K Dark Thirty

White House photo, 1972

The men crept in under cover of darkness. “Nice place,” said one of them as he surveyed the mansion’s spacious kitchen. “I guess karma never got to this bastard.”

“Shhhh!” a second man admonished. “We must be quiet.”

The quartet was lucky. They encountered no security guard, no maid, no staff for the old multimillionaire who was once dubbed America’s most eligible bachelor. There would be no unpleasant scene like the one Osama bin Laden’s assassins had to deal with.

After just a few minutes, the deed was done. Henry Kissinger was found in his bedroom, asleep with the aid of a little cognac. Pointing a handgun muffled by a silencer, the talkative intruder ended the former Secretary of State’s life with a bullet to the head. “Revenge for Salvador,” he intoned in Spanish just before squeezing the trigger.

***

Word got out soon after dawn that Henry Kissinger had been found dead in his home. A maid had noticed his bedroom door ajar, then looked a little closer and saw the area messier than usual. She stepped quietly to the door, peeked inside, spied a bloody mess, and then shrieked.

Police were called. Neighbors looked over the hedges and gawked as crime scene investigators rolled in. It was urgent breaking news on CNN and Fox.

Opinion was divided on Kissinger when he was alive. But in death he quickly morphed from a dubious diplomat/murderer to a grand example of how Americans should live their lives – an ambitious man who built himself up from obscure academic to one of the most powerful people in the world. The few who dared to point out the man’s crimes were ignored as U.S. news networks aired pundits (Democratic and Republican, “liberal” and conservative) who said Kissinger served his nation well during the Cold War.

“He was a good man – a great man,” Pat Buchanan declared. “The Communists were threatening freedom in Latin America and Southeast Asia, and he put a stop to that. That is the kind of service and leadership we need to see more of today!”

Jim Carville agreed heartily, saying he disagreed with some of Kissinger’s views but can’t deny that the man did what had to be done.

Kissinger meets with Pinochet, 1976

The Chilean quartet heard those remarks and shook their heads. Their nation had seen General Schneider kidnapped and murdered in 1970, and the whole country was thrown into years of brutal dictatorship after its own “9-11″ in 1973. All because Chile elected socialists, and Kissinger and the rest of the Nixon administration considered that absolutely unacceptable.

“Make the economy scream,” Kissinger told the CIA, and the spooks followed orders. Countless Chileans paid with unemployment and starvation for daring to support Salvador Allende. Then came the coup, and the installation of a junta led by the sadistic, remorseless General Pinochet.

The talker turned off the TV, and the quartet quickly agreed there was no point in recounting the horrors their families endured under Kissinger’s sick puppet. Instead, safely back in Santiago, they raised a toast to their country and a mission accomplished.