Yes, Kissinger was a monster — but only one of a succession of them

Gore Vidal once claimed — he was about the only person who could credibly insist it was true — to have spotted Henry Kissinger in the Sistine Chapel, closely examining The Last Judgment. “Kissinger”, Vidal quipped, “apartment-shopping for the afterlife”.

That would have been in the 1970s or 1980s, and Kissinger lasted many more decades before, finally, dying at 100 this week. In doing so he became an icon to multiple generations of US politicians, right-wingers and neo-colonialists, who lionised him for his anti-communism and profound indifference to morality and downplayed or dismissed his extensive crimes against humanity.