Rolling Stone Suit Forces Released Henry Kissinger's FBI Files

In response sued by Rolling rock and National Security Advisers, the Justice Department turned over two batches of FBI documents related to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Rolling rockHis lawsuit, filed hours after his death was announced in November 2023, seeks the expedited processing of FBI records related to President Nixon's former secretary of state and national security adviser. Kissinger is widely considered a war criminal for his role in the bombing of Cambodia, the coup in Chile, and the massacres in East Timor and Bangladesh, and his legacy remains controversial among historians despite his bipartisan embrace by Washington powerhouses. the past half century.

While a historic figure in American foreign policy, Kissinger had an impact on American diplomacy until his death. After his death in late 2023, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken eulogized the former Nixon adviser and revealed that he had sought Kissinger's advice “Just about a month ago.”

“Even after only two releases, we're already learning new things about one of the most polarizing American public figures of the last hundred years, and that's just from the archive files,” said Kel McClanahan, an attorney at National Security Counselors. Rolling rock. “This is a man who single-handedly shaped much of US foreign policy after World War II and kept his fingers in every foreign relations pie until his death, and we will continue to pursue the truth and our right to let's find out as soon as possible. not when the FBI wants to tell us.”

The Justice Department has so far released two batches of documents in response Rolling rockhis suit. The documents, which cover investigations into Kissinger's record in successive administrations, demonstrate the extreme respect shown to Nixon's former foreign policy general, despite serious ethical lapses and his role in the illegal wiretapping of an official.

In 1969, Kissinger ordered the FBI to wiretap one of his National Security Council deputies, Morton Halperin, without a warrant based on the false belief that Halperin had leaked news of the Nixon administration's bombing of Cambodia. New York Times.

Halperini learned about the wiretapping in 1973, as the Watergate investigations exposed the Nixon presidency, and he filed suit against Kissinger.

However, the FBI apparently ignored the lawsuit when reviewing the then-Secretary of State's security clearance that year. In files released by the Justice Department, the FBI notes glowing reviews of Kissinger's character and judgment from such luminaries as Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Harvard foreign policy scholar Samuel P. Huntington. Separated into a single paragraph labeled “miscellaneous,” the agents noted the existence of the lawsuit and that it is “currently pending.”

Kissinger received his permission, which successive administrations continued to grant him over the decades. But a court ruled that Halperin's wiretapping was illegal and a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. After a nearly 20-year lawsuit, Kissinger and his former deputy settled the case in 1991 following a letter of apology from the late general and diplomat.

Reached by phone Friday, Halperin was leery of his former boss.

“He believed—and reasonably—that this was something every president had done in the post-war period and continuously by the FBI,” says Halperin. “The attorney general signed off on the wiretapping, so I think he didn't think this was illegal.”

“The apology letter, we actually worked on it,” Halperin explains. “We reconciled for a while, but then he seemed more distant. I was always ready to reconcile and friends were constantly trying to bring us together. It never really happened and I'm not sure if he really didn't want to reconcile or he was just too busy and had other priorities.

The records show that the FBI in particular could be sensitive to the issue of Kissinger's security clearance. Cable circulation from the Bureau was released in response to Rolling rockHis lawsuit describes a 1973 incident in which retired Marine Corps Col. Mitchell Page, a Medal of Honor recipient for heroism at Guadalcanal in World War II, said that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover “would never grant Henry A. Kissinger, now Secretary of State, top secret clearance,” adding that “Hoover distrusted Dr. Kissinger and considered him a threat to the United States.”

The incident took place in a private setting among people outside the government who did not know the director's thoughts, much less Kissinger. But the records show the Bureau was quite sensitive about criticism that the San Francisco field office special agent planned to ask Paige to “stop making these statements” and inform him that the FBI was not “clarifies” anyone. .

Page, the FBI later noted, had a history of outspoken remarks, including a “1961 statement that Earl Warren, then Chief Justice, should be hanged.” The Bureau clearly noted that “He subsequently apologized for making that statement.”