Changes

Vietnam fought three more wars after 1975 and armed Communist insurgencies with billions of dollars in an attempt to overrun [[Thailand]] and [[Malaysia]].<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/hoan1.pdf</ref>  To combat this dangerous expansionism, Kissinger closely aligned the United States with anti-Communist nations in the area, such as [[Suharto]]'s [[Indonesia]], which was once described as ''the greatest prize in  Asia.''  As tens of thousands fled a Communist take-over in the small island of [[East Timor]] under horrible conditions following a civil war that resulted in the death or displacement of 9,000 individuals; Ford and Kissinger gave Suharto their approval to annex East Timor and remove the Soviet-backed Communist government.<ref>http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/doc4.pdf</ref>  Over the 24-year occupation; some 140,000<ref>http://www.cavr-timorleste.org/en/Brief.htm</ref> East Timorese soldiers and civilians were killed by all sides, out of a population of less than a million.

Vietnam fought three more wars after 1975 and armed Communist insurgencies with billions of dollars in an attempt to overrun [[Thailand]] and [[Malaysia]].<ref>http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/vietnam/hoan1.pdf</ref>  To combat this dangerous expansionism, Kissinger closely aligned the United States with anti-Communist nations in the area, such as [[Suharto]]'s [[Indonesia]], which was once described as ''the greatest prize in  Asia.''  As tens of thousands fled a Communist take-over in the small island of [[East Timor]] under horrible conditions following a civil war that resulted in the death or displacement of 9,000 individuals; Ford and Kissinger gave Suharto their approval to annex East Timor and remove the Soviet-backed Communist government.<ref>http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/doc4.pdf</ref>  Over the 24-year occupation; some 140,000<ref>http://www.cavr-timorleste.org/en/Brief.htm</ref> East Timorese soldiers and civilians were killed by all sides, out of a population of less than a million.

Kissinger also sought to maintain good relations with [[Thailand]].  In order to prevent Communist hegemony in the area, he sought to delibrately provoke tension between the Vietnamese Stalinists and their Maoist comrades in Phnom Penh.  In a 1975 meeting, he told Thailand's foreign minister:  "We don't mind Chinese influence in Cambodia to balance North Vietnam. As I told the Chinese when we last met when we were discussing the Vietnamese victory in Indochina, it is possible to have an ideological victory which is a geopolitical defeat. The Chinese did not disagree with me."<ref>http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/kissinger_chatichai.htm</ref>

Kissinger also sought to maintain good relations with [[Thailand]].  In order to prevent Communist hegemony in the area, he sought to deliberately provoke tension between the Vietnamese Stalinists and their Maoist comrades in Phnom Penh.  In a 1975 meeting, he told Thailand's foreign minister:  "We don't mind Chinese influence in Cambodia to balance North Vietnam. As I told the Chinese when we last met when we were discussing the Vietnamese victory in Indochina, it is possible to have an ideological victory which is a geopolitical defeat. The Chinese did not disagree with me."<ref>http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/kissinger_chatichai.htm</ref>

 

===Losing power===

===Losing power===

Despite his real accomplishments, Kissinger's tenure was marked by much controversy. Revelations of his knowledge of Nixon's secret bombings in [[Cambodia]] in 1969 and the U.S. ground invasion of Cambodia in 1970 stirred particularly strong hatreds on the left, as did later discoveries that he had authorized wiretaps aimed at stopping leaks of classified information.  

Despite his real accomplishments, Kissinger's tenure was marked by much controversy. Revelations of his knowledge of Nixon's secret bombings in [[Cambodia]] in 1969 and the U.S. ground invasion of Cambodia in 1970 stirred particularly strong hatreds on the left, as did later discoveries that he had authorized wiretaps aimed at stopping leaks of classified information.