Comment by ceejayoz
2 years ago
> For subordinates who executed the illegal actions. Within the command structure. Being in the command structure was important.
For a fairly comparable role (foreign minister), Joachim von Ribbentrop was convicted (among other things, for "crimes against peace" and "deliberately planning a war of aggression") and executed at Nuremberg. Plenty of ministers in the list there.
It's hard to argue Kissinger wasn't involved in "deliberately planning a war of aggression" against Cambodia.
This is fair. Were America to find itself at the mercy of a foreign power, he would likely have been prosecuted. That said—and I’m not a Hague expert, so please take this with the grain of salt an internet discussion should carry—the intent of Nuremberg was a balance of practicality and precision, on one hand, with deterrence and retribution, on the other hand.