Strategic gain calculations discounted the humanity of displaced peoples

Evidence

In the minds of many U.S. officials, the supposed gains to be realized from a base justified what they saw as the limited impact of removing a small number of people. Henry Kissinger is widely reported as having said of the inhabitants of the Marshall Islands, “There are only ninety thousand people out there. Who gives a damn?” Stu Barber’s Strategic Island Concept was largely predicated on the same assumption: Who gives a damn? But from the perspective of the Chagossians and a long list of other peoples, there was of course nothing limited about the impact of their expulsion. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 212

Categorization

• QUESTION: The Kissinger quote is ‘widely reported’ — worth chasing whether it is verified or apocryphal.
• XREF: Directly parallels the sacrifice essay’s logic that elites weigh distant populations as expendable for strategic ends.
• SHARE: The ‘ninety thousand people… Who gives a damn?’ attribution is a striking, conveyable data point for someone interested in Kissinger’s record or base policy.