Anthony Bourdain's Comments on Henry Kissinger Go Viral After His Death

A clip of Anthony Bourdain expressing his distaste for Henry Kissinger has gone viral on social media following the former U.S. Secretary of State's death.

Kissinger died on Wednesday at his home in Connecticut at the age of 100. Kissinger, a former national security adviser, was born on May 27, 1923, in Fürth, Germany.

A Jewish refugee, he fled Nazi Germany in 1938 with his family and immigrated to the U.S. He became an American citizen and served in the U.S. Army as a German interpreter during World War II. After the war, he attended Harvard University, earning a B.A. in 1950 and a Ph.D. in 1954, according to his biography on the State Department's website.

Kissinger, a prominent diplomat who served as secretary of state under two presidents, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, remained heavily involved in U.S. politics throughout his life.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate's political moves saw him both revered and heavily criticized, with late chef, author and TV star Bourdain being among one of his most vocal detractors over the years.

As such, as news circulated of Kissinger's death, video footage resurfaced on X, formerly Twitter, of Bourdain, who died in 2018, imagining a violent encounter with the politician.

"Henry Kissinger and a penguin walk into a bar," Bourdain said in the clip as he sat with a group. "I'm not asking what you'd do, but would it displease you if I walked over and punched Henry Kissinger in the face? Would you find it entertaining? Would you have a frisson of pleasure, even? Would you feel that justice is in some small way served?"

"I f****** hate him," Bourdain added of Kissinger, "because in my travels I stumble across his good works everywhere I go."

Bourdain frequently traveled to Southeast Asia, and often highlighted the lingering legacy of the barrage of clandestine carpet-bombings of Cambodia and Laos that Kissinger ordered in 1969. Over the course of four years, the U.S. military dropped 540,000 tons of bombs on the region, leaving anywhere between 150,000 to 500,000 Cambodian civilians dead.

The resurfaced video of Bourdain, which as of press time has garnered more than 700,000 views, was one of a number of examples where the late star had criticized Bourdain.

In his 2001 book, A Cook's Tour, Bourdain wrote: "Once you've been to Cambodia, you'll never stop wanting to beat Henry Kissinger to death with your bare hands. You will never again be able to open a newspaper and read about that treacherous, prevaricating, murderous scumbag sitting down for a nice chat with Charlie Rose or attending some black-tie affair for a new glossy magazine without choking.

"Witness what Henry did in Cambodia—the fruits of his genius for statesmanship—and you will never understand why he's not sitting in the dock at The Hague next to Milošević."

In February 2018, Bourdain stood by his comments, captioning a screenshot of the passage on X: "Frequently, I've come to regret things I've said. This, from 2001, is not one of those times."

In a New Yorker profile in 2017, Bourdain shared his objection to Kissinger being embraced by the power-lunch crowd in the years following his time in office.

"Any journalist who has ever been polite to Henry Kissinger, you know, f*** that person," Bourdain told his interviewer Patrick Radden Keefe. "I'm a big believer in moral gray areas, but, when it comes to that guy, in my view he should not be able to eat at a restaurant in New York."

Keefe wrote how he "pointed out that Bourdain had made similarly categorical denunciations of many people, only to bury the hatchet and join them for dinner."

"Emeril didn't bomb Cambodia!" Bourdain was quoted as responding, referring to fellow-chef Emeril Lagasse, who he had taken swipes at but later became friendly with.

As well as accusations of being a war criminal for his role in the bombing of Cambodia and North Vietnam, Kissinger has also been criticized for the part he played in helping orchestrate the overthrow of democratically-elected Chilean President Salvador Allende.

However, in 1973, Kissinger was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with North Vietnam's Le Duc Tho for their roles in negotiating a ceasefire in Vietnam.

Tho rejected the award, refusing to share it with the former secretary of state, while Kissinger has faced decades of criticism over his decision to accept it, despite the fact that the Vietnam War did not reach its conclusion until April 1975.

Despite Kissinger's controversies, his legacy in the Nixon administration is primarily defined by his role in detente with the Soviet Union and the opening of China.

Xie Feng, China's ambassador to the U.S., described Kissinger in glowing terms.

"It is a tremendous loss for both our countries and the world. The history will remember what the centenarian had contributed to China-U.S. relations, and he will always remain alive in the hearts of the Chinese people as a most valued old friend," Xie wrote on X.