(1913-1994)
U.S. president Richard M. Nixon and his national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, presided over the covert and unkept promises to Mulla Mustafa Barzani in the early 1970s that encouraged the Iraqi Kurds to rebel but eventually led to their final defeat at the hands of the Iraqi government in 1975. Nixon and Kissinger were simply using the Iraqi Kurds as a pawn in their larger strategy to help Israel and oppose the Soviet Union. Later Kissinger explained that "covert action should not be confused with missionary work."
See also Pike Committee Report.
Historical Dictionary of the Kurds. Michael M. Gunter.