [[CIA]] campaign of subversion and sabotage designed to bring down the Socialist government of [[Iraq]] in 1973. Done in collaboration with the [[Shah]] of neighboring [[Iran]], it involved Soviet arms captured from Egypt and [[Syria]] in the 1973 war being dispatched to Kurdish rebels in Northern Iraq. The Shah cynically used the Kurds to pressure the Ba'athist government to back down on a number of serious territorial disputes between the two nations. The US brokered a peace treaty between Iraq and Iran in 1975, and aid to the Kurds was subsequently cut off. The Kurds were then viciously slaughtered. "''Covert action should not be confused with missionary work,''" Kissinger famously declared.<ref>http://www.slate.com/id/2156400/</ref>

Kissinger helped to diffuse sectarian conflicts in [[Lebanon]] in order to prevent a possible regional war, and opposed the Soviet-backed attempt by Communist forces to conquer North [[Yemen]] (which was the recipient of much US aid).

On 20 July 1974, [[Turkey]] invaded northern [[Cyprus]], overthrew its Greek-backed dictatorship (headed by Nikos Sampson), and installed a new regime. This led to the collapse of the Greek military junta, and the restoration of democracy in Greece, three days later--July 23, 1974. Sampson had been brought to power by the Greek Cypriot national guard (acting under the orders of Athens), which ousted the elected president, Makarios; Turkey removed him from power after a mere eight days in office. "Had Turkey not intervened," Sampson told the Greek newspaper Eleftherotipia, "I would not only have proclaimed Enosis [union of Cyprus with Greece] but I would have annihilated the Turks in Cyprus as well."<ref>http://www.britains-smallwars.com/cyprus/Most%20wanted/most%20wanted%20files/EOKA_Members_List_s.html</ref> Turkey took control of one-third of the country. Civilian casualties were remarkably light. Turkey restored democracy to Cyprus, and new elections brought Glafcos Clerides to power. President Makarios, in his speech to the UN Security Council on 19 July 1974, described the coup that replaced him as "an invasion of Cyprus by Greece."

Both the Turks and the Greeks committed indiscriminate ethnic cleansing against the other side. <ref>http://www.hr-action.org/chr/ECHR01.html 1st Report of the European Commission of Human Rights; Turkey's intervention in Cyprus and aftermath (20 July 1974 - 18 May 1976)</ref><ref>http://www.hr-action.org/chr/ECHR02.html 2nd Report of the European Commission of Human Rights; Turkey's intervention in Cyprus and aftermath (19 May 1976 to 10 February 1983)</ref> Facts and information on the death and the burial site of 201 out of 500 cases of Turkish Cypriot "missing" persons were provided by the Cyprus government on 12 May 2003. A typical report stated:
<blockquote>
In a Greek raid on a small Turkish village near Limassol, 36 people out of a population of 200 were killed. The Greeks said that they had been given orders to kill the inhabitants of the Turkish villages before the Turkish forces arrived.<ref>Washington Post, 23 July 1974
</ref>
</blockquote>

Numerous studies reported accounts of "anti-Turkish pograms," hostage taking, and mass murder.

Kissinger approved of the Turkish invasion, viewing the Greek junta as a Cold War liability.<ref>http://www.kypros.org/Occupied_Cyprus/cyprus1974/images/NATO_Joseph_Luns_700_bg.jpg</ref> Kissinger had resolved to find a solution to the Cyprus problem in May 1974.<ref>http://www.kypros.org/Occupied_Cyprus/cyprus1974/images/Dept_Of_State_Kissinger_700_bg.jpg</ref> Kissinger intervened to prevent a planned British military response to the second phase of the Turkish invasion in order to avoid a war between the two American allies.

Some 70,000 Turkish civilians were displaced by the Greeks. It is estimated by independant sources that 140,000 to 160,000<ref>Borowiec, Andrew (2000), Cyprus: A Troubled Island. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, pp2</ref> Greek civilians were displaced by the Turkish invaders. Only 20,000 Greeks remained in the north. Five Americans disappeared during the Turkish invasion.

===Latin America===
The Nixon administration sought to protect the economic and commercial interests of the United States during a period of heightened Latin American nationalism and expropriations, 1969-74. Though the administration initially adopted a flexible policy toward Latin American governments that nationalized American corporations' assets, the influence of Nixon's economic ideology, domestic political pressures, and the advice of Secretary of the Treasury [[John Connally]], led to a more confrontational stance toward Latin American countries. As the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, and Kissinger had warned, however, Latin American countries took an even more anti-US stance and expropriated even more assets. Nixon's "get tough" stance, therefore, had a negative effect on American credibility and influence in the hemisphere.<ref>Hal Brands, "Richard Nixon and Economic Nationalism in Latin America: the Problem of Expropriations, 1969-1974." ''Diplomacy & Statecraft'' 2007 18(1): 215-235. Issn: 0959-2296 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]</ref>

The ''de facto'' Communist dictatorship in [[Chile]] headed by [[Salvador Allende]] (originally elected in 1970 with a minority of the vote) presented a major obstacle to American interests in the region.

The CIA, as recounted in the Church Committee report, was involved in various plots designed to remove Allende and then let the Chileans vote in a new election where he would not be a candidate: It tried to buy off the Chilean Congress to prevent his appointment, worked to sway public opinion against him to prevent his election, and financed protests designed to bring the country to a stand-still and make him resign.<ref>http://www.history-matters.com/archive/church/reports/ir/html/ChurchIR_0120a.htm</ref> Convinced that a conventional military uprising was still not possible in Chile, the CIA, acting with the approval of the 40 Committee—the body charged with overseeing covert actions abroad—devised what in effect was a constitutional coup. The most expeditious way to prevent Allende from assuming office was somehow to convince the Chilean congress to confirm Alessandri as the winner of the election. Once elected by the congress, Alessandri—a party to the plot through intermediaries—was prepared to resign his presidency within a matter of days so that new elections could be held.<ref>http://www.history-matters.com/archive/church/reports/ir/html/ChurchIR_0120a.htm</ref><ref>http://archive.frontpagemag.com/Printable.aspx?ArtId=15648</ref> The CIA also learned of a number of plots to establish a military dictatorship. Although it pointedly refused to materially assist any of them, and actually intervened to prevent one of the plots for fear it would fail and strengthen Allende; it also encouraged several of the plots and did nothing to prevent them. It assured the plotters that such an event would be welcomed in Washington and that the US would not cut off aid over potential human rights violations.<ref>http://www.history-matters.com/archive/church/reports/ir/html/ChurchIR_0120a.htm</ref> In addition, the CIA provided funding for the mass anti-government strikes in 1972 and 1973. Though the CIA maintained contact with a notorious right-wing extremist named Roberto Viaux, Nixon and Kissinger, recognizing that "nothing could be worse than an abortive coup," repeatedly relayed messages to him urging restraint and went to great lengths to deter him from staging a coup.<ref>http://www.history-matters.com/archive/church/reports/ir/html/ChurchIR_0120a.htm</ref><ref>http://archive.frontpagemag.com/Printable.aspx?ArtId=15648</ref>

The extent of Kissinger's involvement in or support of these plans is a subject of controversy.

Although the US considered economic sanctions against the Allende regime, it never actually implemented them. Although Latin Americans viewed the US as omnipotent, future Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet mocked it as a paper tiger and felt free to launch terrorist attacks in Washington, D.C., during his reign. The US ended up giving more aid to Allende's Chile than any of the prior administrations. The US worked to diffuse potential coups that it had once warmly encouraged, fearing that it would be blamed if they failed. Though hesitant and uneasy, the CIA vowed to "continue to put pressure on every Allende weak spot" even after his appointment. The CIA had warned that the odds of either a military or a constitutional coup succeeding were one in twenty; after they both failed to occur in 1970, US policy shifted towards maintaining a democratic opposition to the Allende regime.

US intelligence reports implicated Allende in the assassination of several opponents,<ref>http://nixontapeaudio.org/chile/517-004.pdf Includes discussion of intelligence reports of Allende-backed hit jobs; note that Cuban intelligence reached the same conclusion--hence the infamous "packages" scandal.</ref> while KGB files smuggled out of Russia by Vasily Mitrokhin indicate that Allende received funds from the Soviet Union.<ref>http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/219461/pinochet-history/nro-symposium</ref> Allende was formally condemned by Chile's parliament for systematically destroying democracy in Chile.<ref>“Declaration of the Breakdown of Chile’s Democracy,” Resolution of the Chamber of Deputies, Chile, August 22, 1973.</ref> The Chilean Chamber of Deputies Resolution of August 22, 1973, accused Allende of support of armed groups, torture, illegal arrests, muzzling the press, confiscating private property, and not allowing people to leave the country. In the infamous "Cuban Packages Scandal" that precipitated the coup, large quantities of weapons were sent from Castro's Cuba to arm pro-Allende terrorists in Chile.<ref>http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/219461/pinochet-history/nro-symposium</ref> Kissinger privately told Nixon that Allende might declare martial law.<ref>http://nixontapeaudio.org/chile/517-004.pdf</ref> By 1973, as a result of covert US aid to Chilean dissidents and financing of pro-democracy protestors, US intelligence indicated Allende would likely lose the next Chilean election if it was held.<ref>http://archive.frontpagemag.com/Printable.aspx?ArtId=15648</ref> According to ''The Wall Street Journal,'' faced with illegal seizures of farms and factories, of defiance of judicial orders, unchecked street violence and death threats against the judges themselves, the Supreme Court warned on May 26, 1973, in a unanimous and unprecedented message, that Chile faced "a peremptory or imminent breakdown of legality."<ref>http://www.lyd.com/noticias/violencia/what_really.html</ref> Inflation reached 1,000%. Volodia Teitelboim, the chief ideologue of the Communist Party in Chile, declared that if civil war came, "it probably would signify immense loss of human lives, between half a million and one million."<ref>http://www.lyd.com/noticias/violencia/what_really.html</ref>

On September 11, 1973, Allende committed suicide during a military coup launched by Army Commander-in-Chief [[Augusto Pinochet]], who became President. Allende's policies had turned the country into a dictatorship that would kill thousands.

On September 16, 1973, the following exchange about the coup took place between Kissinger and President Nixon:

: '''Nixon''': Nothing new of any importance or is there?
: '''Kissinger''': Nothing of very great consequence. The Chilean thing is getting consolidated and of course the newspapers are bleeding because a pro-Communist government has been overthrown.
: '''Nixon''': Isn't that something. Isn't that something.
: '''Kissinger''': I mean instead of celebrating – in the Eisenhower period we would be heroes.
: '''Nixon''': Well we didn't – as you know – our hand doesn't show on this one though.
: '''Kissinger''': We didn't do it. I mean we helped them....created the conditions as great as possible.
: '''Nixon''': That is right. And that is the way it is going to be played.<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB123/chile.htm The Kissinger Telcons: Kissinger Telcons on Chile], National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 123, edited by Peter Kornbluh, posted May 26, 2004. This particular dialogue can be found at [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB123/Box%2022,%20File%203,%20Telcon,%209-16-73%2011,50%20Mr.%20Kissinger-The%20Pres%202.pdf TELCON: September 16, 1973, 11:50 a.m. Kissinger Talking to Nixon]. Retrieved November 26, 2006.</ref>

Kissinger is clearly telling the President that any direct US role in such a coup would be abhorrent but that the coup itself was preferable to a Communist take-over (with both agreeing that the US did not assist the plot).

On June 8, 1976, Kissinger met with Pinochet in Santiago, telling him: "''My evaluation is that you are a victim of all left-wing groups around the world, and that your greatest sin was that you overthrew a government which was going Communist.''"<ref>http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Kissinger+DECLASSIFIED.(document+shows+Secretary+of+State+supported...-a054468923</ref>

Using its leverage over Pinochet to curtail Chilean human rights abuses, the US simultaneously pressured Chile to introduce a series of free market economic reforms, a process that escalated sharply in the eighties. This led to a period of rapid economic expansion and development without precedent in Latin America, in which growth averaged 7% annually, that came to be known as the "''miracle of Chile''" (it also included the region's greatest reductions in infant mortality<ref>Nick Eberstadt, The Poverty of Communism (Transaction Publishers, 1990), pp188,
196-206, 240-6, in which he discusses living standards in Communist Cuba versus Pinochet's Chile.</ref>). In turn, this allowed Chile to make a long-term transition to sustainable democratic rule that would likely have been otherwise inconceivable.<ref>http://www.lyd.com/noticias/violencia/what_really.html</ref>

In [[Argentina]], the Socialist government of [[Isabel Perón]] had been persuaded to declare a state of emergency (suspending, among other rights, ''Habeas Corpus'') on February 5, 1975. Drafted so they may (in her words) "annihilate the subversives," the decree led to ''Operativo Independencia'', a military campaign notorious for the brutality it exacted on not only the violent; but also elected officials, magistrates and University of Tucumán faculty (even secondary school teachers). The Peronists' own political mainstay (the labor movement) was also subject to the "subversive" labels and consequent reprisals. The country plunged into a low-level civil war. Fighting between Communist and anti-Communist forces claimed nearly 1,000 lives, with widespread social chaos and inflation peaking at 33%, before the Argentine military, led by Jorge Videla, deposed Perón on March 24, 1976.

As the new regime consolidated power, launching brutal reprisals and "disappearances" against political opponents, Kissinger took a similar line as he had toward Chile. During a meeting with Argentine foreign minister César Augusto Guzzetti, Kissinger assured him that the United States was an ally, but urged him to ''"get back to normal procedures"'' quickly before the U.S. Congress reconvened and had a chance to consider sanctions. The US cut-off aid in 1977 due to human rights violations.

Nixon sought a "special relationship" with [[Brazil]], and proposed a direct line of communication between the Brazilian and American Presidents. He appointed Kissinger to serve as a "special representative" to Brazil.

In [[Cuba]], Kissinger supported a renewal of diplomatic relations and cultural exchange with the [[Castro]] regime. Although President Ford repeatedly reached out to the Cubans; their military interventions in [[Angola]], [[Mozambique]], and [[Ethiopia]] destroyed Kissinger's hopes.

===South Asia===
During the South Asian crisis in 1971, the White House stood firmly behind Pakistani president Yahya Khan and demonstrated a disdain for India and particularly its leader, [[Indira Gandhi]], because of India's tilt or favoritism towards the Soviet Union. Kissinger had disdain for India and was using Pakistan as a tool to reach China, which he considered much more important to the U.S.

Khan's administration was responding to an insurrection launched by Communist guerillas (the ''Awami League''), armed with Indian weapons and demanding independence for East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), with a massive campaign of violence dubbed "''Operation Searchlight.''" India was exploiting these internal tensions within Pakistan as part of a divide-and-rule strategy; it hoped for Pakistan's division into smaller Indian proxy states that could be played against one another and it used the violence committed by Pakistani forces as a possible pretext for military intervention in Pakistani affairs.

Nixon relayed messages to Yahya, urging him to restrain Pakistani forces.<ref>Black, Conrad, Richard Nixon: A Life in Full (2007), p. 751.</ref> His objective was to prevent a war and safeguard Pakistan's interests, though he feared an Indian invasion of West Pakistan that would lead to Indian domination of the sub-continent and strengthen the position of the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,877618-2,00.html</ref> Similarly, Yahya Khan feared that an independent Bangladesh could lead to the disintegration of Pakistan. Indian military support for Bengali guerillas led to war between India and Pakistan.<ref>http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,878408,00.html</ref>

Nixon met with Indian Prime Minister [[Indira Gandhi]] and did not believe her assertion that she would not invade Pakistan;<ref>Black, Conrad (2007), p. 752</ref> he did not trust her and once referred to her as an "old witch". Kissinger maintained that Nixon made specific proposals to Gandhi on a solution for the crisis, some of which she heard for the first time; for example, mutual withdrawal of troops from the Indo-East Pakistan borders. Nixon also expressed a wish to fix a time limit with Yahya for political accommodation in East Pakistan. Nixon asserted that India could count on US endeavors to ease the crisis within a short time. But, both Kissinger and Gandhi aide Jayakar maintained, Gandhi did not respond to these proposals. Kissinger noted that she “listened to what was in fact one of Nixon's better presentations with aloof indifference” but “took up none of the points.” Jayakar pointed out that Gandhi listened to Nixon “without a single comment, creating an impregnable space so that no real contact was possible.” She also refrained from assuring that India would follow Pakistan's suit if it withdrew from India's borders. As a result, the main agenda was “dropped altogether.”<ref>Jayakar, Indira Gandhi, p. 232; Kissinger, White House Years, pp. 878 & 881-82.
</ref> On December 3, Yahya preemptively attacked the Indian Air Force and Gandhi retaliated, pushing into East Pakistan.<ref>Black, Conrad (2007), p. 753.</ref> Nixon issued a statement blaming Pakistan for starting the conflict and blaming India for escalating it, because he favored a cease-fire.<ref>Black, Conrad (2007), p. 755.</ref> The United States was secretly encouraging the shipment of military equipment from [[Iran]], [[Turkey]], and [[Jordan]] to Pakistan, reimbursing those countries despite Congressional objections.<ref>http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB79/</ref> The US used the threat of an aid cut-off to force Pakistan to back down, while its continued military aid to Islamabad prevented India from launching incursions deeper into the country. A cease fire was reached on December 16, leading to the creation of the independent state of [[Bangladesh]]. Sheikh Mujib led the newly established People's Republic of Bangladesh as a one-party, dictatorial state.

A 2008 study in the ''British Medical Journal'' concluded that 269,000 civilians were killed by all sides in the war.<ref>http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/269000_died_in_Bangladesh_war/articleshow/3147513.cms</ref> Reportedly, as many as 200,000 Bengali women were raped.

The US remained hostile to the Mujib regime, and considered Mujib himself to be a demagogue. His government's mismanagement of food grain stocks ultimately caused a massive famine in Bangladesh from March to December 1974, leading to the death of more than one million people. During this famine, Mujib rejected food aid from the United States and exported food to [[Cuba]]. By the time Mujib agreed to end support for Cuba, and the US began shipments of food to Bangladesh, it was 'too late for famine victims'.<ref>http://www.indiatogether.org/agriculture/opinions/dsharma/faminecommerce.htm</ref> In addition, his regime committed widespread human rights violations and tortured and executed thousands of dissidents. Nixon and Kissinger argued that these atrocities were far worse than anything Pakistan had committed in Bangladesh.

===Africa===
In the Angolan Civil War, the Communist MPLA (''People's Movement for the Liberation of [[Angola]]'') government was pitted against various right-wing insurgencies as well as an invasion from [[South Africa]]. The CIA covertly attempted to overthrow the MPLA dictatorship in 1975,<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c35COXObeo8&feature=fvw Former CIA head in Angola discusses the operation on CNN</ref> but Cuba militarily intervened to save the regime from certain collapse. The Communist government subsequently killed up to one million people through massacre and forced starvation.<ref>Médecins Sans Frontières, “Angola: An Alarming Nutritional Situation,” August 1999</ref> The U.S., advised by Kissinger, supported the rebels FNLA (''National Front for the Liberation of Angola''), led by Holden Roberto, and UNITA (''National Union for the Total Independence of Angola''), led by [[Jonas Savimbi]], as well as the ''Mozambican National Resistance'' (RENAMO), and the invasion of Angola by South African troops. The FNLA was defeated and UNITA was forced to take its fight into the bush. Only under Reagan's presidency would U.S. support for UNITA return. (See [[Reagan Doctrine]])

Angola would be plagued for decades with constant civil war. In 1992, blatantly rigged elections were held with next to no international supervision, in which MPLA claimed victory. After 500,000 UNITA voters were disenfranchised, UNITA sent a peace delegation to the capital; all of its members, along with 20,000 civilian supporters, were brutally massacred.<ref>National Society for Human Rights, Ending the Angolan Conflict, Windhoek, Namibia, July 3, 2000</ref> Nevertheless, Savimbi remained supportive of the elections, until the MPLA systematically exterminated many tens of thousands of UNITA supporters throughout the country. Human rights observers have accused the MPLA of "genocidal atrocities," "systematic extermination," "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity."<ref>Namibia's National Human Rights Organisation, Press Releases, September 12, 2000, May 16, 2001</ref>

The Democrats in Congress cut off aid to UNITA under President Ford, just as they abandoned South Vietnam and Cambodia to murderous Communist bloodbath. "''A great nation cannot escape its responsibilities,''" Ford admonished them. Emboldened, Cuba would soon militarily intervene on behalf of the Communist dictatorship in [[Ethiopia]], which killed 1.25 million people through massacre and forced starvation.<ref>Washington Post, March 18, 1978; New York Times, December 14, 1994.</ref>

The Nixon White House staunchly opposed the maniacal tyrant [[Idi Amin]] of [[Uganda]], who slaughtered 100-500,000 innocent people and ethnically cleansed<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/7/newsid_2492000/2492333.stm</ref> Uganda of all Asians. Amin was armed almost exclusively by the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Libya]]. The US urged Americans to evacuate the country, and began developing contingency plans to combat the regime's threatening posture in 1972.<ref>http://www.paperlessarchives.com/idi_amin.html</ref> Ambassador Thomas P. Melady described the Amin regime as "racist, erratic, brutal, inept, bellicose, irrational, ridiculous, militaristic, and, above all, xenophobic."<ref>http://www.paperlessarchives.com/idi_amin.html</ref> The British, fearful of a massacre, sought American help in preparing the logistics for an evacuation of the 7,000 British subjects in the country, should it prove neccessary.<ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,906445-3,00.html</ref> Kissinger and Nixon agreed. On September 24, 1972, they had the following conversation:

: '''Nixon''': Isn’t a person a person, goddamnit? You know, they talk about Vietnam, ‘these people far away that we don’t know,’ and you remember Chamberlain talking about the Czechs, that they’re far away and we don’t know them very well? Well, goddamnit, people are people! … I’m getting tired of this business of letting these Africans beat a hundred thousand people to death and do nothing about it.
: '''Kissinger''': And all these bleeding hearts in this country who say we like to kill yellow people…
: '''Nixon''': That’s right!
: '''Kissinger''': There haven’t been as many killed [by the US military] in eight years of the war than were killed in three months in Burundi.
: '''Nixon''': …They’re talking about how many we have bombed in the North. And I told your staff to get the figures for me: How many South Vietnamese or anti-Communist North Vietnamese have been killed by the North Vietnamese government? Civilians! How many? It’s ''unbelievable''! Nobody gives a damn! … We need a new African policy. We shouldn’t have 42 ambassadors to these goddamn countries. Looking at Uganda, ''of course'' we have to help those 7,000 people!<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kph0lygo40</ref>

Amin was deposed by the armed forces of [[Tanzania]] on April 11, 1979.

===South East Asia===
Vietnam fought three more wars after 1975 and armed Communist insurgencies with billions of dollars in an attempt to overrun [[Thailand]] and [[Malaysia]].<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/hoan1.pdf</ref> To combat this dangerous expansionism, Kissinger closely aligned the United States with anti-Communist nations in the area, such as [[Suharto]]'s [[Indonesia]], which was once described as ''the greatest prize in Asia.'' As tens of thousands fled a Communist take-over in the small island of [[East Timor]] under horrible conditions following a civil war that resulted in the death or displacement of 9,000 individuals; Ford and Kissinger gave Suharto their approval to annex East Timor and remove the Soviet-backed Communist government.<ref>http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/doc4.pdf</ref> Over the 24-year occupation; some 140,000<ref>http://www.cavr-timorleste.org/en/Brief.htm</ref> East Timorese soldiers and civilians were killed by all sides, out of a population of less than a million. In 1975, 49% of all violent killings in East Timor were the work of the Communist (FRETELIN) resistance.<ref>http://www.ictj.org/static/Timor.CAVR.English/07.2_Unlawful_Killings_and_Enforced_Disappearances.pdf</ref> Although Congress wanted to stop arm sales to Indonesia, the Ford administration manipulated them by agreeing to an aid cut-off that was never actually implemented. In his own words, "Kissinger overruled his pristine bureaucrats and violated the law."<ref>http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/#29</ref>

Kissinger also worked to maintain good relations with [[Thailand]]. In order to prevent Communist hegemony in the area, he sought to deliberately provoke tension between the Vietnamese Stalinists and their Maoist comrades in Phnom Penh. In a 1975 meeting, he told Thailand's foreign minister: "We don't mind Chinese influence in Cambodia to balance North Vietnam. As I told the Chinese when we last met when we were discussing the Vietnamese victory in Indochina, it is possible to have an ideological victory which is a geopolitical defeat. The Chinese did not disagree with me."<ref>http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/kissinger_chatichai.htm</ref>

In the end, Vietnam invaded and occupied Cambodia for more than a decade (killing many hundreds of thousands in the process<ref>http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP4.HTM</ref>). Bogged down in an endless guerilla war regularly dubbed ''Vietnam's Vietnam'' in the American press, Communist Vietnam was unable to advance its expansionist objectives abroad; as a result, no more dominos fell in the area.

===Personal Advice to Nixon===
In an April 17, 1973 conversation, Nixon told Kissinger that he was considering whether or not to resign and let [[Spiro Agnew]] take the Presidency, to which Kissinger responded: "''With all due respect, Mr. President, that is out of the question. That cannot be considered....Why should you do it? What good would it do? Whom would it help? It wouldn’t help the country; it wouldn’t help any of the individuals involved….and, of course, it would be personally unjust.''" He also asked him to consider what it would do to weaken the institution of the Presidency.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri3He6n1Dv4</ref>

===Losing power===
Despite his real accomplishments, Kissinger's tenure was marked by much controversy. Revelations of his knowledge of Nixon's secret bombings in [[Cambodia]] in 1969 and the U.S. ground invasion of Cambodia in 1970 stirred particularly strong hatreds on the left, as did later discoveries that he had authorized wiretaps aimed at stopping leaks of classified information.

Much more serious, however, was the attack from the right by Ronald Reagan, who rejected détente with the Soviets as a viable strategy, warning that the Soviets would see it as a sign of American weaknesses and mobilize its Third World allies to subvert pro-American governments wherever it could and expand Soviet influence. Reagan's analysis proved correct and Ford was forced to reduce Kissinger's role, taking away in 1975 Kissinger's double role as National Security Advisor.

In 1976 Ford was challenged by [[Ronald Reagan]] for the GOP nomination. Ford won a very long, close and intensely fought battle. Attacks on détente policy was the focus of Reagan's campaign as the GOP moved to the right on foreign policy. President [[Jimmy Carter]], however, did not recognize the failure of détente until the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1979 destroyed that policy and reopened the [[Cold War]] at a more intense level.

Kissinger remained on as secretary of state until the end of the Ford term in January 1977.

==Retirement==
Out of office Kissinger became a highly visible corporate consultant on world affairs, and wrote his detailed and insightful memoirs. His advice has been sought out by every President since his retirement, and he was one of President [[George W. Bush]]'s most-frequent advisors on the [[Iraq War]]. He also helped design the Bush administration's opening to [[India]] in the wake of the War on Terror.

Kissinger has met with Russian leader [[Vladimir Putin]] on several occasions in an attempt to buttress US-Russian relations. Noting that the US has no border with Russia nor designs on Russian territory, as well as Russia's frontiers with both the Islamic world and China; Kissinger believes that the United States and Russia have compatible interests.<ref>http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/personoftheyear/article/0,28804,1690753_1690757_1691285-1,00.html></ref> He is apparently well-liked by some in the Russian press.<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/world/europe/07russiasumm.html?_r=1 Although Russian TV calls him a "war criminal" due to his imaginary crimes in Vietnam and Cambodia.</ref>

Kissinger has strongly supported the foreign policy of President Bush, writing:

<blockquote>
Extraordinary advances of democracy have occurred in recent months: elections in Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, and Palestine; local elections in Saudi Arabia; Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon; the opening up of the presidential election in Egypt; and upheavals against entrenched authoritarians in Kyrgyzstan. This welcome trend was partly triggered by President Bush’s Middle East policy and accelerated by his second inaugural address, which elevated the progress of freedom in the world to the defining objective of U.S. foreign policy.

Pundits have interpreted these events as a victory of “idealists” over “realists” in the debate over conduct of American foreign policy. In fact, the United States is probably the only country in which “realist” can be used as a pejorative epithet. No serious realist should claim that power is its own justification. No idealist should imply that power is irrelevant to the spread of ideals. The real issue is to establish a sense of proportion between these two essential elements of policy. Overemphasis of either leads to stagnation or overextension.<ref>http://www.henryakissinger.com/articles/wp051605.html</ref>
</blockquote>

He added in a seperate piece:
<blockquote>
President Bush's visit has brought relations between India and the United States to an unprecedented level of cooperation and interdependence, which promises to make a seminal contribution to international peace and prosperity.
</blockquote>

Kissinger believes that the consequences of defeat in Iraq would be worse than the consequences of defeat in Vietnam.<ref>http://www.henryakissinger.com/interviews/FinancialTimes240508.html</ref>

Kissinger returned to teaching for a time after he left office, and today gives eloquent lectures and speeches across the United States. He has appeared regularly on a wide range of television stations to offer his insight, and frequently contributes editorials to newspapers.<ref>http://www.henryakissinger.com/articles.html</ref> Conrad Black has praised Kissinger as "a political memoirist surpassed, if at all, only by [[Winston Churchill]] and [[Charles de Gaulle]]."

Kissinger delivered a beautiful and heartfelt eulogy for President Ford at his 2007 funeral.<ref>http://www.henryakissinger.com/eulogies/010207.html</ref>

Throughout his life, Kissinger has enjoyed long-standing friendships with such notables as Katherine Graham, Walt Wriston, Beverly Sills, Bill Paley, Hans Morgenthau, Fritz Kraemer, Ahmet Ertegun, Sir James Goldsmith, Marion Dönhoff, Gianni Agnelli, John Aspinall, Rudolf Augstein, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., John McCain, [[Mohammed Reza Pahlavi]],<ref>http://www.henryakissinger.com/interviews/FinancialTimes240508.html</ref> Anatoly Dobrynin and Bill and Pat Buckley.

Kissinger is a fan of [[soccer]].<ref>http://www.henryakissinger.com/articles/nw061206.html</ref>

In the wake of the 2008-9 financial crisis, Kissinger wrote:
<blockquote>
A major cause of the crisis has been the gap between the economic and the political organization of the world. The economic world has been globalized. Its institutions have a global reach and have operated by maxims that assumed a self-regulating global market. The financial collapse exposed the mirage. It made evident the absence of global institutions to cushion the shock and to reverse the trend. Inevitably, when the affected publics turned to their national political institutions, these were driven principally by domestic politics, not considerations of world order. Every major country has attempted to solve its immediate problems essentially on its own and to defer common action to a later, less crisis-driven point. So-called rescue packages have emerged on a piecemeal national basis, generally by substituting seemingly unlimited governmental credit for the domestic credit that produced the debacle in the first place, so far without achieving more than stemming incipient panic. International order will not come about either in the political or economic field until there emerge general rules toward which countries can orient themselves.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
All these urgent issues are taking place against a background of a historic shift of the center of gravity of world affairs from the Atlantic to the Pacific and Indian Oceans. But there are much fewer trans-Pacific institutional ties with America than exist in the Atlantic. This raises the danger that, over time, the regions will confront each other as strategic and economic adversaries. The emergence of a new regional mercantilism and strategic confrontation by groups possessing large numbers of weapons of mass destruction needs to be resisted. This is why the U.S. relationship with China is so central. A relationship that started on both sides as essentially a strategic design to constrain a common adversary has evolved over the decades into a pillar of the international system. China made possible the American consumption splurge by buying American debt; America helped the modernization and reform of the Chinese economy by opening its markets to Chinese goods. Each side of the Pacific needs the cooperation of the other in addressing the consequences of the financial crisis.<ref>http://www.henryakissinger.com/articles/iht011209.html</ref>
</blockquote>

==Image and reputation==
Kissinger was loathed by some liberals who viewed him as a war criminal<ref>http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0611-03.htm</ref> and criticized by hardliners for [[detente]]. Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for pulling the United States out of Vietnam.

Kissinger was a Machiavellian figure, skilled at manipulating people around him and currying favor in the media. At one point he admitted allowing secret wiretapping of his own aides' conversations.<ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907332,00.html?promoid=googlep</ref> The aura of Kissinger's influence was due partly to a cultivated image of high intelligence, including a PhD degree from Harvard University. He has been called "the only European-style realist" to head US foreign policy.

===Major Controversies===
Kissinger advised both the Johnson administration and the Nixon campaign during the hotly contested 1968 Presidential election. He gave detailed analysis to both sides, without revealing to Johnson his contacts in the Nixon team. Johnson's preferred candidate, [[Hubert Humphrey]], used the possibility of a peace accord in Vietnam to gain a short-lived boost in the polls. The Nixon campaign told the South Vietnamese "''hold on, we're going to win,''" according to the FBI, indicating that they should refrain from consenting to the accords because a Nixon White House could offer them a better deal. Although Kissinger did not play a direct role in relaying this message, his critics charge that the inside knowledge he shared with the Nixon team informed them as to the very real possibility of a settlement in Vietnam--a settlement that might have proven politically problematic. The South Vietnamese, of course, rejected the proposal, which would have amounted to a six-month armistice before the North renewed its invasion. But critics claim that without Nixon, egged on by Kissinger, egging them on; they might have acquiesced to surrender.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7slAt9PIH0&feature=fvw Link on Youtube to the relevant part of BBC's cheap propaganda "documentary" ''The Trials of Henry Kissinger.''</ref>

Kissinger was also accused of intentionally abandoning South Vietnam to Communist forces, the accusation which probably hurts him most today. He responded to this charge as follows:
<blockquote>
When Nixon came into office, there were more than 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam, and the number was still increasing. The official position of the Johnson administration had been that American withdrawal would only start six months after a North Vietnamese withdrawal. The "dove" platform of Sens. Robert Kennedy and George McGovern, which was rejected by the Democratic National Convention of 1968, advocated mutual withdrawal. No significant group at that time advocated unilateral withdrawal.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
A diplomatic alternative did not exist. Hanoi insisted that to obtain a cease-fire the United States had to meet two preconditions: First, it had to overthrow the South Vietnamese government, disband its police and army, and replace it with a Communist-dominated government. Second, the United States had to establish an unconditional timetable for withdrawal of its forces, to be carried out regardless of what happened in subsequent negotiations or how long these might last. The presence of North Vietnamese troops in Laos and Cambodia was declared not an appropriate subject for negotiations.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Given the horrors that occurred when the Communists took over Indochina in 1975, it must be said that Nixon correctly summed up the choices before him when he rejected the 1969 terms.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
When negotiations stalemated, the Nixon administration moved to implement what could be done unilaterally without undermining the political structure of South Vietnam. Between 1969 and 1972, it withdrew 515,000 American troops, ended American ground combat in 1971 and reduced American casualties by nearly 90 percent.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
In Vietnam, a breakthrough occurred in 1972 because the administration's strategic design finally came together in its retaliation for the all-out North Vietnamese spring offensive. When the United States mined North Vietnam's harbors, Hanoi found itself isolated because, as a result of the opening to China in 1971 and the summit in 1972, Beijing and the Soviet Union stood aside. Hanoi's offensive was defeated on the ground entirely by South Vietnamese forces assisted by U.S. air power.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Faced with a military setback and diplomatic isolation, Le Duc Tho, Hanoi's principal negotiator, abandoned Hanoi's 1969 terms in October 1972. He accepted conditions publicly put forward by President Nixon in January 1972 - and decried as unachievable in the American domestic debate. He said that "this new proposal is exactly what President Nixon has himself proposed: cease-fire, end of the war, release of the prisoners and troop withdrawal, and we propose a number of principles on political problems. You have also proposed this. And we shall leave to the South Vietnamese parties the settlement of these questions."
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
American disunity was the major factor in dashing these hopes.<ref>http://www.henryakissinger.com/articles/wp061107.html</ref></blockquote>

Kissinger has also been accused of an alleged lack of transparency. He has responded by donating all of his personal papers to the [[Library of Congress]] for posterity. He recently released some 20,000 pages of transcripts of his private conversations with various world leaders.<ref>http://staff.lib.msu.edu/harris23/red_tape/o&e0404.htm#kissenger</ref> Such transcripts were the basis for his 2003 book on foreign policy, ''Crisis.''

Chilean author Joaquín Fermandois, noting the meetings with Chilean generals in which the US encouraged a potential coup, concluded that the US "wanted Allende out" and that the notion of free elections being held subsequently was not a prerequisite, but simply one possible outcome (i.e., if the Allessandri plot worked). He wrote: "What they wanted was to prevent Allende from coming to power, if necessary by the intervention of the military."<ref>www.cepchile.cl/dms/archivo_3236_1698/r92_fermandois_ing.pdf Translated from Spanish; ''Commentary'' accepts at face value the idea that an "interim junta" would have voluntarily stepped down and held new elections after a few days if the military had intervened; but Fermandois points out that "few believe this to be so" and expresses his own doubts about the thesis; Fermandois writes that the Americans did ''not'' "see all this as a way towards a new election"--but obviously, the attempts to influence the 1970 election and the aid to Chilean dissidents in its aftermath could not have served another purpose, and the attempt to buy off the Congress so that it would vote differently could not have imposed dictatorship (indeed, it would have saved Chilean democracy along with thousands of Chilean lives). However, the CIA's encouragement of a military coup, he is right to say, could not have served the purpose of holding elections, except in that it would remove Allende. But Fermandois acknowledges that despite the repeated encouragement, the US steadfastly refused any material support of its own for such a scheme. His point is far from profound: When the CIA sends messages like "it is firm and continuing policy that Allende be overthrown by a coup," it is not referring merely to a constitutional coup. However, it does make a moral difference if the US is only encouraging such a coup as a last resort, and against a Communist dictator, and without offering the plotters material aid.</ref> However, considering the involvement of Cuba, Russia, Brazil and other powers at the same time, he discusses whether or not this support was "moral, immoral, or amoral," concluding that the CIA was unable to make a serious difference and that Chile illustrates the tragic irony of "the myth of American omnipotence." The conflict was an internal civil war, and one should not be surprised to see foreign powers involve themselves in it; the notion that "the CIA was behind everything," he says, is simply a myth. (In fact, the Soviet Union and the United States were the two powers that both refused, unlike Brazil and Cuba, to materially assist plans to establish a dictatorial regime in Chile.) While Fermandois condemns the violence perpetrated by the Allende regime, including the illegal armed regiment from Cuba, he argues that it is as mythical to assert that it justified Pinochet's excesses as it is to call Allende a typical democratic leftist.<ref>Ibid.</ref> One supposes that the ''realist'' response to all this would be that if they're planning a coup either way; we might as well intervene against our possible foes and encourage our potential friends, as long as we don't materially assist the gambit (especially if one has already tried and failed to remove the de facto dictator through democratic means). Kissinger simply recognized the possibility that a military coup might be the ''least bad'' outcome; as a bad outcome, the United States could not play a role in the plot.

In 1976, Kissinger "declined to approve" that a letter be sent to Chile warning them against carrying out any political assassinations.<ref>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/04/10/cable_ties_kissinger_to_chile_controversy/</ref> In an Aug. 30, 1976 memo, Shlaudeman discussed the possibility that the U.S. ambassador in Uruguay might be endangered by delivering a warning against assassination. The U.S. ambassador to Chile said that Pinochet might take as an insult any inference that he was connected with assassination plots.<ref>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/04/10/cable_ties_kissinger_to_chile_controversy/</ref> When the CIA learned about the Chilean plan to set up a covert office in Miami as part of Chile's overseas operations in 1974, however, Kissinger did authorize the CIA to send the Chilean Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA) a warning not to go ahead with the plan. He rejected the State Department's proposal to publicly rebuke Chile on the matter. As a result, the Chileans backed down.<ref>http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Kissinger+DECLASSIFIED.(document+shows+Secretary+of+State+supported...-a054468923</ref> Kissinger's decision not to send the letter is considered a subject of controversy because Chile was engaging in a spree of international murders at the time (the day the letter was to be sent, a Pinochet critic was assassinated in [[Washington, D.C.]]).<ref>http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/04/10/cable_ties_kissinger_to_chile_controversy/</ref>

Kissinger's alleged warm support of Pinochet is without much basis in fact; Kissinger and Ford began viewing Pinochet's regime as a serious Cold War liability as early as 1975 and the US engaged in repeated diplomatic confrontations with it from 1977 on.<ref>www.cepchile.cl/dms/archivo_3236_1698/r92_fermandois_ing.pdf Translated from Spanish</ref> The CIA warned that "internationally, the Latin generals look like our guys;" therefore, the US had a vested interest in moderating the way they behaved.

The moderate left-wing extremist [[Christopher Hitchens]] has accused Kissinger of bad faith, describing him as a "toady" of Nixon who "knows what to do" without "being asked." He has also condemned Kissinger's business ties with Indonesia, arguing that they influenced the US "tilt" in favor of Suharto during the war in East Timor.<ref>http://www.etan.org/et2002a/february/01-09/09ksngr.htm</ref> In a general sense, Kissinger responded to these and similar charges by stating:
<blockquote>
When I was a young professor in the fifties at Harvard, where 99.9% of the people on the faculty were Democrats—I can remember only one Republican that I knew—the people in political science had faculty meetings…No one ever attacked the government for being a criminal activity. Nobody said, ‘they like to go to war; they’re blood-dripping!’ Sometime in the sixties, the idea developed that the government itself was an evil enterprise, that they lied professionally to the American people, and that the purpose of intellectuals was to negate the government rather than be constructive...Everybody working in government goes through the long hours and all the other pressures [associated with the job] because he or she would like to make a contribution to a better world.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9vsCD0j3Ys</ref>
</blockquote>

''Contra'' Hitchens, Kissinger attempted to resign from the Nixon White House on at least three separate occasions<ref>http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907332,00.html?promoid=googlep</ref>--not exactly the sort of thing one would expect from a "toady."

Conrad Black has written that "Kissinger has sincere compassion for the victims of the grinding wheels of history," although "he tends to take his distance from the beleaguered...during their ordeals." On Vietnam, he maintains that Kissinger "toiled demiurgically for the war's end without a disaster, and his anger [at the Democrats and the media] is real and earned." The "claims of the demented left," that he committed "crimes against Cambodia or Chile" are "bunk."

===The Schneider Affair===
The main controversy over the American role in Chile was an alleged attempt on the life of Chilean general Rene Schneider in 1970, due to his support for the appointment of Allende. The Church hearings found that the CIA did in fact give weapons to a group of men who it knew had attacked him twice before, ostensibly as a test of loyalty so that the CIA would remain privy to their information, but that the weapons provided and the group thereby armed were not the ones who actually killed him. The weapons were returned unused to the CIA and then discarded in the Pacific Ocean.<ref>http://www.history-matters.com/archive/church/reports/ir/html/ChurchIR_0120a.htm</ref><ref>http://archive.frontpagemag.com/Printable.aspx?ArtId=15648</ref> Schneider was assassinated by a rival group of right-wing extremists.<ref>http://www.history-matters.com/archive/church/reports/ir/html/ChurchIR_0120a.htm</ref> On June 11, 1971, Kissinger and Nixon said the following in a private conversation:

: '''Kissinger''': —when they did try to assassinate somebody, it took three attempts—
: '''Nixon''': Yeah.
: '''Kissinger''': —and he lived for three weeks afterwards.<ref>http://blog.washingtonpost.com/spy-talk/2010/07/nixon_tape_reveals_oval_office.html</ref>

There are two possible interpretations of these remarks: a) Kissinger was telling the President that a military coup could not succeed in Chile because there were no officers both willing and ''able'' to carry one out; or b) the two men were mocking the CIA's squeamishness about killing Schneider.

According to ''Commentary,'' however, regardless of what they said in the aftermath (quoting from the Nixon Tapes):
<blockquote>
"Kissinger seems to have been unaware of the plot...Karamassines phoned the National Security Adviser who asked if he "cleared everything in advance with you. He said no, you were too busy." In the same private conversation, Kissinger remarks that, although he did not know about the second plot, he might have approved it. Then he adds: "I thought that after we turned off that one thing [the Viaux plot], nothing more had happened and in fact that other thing [the Schneider kidnapping] had happened."<ref>http://archive.frontpagemag.com/Printable.aspx?ArtId=15648</ref>
</blockquote>

Fermandois argues that not only did the CIA not play a role in his death, it never intended to. He argues that the CIA was quite shocked and caught completely by surprise at the news of Schneider's death: "We can see the desperation in the comments of the agents in Chile because they cannot control events. The history of those sixty days is an example of North American impotence, at least if we understand it as Washington manipulating events. All this has a somewhat macabre colophon. When Schneider was wounded in the kidnapping attempt (he died three days later), the agents in Chile believed that the coup was unfolding, since in the new state of affairs General Valenzuela was effectively the new head."<ref>www.cepchile.cl/dms/archivo_3236_1698/r92_fermandois_ing.pdf</ref>

Hitchens, (who has praised the "valiant guerillas" of the Viet Cong and who openly admires [[Vladimir Lenin]]) has gone further than most in his condemnation of Kissinger (he is renowned for his use of hyperbole). Although he acknowledges that the US refused to directly assist any military coup against Allende and instead sought to influence the Chilean Congress; he nevertheless asserts that Kissinger attempted to ''orchestrate'' a military coup against the Chilean government in 1970. He generates this conclusion by stating that the CIA attempted to kill Schneider in 1970; it planned to make his death appear to be the work of left-wing terrorists; it hoped that this would "inspire" the Chilean military to intervene against Allende; and Kissinger was directly and personally involved in approving all of these operations.<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/feb/24/pinochet.bookextracts Hitchens' citation-free rants contain many distortions, such as the idea that the CIA put a $50,000 tag on Schneider's head (this is not supported by the Church hearings) or the absolutely ridiculous claims he makes on Cyprus by delibrately misquoting Kissinger--so read at your own peril.</ref> Kissinger has refused to debate with Hitchens, saying "''I'm not going to deal with Christopher Hitchens,''" while his colleague [[Alexander Haig]] has called Hitchens "''a sewer pipe-sucker.''"

The death of Schneider had the opposite effect of what was intended by the Nixon administration--even as the CIA worked to buy off the Congress so as to prevent Allende's appointment, it ensured that the nation would rally behind the otherwise polarizing leader.

==Evaluation==
A smooth-talking, charming ''bon vivant,'' Kissinger was an international celebrity in high society, with the opposite personality of Nixon, yet they made a remarkably effective team with surprisingly little friction. They thought alike, and both could conceptualize and make plans for the complex interactions of international affairs. Neither was interested in economics, and only Nixon mastered the nitty gritty of politics and elections, while only Kissinger understood nuclear strategy.

Kissinger and Nixon were "realists" who deemphasized idealistic goals like anti-communism or promotion of democracy worldwide, because those goals were seen as too expensive in terms of America's economic capabilities. Instead of a Cold War they wanted peace, trade and cultural exchanges. Instead Nixon and Kissinger sought to downsize America's global commitments in proportion to its reduced economic, moral and political power. They rejected "idealism" as impractical and too expensive; neither man showed much sensitivity to the plight of people living under Communism. Kissinger's realism fell out of fashion as idealism returned to American foreign policy with Carter's moralism emphasizing human rights, and Reagan's rollback strategy aimed at destroying Communism.

==Bibliography==

*Black, Conrad. ''Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full,'' PublicAffairs (2007), includes lengthy analysis of foreign policy.
* Bundy, William P. ''A Tangled Web: The Making of Foreign Policy in the Nixon Presidency'' (1998) [http://www.amazon.com/Tangled-Web-Making-Foreign-Presidency/dp/186064273X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215175404&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
* Dallek, Robert. ''Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power'' (2007) [http://www.amazon.com/Nixon-Kissinger-Partners-Robert-Dallek/dp/0060722312/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211577632&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search], dual biography by leading scholar; hostile
* Garthoff, Raymond L. ''Detente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations from Nixon to Reagan '' (2nd ed. 1994) [http://www.amazon.com/Detente-Confrontation-American-Soviet-Relations-Reagan/dp/0815730411/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215175809&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search], favorable analysis by proponent of detente
* Goh, Evelyn. ''Constructing the U.S. Rapprochement with China, 1961-1974: From "Red Menace" to "Tacit Ally."'' (2005). 299 pp.
* Goh, Evelyn. "Nixon, Kissinger, and the 'Soviet Card' in the U.S. Opening to China, 1971-1974." ''Diplomatic History'' 2005 29(3): 475-502. Issn: 0145-2096 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]
* Hanhimäki, Jussi M. "'Dr. Kissinger' or 'Mr. Henry'? Kissingerology, Thirty Years and Counting." ''Diplomatic History'' 2003 27(5): 637-676 full text at [[EBSCO]]
* Hanhimäki, Jussi M. "Ironies and Turning Points: Détente in Perspective," in Odd Arne Westad, ed. ''Reviewing the Cold War: Approaches, Interpretations, Theory'' (2000), pp 326-42; [http://www.amazon.com/Reviewing-Cold-War-Approaches-Interpretations/dp/0714681202/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1215175936&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
*Horne, Alistair. "Kissinger: 1973, The Crucial Year" (2009); one of the best books on the man.
* Isaacson, Walter. ''Kissinger'' (1992); a major biography [http://www.amazon.com/Kissinger-Biography-Walter-Isaacson/dp/0743286979/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211577598&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Kuklick, Bruce. ''Blind Oracles: Intellectuals and War from Kennan to Kissinger.'' (2006). 241 pp. says nearly everyone with substantial academic credentials in the early Cold War decades was wrong nearly all the time.
* Litwak, Robert S. ''Détente and the Nixon Doctrine: American Foreign Policy and the Pursuit of Stability, 1969-1976'' (1986)
* Macmillan, Margaret. ''Nixon and Mao: The Week That Changed the World'' (2008)
* Mann, James. ''About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, from Nixon to Clinton'' (1999).
* Nelson, Keith L. ''The Making of Détente: Soviet-American Relations in the Shadow of Vietnam'' (1995)
* Qureshi, Lubna Zakia. "''"Nixon, Kissinger, and Allende: U.S. Involvement in the 1973 Coup in Chile'' (2009)
* Rodman, Peter. ''Presidential Command: Power, Leadership, and the Making of Foreign Policy from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush,'' Knopf (2009).
* Ross, Robert S. ''Negotiating Cooperation: The United States and China, 1969-1989,'' Stanford University Press, 1995 [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=92018683 online edition]
* Schulzinger, Robert D. ''Henry Kissinger: Doctor of Diplomacy.'' (1989).
* Serewicz, Lawrence W. ''America at the Brink of Empire: Rusk, Kissinger, And the Vietnam War'' (2007), stresses commitment to [[republicanism]] [http://www.amazon.com/America-Brink-Empire-Kissinger-Traditions/dp/0807131792/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211741669&sr=8-6 excerpt and text search]; [http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=175941177686117 online review]
* Suri, Jeremi. ''Henry Kissinger and the American Century'' (2007), intellectual biography focused on pre-1969
* Tucker, Nancy Bernkopf. "Taiwan Expendable? Nixon and Kissinger Go to China." ''Journal of American History'' 2005 92(1): 109-135. [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/92.1/tucker.html in History Cooperative]
* Warner, Geoffrey. "Nixon, Kissinger and the Rapprochement with China, 1969-1972." ''International Affairs'' 2007 83(4): 763-781. Issn: 0020-5850 Fulltext: [[Ebsco]]
* Willbanks, James H. ''Abandoning Vietnam: How America Left and South Vietnam Lost Its War'' (2004) [http://www.amazon.com/Abandoning-Vietnam-America-Left-South/dp/0700613315/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211741669&sr=8-15 excerpt and text search]

===Primary Sources===
* Kissinger, Henry. ''White House Years'' (1979). Nov. 1968-Jan. 1973; ''Years of Upheaval'' (1982). Jan. 1973 to Aug. 1974; ''Years of Renewal'' (1999), Aug. 1974 to Jan. 1977 [http://www.amazon.com/Years-Renewal-Henry-Kissinger/dp/075675383X/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211577632&sr=8-16 excerpt and text search vol 3]
* Kissinger, Henry. "The Conservative Dilemma: Reflections on the Political Thought of Metternich" ''The American Political Science Review,'' Vol. 48, No. 4 (Dec., 1954), pp. 1017-1030 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1951008 in JSTOR]
* Kissinger, Henry. "The Congress of Vienna: A Reappraisal," ''World Politics,'' Vol. 8, No. 2 (Jan., 1956), pp. 264-280 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2008974 in JSTOR]
* Kissinger, Henry. ''A World Restored: Metternich, Castlereagh and the Problems of Peace 1812-22.'' (1957), his revised PhD dissertation.
* Kissinger, Henry. "Acceptance Speech" for The Nobel Peace Prize 1973 [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1973/kissinger-acceptance.html online edition]
* Kissinger, Henry. "Address to the Sixth Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly," ''International Organization,'' Vol. 28, No. 3 (Summer, 1974), pp. 573-583 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2706310 in JSTOR]
* Kissinger, Henry. ''American Foreign Policy'' (3rd ed. 1977), his speeches
* Kissinger, Henry. "The Kissinger Commission on Population and Development in Central America," ''Population and Development Review,'' Vol. 10, No. 2 (Jun., 1984), pp. 381-389 [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1973103 in JSTOR]
* Kissinger, Henry. ''Diplomacy'' (1994) an interpretive history since 1815
* Kissinger, Henry. ''Ending the Vietnam War: A History of America's Involvement in and Extrication from the Vietnam War'' (2003) [http://www.amazon.com/Ending-Vietnam-War-Involvement-Extrication/dp/074321532X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211741669&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
* Haldeman, H. R. ''The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House'' (1994)
* Nixon, Richard. ''RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon'' (1981) [http://www.amazon.com/RN-Memoirs-Richard-Nixon/dp/0671707418/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211577855&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]

==Online sources==
* [http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB106/index.htm William Burr, ed. "Nixon's Trip to China Records now Completely Declassified, Including Kissinger Intelligence Briefing and Assurances on Taiwan" ''The National Security Archive'' (2003)]

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}
[[Category:Nobel laureates in Peace]]
[[Category:United States Secretaries of State]]
[[Category:Cold War]]
[[Category:United States History]]
{{DEFAULTSORT: Kissinger, Henry}}
[[category:diplomacy]]
[[Category:Vietnam War]]
[[Category:1960s]]
[[Category:Middle East]]

Barack Hussein Obama

2012-06-28T22:09:11Z

Pubjabi20: /* Early life */

{{Officeholder
|name=Barack Hussein Obama
|image=President Barack Obama.jpg
|party=[[Democratic Party]]
|spouse=[[Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama]]
|religion= potentially Christian, Muslim, may be Atheist
|offices=
{{Officeholder/president
|country=the United States
|number=44th
|terms=January 20, 2009-Present
|vp=[[Joe Biden]]
|preceded=[[George W. Bush]]
|former=n
|succeeded=
}}
{{Officeholder/senator
|state=Illinois
|terms=January 3, 2005 – November 16, 2008
|preceded=Peter Fitzgerald
|former=y
|succeeded=[[Roland Burris]]
}}
}}

'''Barack Hussein Obama II''', also known by the alias '''Barry Soetoro''' during his time in [[Indonesia]]<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQPXVJuT2vY Barry Soetoro the muslim - YouTube]</ref> (born August 4, 1961, in [[Hawaii]]) was elected the 44th President. Promoted heavily by [[liberals]], as demonstrated by his unjustified receipt of the 2009 [[Nobel Prize|Nobel Peace Prize]], Obama won the presidency despite a short and unremarkable political career by campaigning on promises of "hope" and "change" against his listless opponent [[John McCain]] in 2008. In effect, that change has been an embrace of [[socialism]] and [[liberal]] policies. Barack Obama has been widely criticized by the American [[business]] community and others for his anti-business policies that are killing American jobs during a period of high unemployment.<ref>
*[http://www.usnews.com/opinion/mzuckerman/articles/2010/07/16/obamas-anti-business-policies-are-our-economic-katrina Obama's Anti-business Policies are our Economic Katrina]
*[http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/619dvjlm.asp An Anti-Business President]
*[http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/08/small-businesses-are-not-hiring-why.html Small Businesses are not hiring. Why should they?]
*[http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/02/dear_mr_president_why_we_are_n.html Dear Mr. President: Why we are not hiring]
</ref> Former [[Democrat]] Presidential candidate [[Joe Lieberman]] endorsed Obama's opponent in 2008 and has declined to endorse [[Obama]] for the [[Presidential Election 2012]].<ref>http://thehill.com/video/campaign/222929-lieberman-declines-to-endorse-in-presidential-race</ref>

Under President Obama's mismanagement of the economy, the United States Government's credit rating has, for the first time in its history, been downgraded from AAA to AA+, and [[poverty]]<ref>http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/data/incpovhlth/2009/pov09fig04.pdf</ref> has increased markedly. By and large his policies to combat the recession, unemployment, slow growth, the deficit, and expanding [[national debt]], have failed.<ref>"The vast majority (73%) of respondents reported the fiscal stimulus enacted in February 2009 has had no impact on employment to date. While 68% also believe a jobs bill, such as the one recently enacted into law, will have no impact on payrolls, 30% do believe it will boost payrolls moderately". ''Industry Survey'', National Association for Business Economics, April 2010, [http://www.nabe.com/press/ind1004.pdf p. 2 pdf].</ref> Also on the domestic front, Obama passed an expensive [[health care]] bill in 2009 with no [[bipartisan]] support and 34 Democrats dissenting.

Fatalities in Afghanistan have more than doubled under Obama's leadership then in the preceding eight years combined, according to the Congressional Research Service <ref>[http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R41084.pdf (pg. 3 pdf)]</ref>. Against his own Defense Secretary's advice, Obama [[Libyan uprising 2011|attacked Libya]] - a possible violation of the [[War Powers Act]]. After he announced the killing of [[September 11th]] mastermind and terrorist [[Osama bin Laden]], the [[U.S. State Department]] warned of the increased risk to the lives and safety of Americans around the world.<ref>http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/national_world&id=8273909</ref> Bin Laden's death had negligible long term impact on Obama's approval ratings, as seen in Gallup's daily poll.<ref>http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/gallup-daily-obama-job-approval.aspx</ref>

Obama's bizarre gaffes are frequent and embarrassing, but typically unreported by the [[liberal media]]. Obama offended [[Poland]] by referring to the [[Nazi]] death camps there as "Polish death camps."<ref>http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/europe/230419-obama-letter-says-he-regrets-polish-death-camp-gaffe</ref> Later Obama apologized. When Obama visited [[England]] in 2011, he signed his name and added the date of "2008" -- the last time he won an election. He never explaned that one. When Obama read a speech from a teleprompter, as he almost always does, he repeatedly mispronounced the familiar military term of "corpsman" by sounding out the "p".

==Early life==
:''Main article : [[Early life and career of Barack Hussein Obama]]''
:''See also : [[Barack Obama's Muslim Heritage]]''
Obama [[Barack Obama's past dog meat eating and 2012 election campaign|ate dog meat]] as a child.

Obama claims to have been born in Hawaii to Stanley Ann Dunham and [[Barack Obama Sr.]] - who had married just six months prior - on August 4, 1961 in [[Honolulu, Hawaii]]. This story is likely a complete fabrication. After many leading conservatives including the leadership of this site and brilliant business man [[Donald Trump]] AKA "The Donald" called for Obama to release his birth certificate he did on April 27. Another [[American Hero]] Sheriff [[Joe Arpaio]] of Phoenix, AZ conducted a criminal investigation of the Obama's eligibility and alleged that the "birth certificate" was a fake; however, no charges have been filed.

Barack Obama Sr. was not a [[Natural born citizen|citizen of the United States]]. At the time of Obama's birth, Kenya was a British colony, meaning that Obama Sr not only held British citizenship, but passed it on to his son. When Kenya gained independence, Obama and his father both lost British citizenship and gained Kenyan citizenship. Barack Obama was a dual citizen of the United States and Kenya until his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired in 1984, as he had failed to renounce US nationality and swear loyalty to Kenya. Despite having been born with US citizenship through his mother, it has been argued that as he was born with dual nationality, he is not a natural-born citizen of the United States, and thus constitutionally ineligible to become President.

The couple divorced in 1964. Dunham remarried Lolo Soetoro, an [[Indonesia]]n student. When Obama was six, Soetoro returned to Indonesia, and Dunham and Obama followed.<ref name="db mother">{{cite web|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-05-03/a-singular-woman-by-janny-scott-review-by-stacy-schiff/#|work=The Daily Beast|format=HTML|language=English|title=Dreams of His Mother|author=Stacy Schiff}}</ref> He spent four years in Indonesia,<ref>[http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=obama%20ate%20dog&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nypost.com%2Fp%2Fnews%2Fnational%2Fromney_aides_point_out_obama_ate_pCetn9EcM0lOYNiJFl1zgI&ei=hAqaT86sMbOr2AXHoYj6Dg&usg=AFQjCNENy7Tz2DPv2_sO0EH6TGZ23rJtxA&cad=rja]</ref> before returning to Hawaii to be raised by his grandparents, Madelyn and WW2 veteran Stanley Armour Dunham. He would later attend Occidental College, [[Columbia University]] and then [[Harvard University]] for law school, where he would become the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. Also Obama is a socialist and a Muslim. Recently he instated socialized healthcare in the USA which will eventually lead to a Communist regime that resembles the Soviet Union. Expert economists in this field have also speculated that he is truly the anti-Christ. In the next few months Obama's secret police will start taking away your freedom. The bible makes this very clear. For example, Revelation 13:7 And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. In order to have power over all of the people of the Earth this would likely require a One-World-Government.Obama talks about a New World Order in his Berlin speech that basically says Global Citizenship is required and not an option. Many people already see Obama as the "President of the World."

==Illinois State Senate career==
[[File:O-2002-antiwar-rally-davidson.jpg|right|thumb|250px| Obama speaking at the October 2002 rally in Chicago organized by [[Carl Davidson]].<ref>Davidson is a longtime [[Mao]]ist and champion of the ''Thought of Mao Tse Tung.'' Davidson's anti-Trotskyite polemic, [http://www.wengewang.org/read.php?tid=10925 ''Left in Form, Right in Essence''] defends Maoist doctrine.<br> Retrieved from 对当代托洛茨基主义的批判：英文论集百花齐放 - 中国文革研究网, March 15, 2010.</ref> ''"[H]e is a brutal man who butchers his own people,"'' nevertheless Obama opposed ''"dumb wars".'']]

In 1995 Obama openly sought and obtained the endorsement of the [[Marxist]] [[New Party]] in his quest to be elected to the Illinois State Senate.<ref>[http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=7434 NEW PARTY (NP)], discoverthenetwork.org.</ref><ref>Rick Moran. [http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/06/obamas_alliance_with_marxists.html Obama's Alliance with Marxists], ''American Thinker'', June 03, 2008.</ref> He became the [[Democrat]] nominee and ran unopposed to win the election. Obama entered the Illinois Senate promising change to a corrupt system. He mixed often radical votes with more pragmatic agreements. Possibly one of his most radical votes was against requiring medical care for aborted children who survive [[abortion|the procedure]] - in fact the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council ascribed him a 100% rating for his consistently pro-choice votes.<ref name="cbs illinois">{{cite web|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/17/politics/main2369157.shtml|title=Obama Record May Be Gold Mine For Critics|work=CBS|format=HTML|language=English|last=Clark|first=Amy S.|date=Jan. 17, 2007}}</ref> He was criticized for using the statehouse as a stepping stone for a more illustrious career: Steven J. Rauschenberger, a [[Republican]], said prior to Obama's election as president: “He is a very bright but very ambitious person who has always had his eyes on the prize, and it wasn’t Springfield. If he deserves to be president, it is not because he was a great legislator.”<ref name="nyt illinois">{{cite web|work=The New York Times|title=In Illinois, Obama Proved Pragmatic and Shrewd|last=Scott|first=Janny|format=HTML|language=English|date=July 30, 2007|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/us/politics/30obama.html}}</ref>

The statehouse was majority Republican, so the Senator was sometimes forced to compromise. He formed allegiances across party lines to pass [[campaign finance]] reform that banned most gifts by lobbyists, prohibited spending campaign money for legislators’ personal use and required electronic filing of campaign disclosure reports.<ref name="nyt illinois"/> Obama also helped pass a so-called “driving-while-black bill”, which required the police to collect data on the race of drivers they stopped as a way to monitor [[racial profiling]].<ref name="nyt illinois"/>

Obama established himself as a chief spokesperson in opposition to the [[War on Terror]] during an October 2002 rally at Federal Plaza in Chicago<ref>The rally was organized by Chicagoans Against War in Iraq (CAWI) later renamed Chicagoans Against War and Injustice. [http://www.noiraqwar-chicago.org/?page_id=2 About CAWI] by Carl Davidson, Nov 02 2006. Retrieved from Chicagoans Against War and Injustice, March 15, 2010.</ref> [[community organizing|organized]] by veteran [[Mao]]ist and webmaster of [[Progressives for Obama]],<ref>[http://www.linkedin.com/in/carldavidson Carl Davidson,] LinkedIn.com, retrieved March 13, 2010.</ref> [[Carl Davidson]].

===Radical foundation and connection to William Ayers===
{{main article|Radical roots of Barack Hussein Obama}}
In 1995 a cadre of like minded individuals gathered in the home of [[Weather Underground]] (WUO) [[terrorist]]s [[Bernardine Dohrn]] and [[William Ayers|William "Bill" Ayers]]. Dohrn,<ref>Georgie Anne Geyer and Keyes Beach "Cuba: School for U.S. Radicals", ''Chicago Daily News/Chicago Sun-Times'' five part series October 1970, excerpted in [http://foia.fbi.gov/filelink.html?file=/weather/weath1c.pdf FBI file Weather Underground Organization (Weatherman),] Part 1c pp. 5-7 pdf (113-115 in original). [http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/2009/06/07/clandestine-agents-of-the-cuban-government-ayers-dohrn-myers/]</ref> along with Carl Davidson, are veterans of [[guerrilla warfare]] training in [[Cuba]] prior 1968 Democratic National Convention riots. Ayers and Dohrn have taken credit for, and never denied, bombing the [[U.S. Capitol]], the [[Pentagon]] and the [[State Department]].

Ayers and Dohrn used their celebrity status among [[leftist]]s to launch Obama's career. Ayers, Dohrn and [[Jeff Jones]]<ref>[http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=106653 ''Obama's 'green jobs czar' worked with terror founder] Van Jones served on board of activist group where ex-Weatherman serves as top director'', By Aaron Klein, [[WorldNetDaily]], August 13, 2009.</ref> are authors of ''[[Bill_Ayers#Prairie_Fire_Organizing_Committee_and_Maoist_thought|Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-imperialism]],'' the title taken from ''The Sayings of Mao Zedong.''<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/]</ref> The book declares "we are [[communist]] men and women."<ref>Harvey Klehr, ''Far Left of Center: The American Radical Left Today'' (Transaction Books, New Brunswick, 1988), 109.</ref> Ayers later jokingly, publicly admitted to ghostwriting Obama's book, ''Dreams From My Father''<ref>http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/03/ayers_affirms_he_wrote_dreams.html</ref> and Obama was to appoint several openly avowed Maoists to prominent White House and Executive Branch positions.<ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704597704574487431322664964.html</ref>

==U.S. Senate career==
:''See also: [[Early_life_and_career_of_Barack_Hussein_Obama#U.S._Senate_.282004-2008.29|Barack Obama:U.S. Senate (2004-2008)]]''
[[Image:obama.jpg|thumb|left|Senator Barack Obama]]

Following a failed campaign for the U. S. House of Representatives, Obama ran for the open Senate seat from Illinois in 2004 against Republican candidate Jack Ryan. He won the seat after Chicago media outlets The Chicago Tribune newspaper and Chicago ABC affiliate WLS-TV; together with candidate Jack Ryan's Republican Primary opponents, sought and obtained the release of the confidential and personally embarrassing records in his California divorce from actress Jeri Ryan, forcing him to end his campaign. Ryan was replaced by the out-of-state candidate [[Alan Keyes]]. Obama won over Keyes 70% to 27% in the general election. Obama spent very little time in the Senate - "frustrated by his lack of influence and what he called the 'glacial pace' ... [he began] running for president even as he was still getting lost in the Capitol’s corridors."<ref name="nyt senate">{{cite web|work=The New York Times|publisher=The New York Times, Inc.|format=HTML|language=English|title=Obama in Senate: Star Power, Minor Role|author=Kate Zernike and Jeff Zelleny|date=March 9, 2008|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/us/politics/09obama.html}}</ref>

Obama frequently used the [[filibuster]] to obstruct the operations of government,<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/03/AR2010020303801_pf.html</ref> voted against the [[minimum wage]]<ref>[http://uspolitics.about.com/od/legislatio1/a/HR2206.htm HR 2206 - Emergency Appropriations], Kathy Gill, Your Guide to U.S. Politics: Current Events. May 26 2007.</ref><ref>[http://more.gov.mtopgroup.com/2007/05/votes-hr-2206-iraq-supplemental.html Votes - H.R. 2206: Iraq Supplemental], May 28, 2007. Retrieved from Deeper Inside the Mountain, June 4, 2007.</ref> and debt ceiling increases,<ref>http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/04/obama-once-opposed-debt-ceiling-hike/237129/</ref> and recieved more than $126,000 in campaign contributions from [[Fannie Mae]]. The ''[[National Journal]]'' ranked him the most liberal senator in 2007.<ref name="ranked">{{cite web|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-502163_162-3775451-502163.html|title=National Journal: Obama Most Liberal Senator In 2007|author=Brian Montopoli|date=January 31, 2008|work=CBS}}</ref>

==Presidential Election==
{{main article|Barack Hussein Obama 2008 Presidential campaign}}
Democrats began calling for an Obama candidacy after liberals lauded his 2004 [[Democratic National Convention]] speech.
===Campaign to be the Democratic nominee===
The race for the Democratic ticket originally seemed [[Hillary Clinton]]'s to lose, but was ultimately a close race between Clinton and Obama. Clinton would take a slim advantage in the popular vote, while Obama would carry significantly more states and territories. Obama's advantage with super-delegates over Clinton was about 2-to-1.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Superdelegate endorsements for Friday 6/6|work=Democratic Convention Watch|url=http://demconwatch.blogspot.com/2008/06/superdelegate-endorsements-for-friday.html}}</ref> Obama was able to attract the support of [[liberals]] by pointing out that he had come out against the [[Iraq War]] "from the beginning" whereas Clinton had voted in favor of the war in 2002.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-01-31-democrats-debate_N.htm|title=Obama, Clinton stress differences on Iraq, issues|author=David Jackson|work=USA Today|format=HTML|language=English}}</ref>
===Campaign for the Presidency===
Obama campaigned against Senator [[John McCain]] in the general election. To the chagrin of Clinton supporters, he selected Senator [[Joe Biden]] to be his running mate, whereas McCain selected [[Governor]] of [[Alaska]] [[Sarah Palin]]. The Obama and Biden ticket would win the election, and Obama would become the nation's first [[African American]] president.

====Jeremiah Wright====
:''See also: [[Barack Obama and Liberation Theology]]''
One major dilemma that arose for Obama during his campaign was his connection to his preacher [[Jeremiah Wright]]. Obama and his wife (raised a Baptist) were members of the Trinity [[United Church of Christ]]<ref>http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1776246/posts</ref> in Chicago, a chruch that embraced [[black liberation theology]] and its emphasis on empowering so-called "oppressed groups" against "establishment forces". This denomination was the first in America to ordain gays as ministers.<ref>http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/31079.html, Obama's church pushes controversial doctrines, March 20, 2008</ref> Church pastor Jeremiah Wright had been making inflammatory comments and posting his sermons online for sale. These include the statement "G-d damn America," and in describing the September 11th attacks, "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."<ref>[http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=4443788 Obama's Pastor: G-d Damn America, U.S. to Blame for 9/11]</ref> In addition, Rev. Wright blamed America saying "We supported Zionism shamelessly while ignoring the Palestinians and branding anybody who spoke out against it as being [[anti-Semitic]]."

In April 2008, after 20 years in the church, candidate Obama made public statements poised to set him at odds with the man who conducted his wedding and baptized his children. With the negative publicity persisting, a month later Obama ended the friendship, left Wright's church, and blamed the media.<ref>[http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/05/31/obama-resigns-church-membership-in-chicago/], Obama Drops Church Membership in Chicago, May 31, 2008</ref> Obama claimed “It’s not fair to the other members of the church who seek to worship in peace...", and distanced himself from Wright's sermons as "a bunch of rants that aren't grounded in the truth."<ref>USA TODAY, ''Obama breaks with former pastor, Candidate cites rants on U.S. role in terror, AIDS'', by Kathy Kiely and David Jackson [http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080430/1a_offlede30_dom.art.htm]</ref><ref>''Obama Says He Is Outraged By Wright's "Rants"''[http://www.usnews.com/usnews/politics/bulletin/bulletin_080430.htm]</ref>

==Presidential career==
{{main article|Obama administration}}
[[File:Obama and George H. W. Bush.jpg|thumb|right|300px|President Barack Obama meets with former President George H. W. Bush in the Oval Office, Feb. 15, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza).]]
Under Obama's stewardship the United States has suffered the largest [[Federal budget deficit|deficit]]s<ref>http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/107xx/doc10708/11-06-mbr.htm</ref><ref>http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/118xx/doc11873/NovemberMBR.pdf</ref> in history and a credit downgrade from the rating agency Standard & Poor. However, during the Obama Administration the national deficit has increased at a much lower rate than during the Bush Administration. Most observers attribute the deficits to increasing benefits and welfare paid out on account of the Recession he inherited and has failed to end along with decreasing tax receipts. Standard & Poor decided to downgrade U.S. government deby after the debt ceiling debate debacle, where Congressional leaders refused to pass a bill authorizing borrowing to pay for the budget they had passed with much debate and controversy earlier in the year. Cynics have argued that rhetoric directed at the rating agencies about the issuance of AAA ratings to junk real estate bonds spurred the downgrade as a form of retribution. Ironically, the investor scare led to the flocking of investors to the safe haven of the Treasury bonds which had been downgraded, resulting in lower interest rates. As there are very few AAA bond markets, investors will likely continue to buy U.S. government debt for the foreseeable future. <ref>http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/04/18/the-sp-outlook-and-obama/</ref> When his [[economic stimulus]] program was adopted unemployment rose and stagnated in the 10% range, <ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704476104575439172480870774.html?mod=googlenews_wsj</ref> leaving tens of millions without [[hope]] of finding a job.<ref>[http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=LNS11300000&years_option=specific_years&include_graphs=true&to_month=1&from_month=2 United States Department of Labor], Bureau of Labor Statistics. Data extracted on: July 19, 2010 (4:31:11 PM).</ref>

Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen, writing in the [[Wall Street Journal]], noted, "Rather than being a unifier, Mr. Obama has divided America on the basis of race, class and partisanship." The commentators also note Obama's approach to governance has encouraged radical leftists to pursue a similar strategy on his behalf. Mary Frances Berry, former head of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, acknowledged that the [[Obama administration]] has taken to polarizing America around the issue of race as a means of diverting attention from other issues, saying, "Having one's opponent [[race card|rebut charges of racism]] is far better than discussing [[Unemployment|joblessness]]."<ref>http://www.politico.com/arena/perm/Mary_Frances_Berry_91E3D9D5-C40D-440C-9D48-1C50CBC60C87.html</ref> Caddell and Schoen, who worked for President Carter and Clinton, respectively, further stated, "Mr. Obama has also cynically [[class warfare|divided the country on class lines]]. He has taken to playing the populist card time and time again. He bashes Wall Street and insurance companies whenever convenient to advance his programs, yet he has been eager to accept campaign contributions and negotiate with these very same banks and [[corporation]]s behind closed doors in order to advance his political agenda... President Obama's divisive approach to governance has weakened us as a people and paralyzed our political culture."<ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748703700904575391553798363586.html</ref>

===Domestic policy===
====Popular bills====
Obama's first act of office was to sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act - effectively nullifying the [[Supreme Court]] case ''Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.'', which ruled that Ledbetter had to have filed a pay [[discrimination]] suit within 180 days of the first time Ledbetter was payed less than her male peers;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/us/politics/30ledbetter-web.html|work=The New York Times|format=HTML|language=English|title=Obama Signs Equal-Pay Legislation|author=Sheryl Gay Stolberg|date=January 29, 2009}}</ref> the law made corporations subject to suit within 180 days of each time the employee was unfairly paid.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://writ.news.findlaw.com/grossman/20090213.html?=features|work=FindLaw|author=Joanna L. Grossman|date=Feb. 13, 2009|format=HTML|language=English|title=The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009}}</ref>

On January 2, 2011, Obama signed the James Zadroga [[9/11]] Healthcare and Compensation Act.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2011/jan/02/obama-signs-zadroga-act-law/|publisher=New York Public Radio|title=Obama Signs Zadroga Act into Law|author=Fred Mogul|date=January 02, 2011|work=wNYC|format=HTML|language=English}}</ref> The act, which afforded 9/11 first responders who were sickened by the dust from the collapse of the [[World Trade Center]] health care and compensation, passed [[Congress]] after its sponsored agreed to scale down the pricing from 7.4 to 4.2 billion dollars.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2010/dec/22/zadroga-911-bill-passes-senate/|publisher=New York Public Radio|work=wNYC|format=HTML|language=English|title=Congress Approves 9/11 Health Bill|date=December 22, 2010}}</ref>

====Economic policy====
[[File:Keynes.jpg|thumbnail|right|190px|[[Barack Obama]] advocates the use of [[Keynesian economics|Keynesian economic concepts]] despite the fact that [[John Maynard Keynes]] was incompetent and a fraud.<ref>
*[http://centurean2.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/fabian-john-maynard-keynes-the-stealthy-enemy-of-human-freedom/ John Maynard Keynes the stealthy enemy of human freedom]
*[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-02-22/deathbed-of-keynesian-economics-will-be-in-u-k-matthew-lynn.html Deathbed of Keynesian Economics will be in the UK]
*[http://www.iwf.org/inkwell/show/23102.html Will the G8 Repudiate the Philosophy of Living Beyond Our Means?]
*[http://www.keynesatharvard.org/book/KeynesatHarvard-ch09.html KEYNES AT HARVARD Economic Deception as a Political Credo BY ZYGMUND DOBBS]
</ref> ]]
{{see also|Obamunism|American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009}}
Critics of the Obama administration have coined the word "[[Obamunism]]" to describe Barack Obama's [[socialism|socialistic]] and "[[fascism]] light" [[economic planning]] policies.<ref>[[Benito Mussolini]] defined fascism as the wedding of state and corporate powers. Accordingly, trend forecaster [[Gerald Celente]] labels [[Obama administration corporate bailouts|Obama's corporate bailouts]] as being "fascism light" in nature.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/daily-intel/2009/07/20/obamunism-inc|work=The Big Money|publisher=WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive Co. LLC|format=HTML|language=English|title=Obamunism, Inc.|author=David Sessions|date=July 20, 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.smallbusinessadvocate.com/small-business-interviews/gerald-celente-6944|author=Jim Blasingame|title=Is the government creating a bailout bubble?}}</ref> Obamunism can also refer to Obama's [[Obama administration fiscal policy|ruinous fiscal policies]] and [[Obama administration monetary policy|reckless monetary policies]].<ref name="gerard">{{cite web|url=http://seekingalpha.com/article/120883-monetary-policynot-obama-s-stimulusis-what-needs-watching|title=Monetary Policy-Not Obama's Stimulus-Is What Needs Watching|author=Gerard Jackson|date=February 16, 2009|work=Seeking Alpha}}</ref><ref name="bam">{{cite web|work=New York Post|date=May 17, 2009|url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/05172009/postopinion/editorials/bams_wise_words_169731.htm|title=BAM'S WISE WORDS}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/|title=Bush Deficit vs. Obama Deficit in Pictures|work=The Foundry|publisher=The Heritage Foundation|author=Conn Carroll|date=March 24th, 2009}}</ref> As seen in his own actions, Barack Obama instructed his advisors to find loopholes that would enable the president to act as a [[dictator]] by pushing through legislation and increases in spending without congressional authority.<ref>http://www.theblaze.com/stories/executive-dictatorship-obama-instructs-advisers-to-push-through-stimulus-projects-without-pesky-congressional-authorization/</ref>

[[Wall Street]] firms and banks that were bailed out were among Obama's biggest campaign supporters.<ref>http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00009638</ref> Therefore, the Obama administration bailouts of corrupt, unproductive, and reckless Wall Street firms was hardly surprising, and many argue that it was not helpful in making the United States economy more productive and prosperous by encouraging more risk taking through letting banks off with a slap on the wrist. Others argue that bailing out the banks kept credit flowing and prevented a much deeper recession and a total collapse of the financial system. The government will recoup some though not all of its capital infusions over time. A 2005 study found that government corporate bailouts are often done for mere political considerations and the economic resources allocated exhibit significantly worse economic performance than resources allocated using purely business considerations.<ref>http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=676905</ref> Proponents of [[free market]] capitalism said Bernanke should not have bailed out failing firms and instead should have allowed free market capitalism to quickly recover as it did in the depression of 1920 without government intervention (free market capitalists assert that government intervention drags out economic recessions and depressions).<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czcUmnsprQI</ref>

Top trend forecaster [[Gerald Celente]] predicts that the corrupt economic policies of the Obama administration will lead to a second [[Great Depression|great depression]] (Celente predicted the 1987 US stock market crash, the dot.com crash, the US 2008/2009 recession, and the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s) and may lead to a "second [[American Revolution]]" (Celente predicted the [[Tea Party Movement|tax protests]] that are now occurring in America).<ref name="celente1">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MMX3SKzrfU&feature=channel_page</ref><ref name="celente2">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy9bfw1ebgw&feature=response_watch</ref> Celente also asserts that the costly and inefficient temporary short term methods that the Obama administration is using to alleviate economic problems in the short term (which is causing massive increases in [[Obama administration deficit spending]]) is only making matters worse and will not prevent the worse economic depression in United States history from occurring.<ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C8K7rWkGGw</ref><ref>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LBffdIW0XA&feature=response_watch</ref>

The Obama administration has been sharply criticized for [[Obama administration deficit spending|its massive deficit spending]] and [[Obama administration monetary policy|its reckless monetary policy]] via vast increases in the [[money supply]], although inflation under Bernanke has been below the historic mean.<ref name="gerard"/><ref name="bam"/><ref>http://blog.heritage.org/2009/03/24/bush-deficit-vs-obama-deficit-in-pictures/</ref> Celente predicts that if a "second American Revolution" occurs in a peaceful and productive manner, it may include a [[Third Party System|third party movement]] of governance that will advocate a more [[free market]] [[capitalism]] approach to the American economy and a more strict interpretation of the [[United States Constitution|United States constitution]] as far as the authors' [[original intent]].<ref name="celente1"/><ref name="celente2"/>

During what the [[White House]] billed as [[Recovery Summer]], one half million workers per week continued losing their jobs. His signature legislative achievement, [[ObamaCare]],has been found to be [[unconstitutional]]<ref>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-13/u-s-health-care-law-requirement-thrown-out-by-judge.html</ref> by several judges and constitutional by others, and is credited as a major cause of uncertainty, high [[unemployment]],<ref>http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=33220</ref> lagging job creation,<ref>http://blog.heritage.org/2010/08/05/it%E2%80%99s-official-medicare%E2%80%99s-finances-shadowed-by-uncertainty/</ref> and risk of a credit default crisis.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/28/AR2010032802353.html</ref><ref>http://www.thestreet.com/story/10703361/cramer-obamacare-will-topple-the-market.html</ref>

His 2012 Budget plan has been roundly criticized in the mainstream and liberal press as not a serious effort to deal with the nation's economic crisis.<ref>[http://republican.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=blogs.view&blog_id=1551d6f5-2ac9-4b8d-97ab-74def354024e Newspapers Call Out White House: ‘What Would That Path Be, Mr. President?’]</ref>

[[Jeffrey Tucker]] wrote, "President Obama's economic policy has been catastrophic for liberty, enterprise, and the American dream—the very archetype of what not to do to end recession." [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118186176/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=anncoulter-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1118186176]

=====Healthcare=====
{{main article|Obamacare}}
On March 23, 2010, Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The act had originated in the House of Representatives and passed September 17, 2009. The act was amended and passed the Senate prior to [[Democrat]] [[Ted Kennedy]]'s passing along party lines - just a filibuster-proof majority at 60-39. In what can be construed as a de facto rejection of the bill, [[Massachusetts]] voters elected a [[Republican]] candidate, [[Scott Brown]], who promised to vote against the bill,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/senate/scott-brown-wins-massachusetts-senate-race.html|work=The Washington Post|author=Chris Cillizza|date=January 19, 2010|title=Scott Brown wins Massachusetts Senate special election race|language=English|format=HTML}}</ref> but another Senate vote would not occur. Scott Brown was also an excellent campaigner and judged to be a better candidate than his rival, Martha Coakley. He has since achieved one of the most moderate senate voting records, likely to avoid the anger of his mostly liberal constituency. After Obama made a promise to issue an [[executive order]] that would ultimately prohibit the use of taxpayer subsidies to pay for [[abortion]] services,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/22/nation/la-na-healthcare-passage22-2010mar22/3|work=The Los Angeles Times|format=HTML|language=English|title=House passes historic healthcare overhaul|date=March 22, 2010|author=Noam N. Levey and Janet Hook}}</ref> the [[House of Representatives]] would pass the bill as it left the Senate 219-212, with 34 Democrats and all other parties dissenting.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://articles.cnn.com/2010-03-21/politics/health.care.main_1_health-care-entire-house-democratic-caucus-pre-existing-conditions?_s=PM:POLITICS|date=March 21, 2010|author=Alan Silverleib|work=CNN|format=HTML|language=English|title=House passes health care bill on 219-212 vote}}</ref>

Amongst other things, the act mandates that the population purchase health care coverage or face punitive tax measures, and on this basis has been constitutionally challenged in the federal courts, with mixed results (three courts have upheld the act, two have declared it unconstitutional); thus, the Act is likely destined for [[Supreme Court]] reviewal. Plans originally proposed involved instituting a universal public insurance program, that is, extending Medicare to everyone. The universal mandate included in the act was originally a conservative idea that was enacted in Massachusetts under Republican Mitt Romney. Its supporters note that having health insurance results in reduced costs in paying for treatment of uninsured and forcing people to take responsibility for their healthcare. Due to ethical constraints, doctors cannot deny care to poor patients, resulting in the hospital and the healthcare system at large bearing the cost.

====Gulf oil spill====
{{main article|Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster}}
President Obama authorized offshore oil drilling in the [[Gulf of Mexico]]<ref>[http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0430/Gulf-of-Mexico-oil-spill-imperils-Obama-s-offshore-drilling-plan Gulf of Mexico oil spill imperils Obama's offshore drilling plan,] By Mark Clayton, ''Christian Science Monitor'', April 30, 2010.</ref> stating, "oil rigs today generally don’t cause spills"<ref>White House Press Release, [http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-a-discussion-jobs-and-economy-charlotte-north-carolina Remarks by the President in a Discussion on Jobs and the Economy in Charlotte, North Carolina,] Office of the Press Secretary, April 02, 2010. Retrieved from whitehouse.gov 3 May 2010.</ref> and was widely criticized for his mishandling of the "[[Gulf oil spill disaster|worst environmental disaster]] in US history."<ref>[http://www.examiner.com/x-33986-Political-Spin-Examiner~y2010m4d29-Worst-environmental-disaster-in-US-history-Oil-slick-in-Gulf-of-Mexico-is-set-on-fire Worst environmental disaster in US history,] Maryann Tobin, ''Examiner'', April 29, 2010.</ref><ref>[http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/the-oil-spill-is-obamas-fault/?src=twt&twt=NytimesKrugman Conscience of a Liberal: The Oil Spill Is Obama’s Fault,] Paul Krugman, ''New York Times'', April 30, 2010.</ref>

====Don't Ask Don't Tell====
{{main article|Don't Ask Don't Tell}}
Candidate Obama promised to repeal a policy that originated in the Clinton era that prohibited inquiries into military personnel's [[sexual orientation]] while also barring "out" [[homosexuals]] from serving in the military. [[Liberals]] expressed anger when time passed and no effort to repeal the law was seen;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/21/obama-to-delay-repeal-of-dont-ask-dont-tell/|work=The Washington Times|format=HTML|title=Obama to delay ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ repeal|language=English|author=Rowan Scarborough|date=November 21, 2008}}</ref> in fact, Obama's [[justice department]], as part of their duty to defend all laws passed by any administration, filed a brief arguing against the [[Supreme Court]] granting a [[writ of certiorari]] to a gay soldier challenging the law (the writ was not granted). In response, the soldier, James Pietrangelo II, a former Army infantryman and lawyer, said, “[Obama's] a coward, a bigot and a pathological liar. This is a guy who spent more time picking out his dog, Bo, and playing with him on the White House lawn than he has working for equality for gay people."<ref>{{cite web|work=Time Magazine|publisher=Time Inc.|format=HTML|url=http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1903545,00.html?imw=Y|title=Dismay Over Obama's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Turnabout|author=Mark Thompson|date=Jun. 09, 2009}}</ref>

On December 15th, 2010, a bill was introduced in the [[House of Representatives]] to repeal the law - it passed a day later by a vote of 250-175;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll638.xml|title=FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 638|format=HTML|work=Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives}}</ref> it passed the Senate three days later 65-31.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=2&vote=00281|work=The U.S. Senate|title=U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 111th Congress - 2nd Session|format=HTML|language=English}}</ref> Obama signed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 on December 22nd.<ref name="g dadt">{{cite web|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/22/obama-repeals-dont-ask-dont-tell|work=The Guardian|format=HTML|language=English|title='Don't ask, don't tell' repealed as Obama signs landmark law|date=22 December 2010}}</ref>

The [[Pentagon]] itself could not immediately implement the repeal and questioned whether it would hurt combat readiness.<ref name="g dadt"/> Senator [[John McCain]], the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee, opposed the bill, saying "It may be premature to make such a change at this time and in this manner, without further consideration of this report and further study of the issue by Congress – for of all the people we serve, one of our highest responsibilities is to the men and women of our armed services, especially those risking their lives in combat.”<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/mccain-on-dont-ask-dont-tell-dont-rush/|title=McCain on ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’: Don’t Rush|date=December 2nd, 2010|format=HTML|author=David M. Herszenhorn|language=English|work=The New York Times}}</ref>

===Foreign policy===
[[File:Western Wall Obama.jpg|thumb|left|320px|At [[Western Wall]], Jerusalem, 2008.]]
As Senator, Obama was highly critical of President Bush and promised change. As President, Obama has tripled down in Afghanistan, widened the war into Pakistan, multiplied drone attacks, bombed Yemen and Somalia, and started an undeclared NATO war in Libya. On presidential war powers, surveillance questions, Guantanamo, detention policy and habeas corpus, Obama has similarly stayed the course, or expanded Bush's precedents. In a speech on May 19, 2011 Obama fully embraced the [[Bush Doctrine]] of preventative war.<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-news-in-obamas-speech/2011/05/19/AF4dFN7G_story.html</ref>

<blockquote>
The New America Foundation, which tracks the strikes, has listed 23 raids since the beginning of April, 2011, all but one in Pakistan’s tribal regions of North and South Waziristan. A June 20 attack was reported in Kurram, an area north of North Waziristan along the Afghanistan border.
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
The drone program has become increasingly controversial as the Obama administration has expanded its use beyond the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Lethal missiles have been launched from unmanned aircraft in at least five countries in addition to Pakistan: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and, most recently, Somalia. The military’s Joint Special Operations Command used a drone last June to attack what officials said were two senior members of the Al Shabab militant group on the Somali coast. <ref> [http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2011/07/04/cia_halts_drone_launches_from_pakistan_base/] </ref>
</blockquote>

<blockquote>
Obama is commendable when he says he wants to avoid war. His policies, however, favor war by destabilizing the Middle East making it extremely hostile and favoring radical Islam over America’s ally, Israel, and American interests in the region... The president has chosen a very dangerous path for every American and one that promises great difficulty for Israel. <ref> [http://www.thejerusalemconnection.us/blog/2012/03/14/obamas-words-disguise-his-israel-foreign-policy-actions.html Obama's words disguise his Israel foreign policy actions.] </ref>
</blockquote>

====Commander-in-chief====
By Obama's third year as Commander-in-Chief, over 1200 American troops died in Iraq and Afghanistan - significantly more than the number who died during President [[George W. Bush]]'s term of office. And growing numbers of civilian contractors also have fallen. In the first half of 2010, 250 contractors reportedly died in Iraq and Afghanistan - more than the 235 military personnel who fell during the same period.<ref>http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/24/114662/what-price-war.html#ixzz1Nz07pg5O</ref>

=====National Defense=====
President Obama signed into U.S. law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), only after his administration successfully lobbied to remove language from the bill that would have protected American citizens from being detained indefinitely without trial.<ref>Aaron Dykes. [http://www.infowars.com/president-obamas-ndaa-signing-statement-i-have-the-power-to-detain-americans-but-i-wont/ Obama’s Signing Statement on NDAA: I have the power to detain Americans… but I won’t], Infowars.com, January 1, 2012. </ref> After the legislation cleared Congress, the ACLU commented that if President Obama signed the bill it "will damage both his legacy and American’s reputation for upholding the rule of law," while executive director of the ''Human Rights Watch'' blasted the President for being ‘on the wrong side of history,’ noting that "Obama will go down in history as the president who enshrined indefinite detention without trial in US law."<ref>President Decides to Sign Ill-Conceived National Defense Authorization Act. [http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/12/14/us-refusal-veto-detainee-bill-historic-tragedy-rights US: Refusal to Veto Detainee Bill A Historic Tragedy for Rights], ''Human Rights Watch'', December 14, 2011. </ref><ref>[http://www.aclu.org/national-security/white-house-backs-away-defense-bill-veto-threat White House Backs Away from Defense Bill Veto Threat], ''[[ACLU]]'', December 14, 2011.</ref>

Section 1031 of the NDAA bill, which itself defines the entirety of the United States as a “battlefield,” allows American citizens to be snatched from the streets, carted off to a foreign detention camp and held indefinitely without trial. As reported by Infowars.com, the bill states that “any person who has committed a belligerent act” faces indefinite detention, but no trial or evidence has to be presented, the White House merely needs to make the accusation.<ref>Paul Joseph Watson. [http://www.infowars.com/obama-administration-demanded-power-to-indefinitely-detain-u-s-citizens/ Obama Administration Demanded Power To Indefinitely Detain U.S. Citizens], Infowars.com, December 12, 2011.</ref><ref>S.1867 [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c112:2:./temp/~c1122VN0Iv:e548990: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Engrossed in Senate [Passed Senate] - ES)], ''The Library of Congress'' THOMAS, 112th Congress (2011-2011), Accessed January 25, 2012.</ref><ref>Text of S.1867 - National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012. [http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s1867/text?version=es&nid=t0:es:281 Sec. 1031. Affirmation of authority of the Armed Forces of the United States to detain covered persons pursuant to the Authorization for Use of Military Force.], [[U.S. Congress]], ''OpenCongress.org'', (Accessed January 25, 2012).</ref>

=====Afghanistan=====
{{main article|Afghanistan War}}
Obama escalated troop strength<ref name="pbs">{{cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/obamaswar/themes/strategy.html#ixzz1LhWNImZp|title=Obama's New Strategy (March '09)|author=George Packer, Seth Jones, David Kilcullen, Rory Stewart, Andrew Exum, Col. Andrew Bacevich (Ret.)|work=PBS|language=English|format=HTML}}</ref> and defense costs in Afghanistan from $43.5 billion in George Bush's last year to $113.7 billion for 2011.<ref>Congressional Research Service, quoted in Gregory Anthony, ''What price war?''</ref> Adviser to General [[Stanley McChrystal]] David Kilcullen wrote, "One of the big strategic shifts is the use of language now which talks about Pakistan and Afghanistan as the same theater. Now we talked about Af-Pak long before the Obama administration came about, but the public use of that term, and the description of it as the Afghanistan-Pakistan campaign, sends a new message to people about how the administration is going to think about Afghanistan and Pakistan."<ref name="pbs"/> This became evident when, under the orders of Obama, a military SEALs team killed September 11th mastermind [[Osama bin Laden]] in Abottabad, Pakistan.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newsweek.com/2011/05/05/commander-in-chief.html|title=Commander in Chief|author=Daniel Romano and Daniel Klaidman|date=May 05, 2011|work=Newsweek|publisher=The Newsweek/Daily Beast Company LLC|language=English|format=HTML}}</ref>

=====Guantanamo Bay=====
{{main article|Guantanamo Bay}}
One of Obama's campaign promises was that he would close the American detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba - detainees would be flown to other countries while the ones awaiting trial would enter the American court system. Two days after taking office he signed an order directing the military to do so.<ref name="salon">{{cite web|url=http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/04/25/obama_guantanamo_rhetoric|work=Salon|title=The Obama/Gitmo timeline|author=Natasha Lennard|format=HTML|language=English}}</ref> But, in November 2009 Obama admitted that his self imposed deadline of January 2010 would be missed, and in March 2011 the president went back on his campaign promise, signing an executive order to create a formal system of indefinite detention for the prisoners.<ref name="salon"/>

=====Mexico=====

In May 2012, President Obama promised Mexican President [[Felipe Calderon]] that his administration would assist Mexico in curbing drug cartel violence, which has led to 30,000 deaths in Mexico. "President Calderon and I . . . stand together against the drug cartels that have unleashed horrific violence in so many communities," Obama said on May 19. "Mexico can count on the United States as a full partner in this effort.

The ''[[Washington Post]]'' has reported however that White House officials stopped a requirement for gun dealers to report bulk sales of high-powered semiautomatic rifles commonly used by illegal drug cartels. [[Justice Department]] officials had asked for White House approval to require thousands of gun dealers along the border to report the purchases to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and Explosives. ATF investigators expected to get leads on suspected arms traffickers. Senior law enforcement sources said the proposal from the ATF was held up by then White House chief of staff [[Rahm Emanuel]].<ref>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/17/AR2010121706598.html</ref> Gun dealers have been required for decades to report the sales of multiple handguns to the ATF.

=====Libya=====
{{main article|Libyan uprising 2011}}
In February 2011, the political unrest that had spread through the Arab world showed up as protests in Libya. Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi - leader of Libya for 41 years - responded to the violent activism<ref>http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28376.htm</ref> with legible steps.<ref name="nyt libya">{{cite web|url=http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/libya/index.html|work=The New York Times|publisher=The New York Times Inc.|format=HTML|language=English|title=Libya — Protests and Revolt (2011)}}</ref> The [[United Nations Security Council]] voted unanimously to impose [[sanctions]], and later authorized all members to take action to protect civilians. Obama, acting without approval from Congress and at the beckoning of the [[United Nations]], directed American forces to take out Libya's air defense system.<ref name="nyt libya"/> Obama later said, "[I]f we waited one more day Benghazi, a city nearly the size of Charlotte, could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world."<ref>{{cite web|author=Barack Obama|url=http://www.npr.org/2011/03/28/134935452/obamas-speech-on-libya-a-responsibility-to-act|title=Obama's Speech On Libya: 'A Responsibility To Act'|date=March 28, 2011|publisher=National Public Radio ([[NPR]])|language=English|format=HTML}}</ref> [[Alan J. Kuperman]] - writing an editorial for the ''[[Boston Globe]]'' - suggested this statement was false, writing, "[I]ntervention did not prevent genocide, because no such bloodbath was in the offing. To the contrary, by emboldening rebellion, US interference has prolonged Libya’s civil war and the resultant suffering of innocents."<ref name="kuperman">{{cite web|author=Alan J. Kuperman|work=The Boston Globe|url=http://articles.boston.com/2011-04-14/bostonglobe/29418371_1_rebel-stronghold-civilians-rebel-positions|title=False pretense for war in Libya?|date=April 14, 2011}}</ref> Kuperman, a professor of public affairs at the University of Texas who authored a book called ''The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention'', further stated that the rebels had tricked the world into thinking a bloodbath was at hand and that Obama had lied to the American people in order to act on this theory.<ref name="kuperman"/>
<blockquote>
Gaddafi [never] threaten civilian massacre in Benghazi, as Obama alleged. The “no mercy’’ warning, of March 17, targeted rebels only, as reported by The New York Times, which noted that Libya’s leader promised amnesty for those “who throw their weapons away.’’ Khadafy even offered the rebels an escape route and open border to Egypt, to avoid a fight “to the bitter end.’’ <ref> [http://politicalcartel.org/2011/04/17/libya-and-the-obama-doctrine/ Libya and the “Obama Doctrine”.] </ref>
</blockquote>

However Gaddafi wrote to Obama:

<blockquote>
Gaddafi said he bore no ill will toward Obama. "We have been hurt more morally than physically because of what had happened against us in both deeds and words by you," he wrote. "Despite all this you will always remain our son whatever happened. We still pray that you continue to be president of the USA. We endeavour and hope that you will gain victory in the new election campaign." The letter, dated 5 April 2011 in Tripoli, is signed "Mu'aumer Qaddaffi, Leader of the Revolution".<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/06/gaddafi-obama-nato-libya?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487]</ref>
</blockquote>

Critics point out the only thing worse than starting a "stupid, unnecessary war" against a madman is losing it.<ref>http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/271847/war-libya-dumb-and-dumber-victor-davis-hanson</ref>

=====Iraq=====
{{main article|Operation Iraqi Freedom}}
Obama campaigned on a promise to carry out [[George W. Bush]]'s timetable to end the War in Iraq, which has been completed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://articles.cnn.com/2011-12-17/middleeast/world_meast_iraq-troops-leave_1_1st-cavalry-division-camp-adder-troop-movements?_s=PM:MIDDLEEAST|work=CNN|title=Obama: Last U.S. troops leave Iraq|date=December 17, 2011|language=English|format=HTML}}</ref>

==See also==

*[[Political positions of Barack Obama]]
*[[Barack Obama and uncharitableness]]
*[[Barack Obama and abortion]]
*[[Essay:Born Outside the U.S.A.!]]
*[[Essay: The Special Interests Candidate]]
*[[Jobsgate]]
*[[Recovery Summer]]
*[[Lobbyists ties to the Obama administration]]
*[[New Party]]
*[[ObamaCare]]
*[[Obama doublespeak]]
*[[Obama inauguration]]
*[[Religion of Barack Hussein Obama]]
*[[The Honorable James David Manning]]
*[[Young Communist League]]

==External links==
*[http://www.antiobama.net/ Anti Obama.net]
*[http://www.dontvoteobama.net/ Don’t Vote For Obama.net]
*[http://nobamanetwork.com/ Nobama Network]
*[http://www.audacityofhypocrisy.com/ Audacity Of Hypocrisy]
*[http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/ The Real Barack Obama]
*[http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/6130/ The New Cult of Personality]
*[http://www.survivingobamunism.com/index.html Surviving Obamunism T-shirts]
*[http://www.barackobamaantichrist.blogspot.com/ Barack Obama the Anti-Christ ?]
*[http://www.noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/06/23/che-obama-and-the-revolutionary-agenda/ Che, Obama, and the Revolutionary Agenda]
*[http://www.audacityofhypocrisy.com/fashion-shows/ Obama Laundry List of Lies]
*[http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/09/americas-first-muslim-president/ GAFFNEY: America's first Muslim president?] Washington Times
*[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-l-esposito/barack-obama-and-islam_b_212519.html Barack Obama and Islam.] by [[John L. Esposito]].
*[http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=78931 Democrat: Obama's grandma confirms Kenyan birth.]
*[http://www.ontheissues.org/barack_obama.htm Barack Obama on the issues.]
*[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etWLwrvT2vo Obama = Kosher Puppet.] video on You Tube.

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{USPresidents}}
{{2008 presidential candidates}}
[[Category: Barack Hussein Obama]]
[[Category:Obama Presidency]]
[[Category:Obama Administration]]
[[category:Nobel laureates in Peace]]
[[Category:2012 Presidential Candidates]]
[[Category:Abortion Advocates]]
[[Category:Muslims]]
[[Category:Socialism]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Obama, Barack Hussein}}