Richard Nixon’s National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger is a war criminal. But we’ll get to that in a moment. Let’s focus on today’s politics – Donald Trump and the ongoing immigration debate and how Kissinger is the architect of the divisiveness on immigration. Today’s debate about “shit hole” countries and immigration control hearken back to National Security Study Memorandum 200 (aka Kissinger Report) that was created under the direction of Henry Kissinger. It was completed on December 10, 1974 and was declassified on December 31, 1980.

Kissinger’s Memorandum raised the alarm in U.S. government circles that population growth in “least developed countries” was a concern for the foreign policy of the United States. The report named thirteen countries of concern: Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, México, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines. Thailand and Turkey. Kissinger’s fear was not about starving populations, but rather the loss of “large and increasing amounts of minerals” from these countries that would be interrupted, if starvation were to take hold in these countries. In other words, the United States, or Kissinger, wasn’t worried about starvation due to population growth, but rather the affect such starvation would have on the United States because of the loss of minerals in those countries.

In November of 1975, the Gerald Ford administration, Richard Nixon had resigned due to Watergate, adopted the “food as a weapon” memorandum. The plan was nothing more than a covert operation to reduce populations in key countries through birth control programs, famines and, if necessary, war. Food and access to minerals was the public face of the memorandum, but the real driving factor was the fear among U.S. politicos was the rise of “political, economic and military strength” the targeted countries represented for the United States over the next three decades. Some have argued that Kissinger’s memorandum was nothing short of a eugenics program to control populations that are not white.

But, the fear wasn’t food shortages, but rather, stronger countries challenging the leadership of the United States on world stage.

The plan included formal policies to encourage the legalization for abortions, sterilization methods and increasing the use of contraception, in other words, population control under the auspices of the needs of the United States, or eugenics, making whites the dominant race, as some have argued.

Although hunger was the public nexus, the driving factor for Nixon and Kissinger was, and is the rising influence of countries other than the United States, the rising influence of the “lesser developed countries” on the world stage. Most poignant of all is that the notion of population control was not Kissinger’s invention, but rather the British Empire, or the colonial power that created the “shit holes” that Trump so famously derided recently.

Look at Donald Trump’s rhetoric about México and especially Mexico’s trade agreement with the United States and Canada, NAFTA. Trump is arguing that NAFTA is the “worst deal” the United States has ever entered. This, notwithstanding, the many economic pundits who argue that NAFTA, although not perfect, has been good for all three countries. Even the rural Trump supporters are afraid of the repercussions on the agricultural sectors if Trump cancels NAFTA. Not because of the immigrant labor, but rather the loss of a significant agricultural market for them. Add to that, the Trump Wall folly and you see that Trump’s fears echo the Kissinger fear of a stronger México challenging the leadership of the United States on the national stage.

Henry Kissinger’s persona has been carefully crafted in the United States as a foreign policy expert, but, in reality, it covers up Kissinger’s crimes against humanity.

Christopher Hitchens’ book, “The Trial of Henry Kissinger” lays out five allegations against Henry Kissinger for crimes against humanity. One of them, the Salvador Allende 1970 election in Chile is sufficient to understand how Kissinger-type foreign policy destroys countries.

Henry Kissinger is a practitioner of realpolitik, or the idea politics takes a second chair to ethics, morality or ideology. In realpolitik, politics is reactive to current situations that should be exploited for the country. In many ways, America First is another incarnation of realpolitik.

In 1973, Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected Salvador Allende government. The 1972 coup was made possible by direct assistance of the United States government to destabilize the Allende government. Pinochet’s government became the textbook example of human rights abuses, including murder and torture against those who challenged the Pinochet authority. Amnesty International documented at least 1,500 Chileans who disappeared under Pinochet’s government.

The Chilean people suffered under the doctrine of what the United States needed, the United States got at the expense of the “shit hole” countries.

In 1999, the U.S. government declassified documents that implicitly show that Henry Kissinger was not only aware of the Pinochet atrocities against his own people, but Kissinger covered them up. In the 1970’s, Henry Kissinger dismissed news reports about Pinochet’s activities as “left-wing conspiracies”.

Henry Kissinger, the declassified documents show, covered up the Pinochet atrocities and encouraged Pinochet by telling him the United States “wished” Pinochet’s “government well.”

Henry Kissinger has met, at least twice, with Donald Trump since Trump assumed the presidency. Kissinger has also been getting closer to Vladimir Putin. It’s a connection that should be scrutinized for what it might cost other countries for the benefit of the United States.