The Inevitability of Tragedy

February 1, 2020
Masterly work on the making of Henry Kissinger--and what American foreign policy can learn from his dark experience and pessimistic outlook. In this deeply thoughtful, meticulously researched work, longtime New York Times Book Review editor Gewen looks at both Kissinger's life experiences--e.g., his teen years as a Jew in Bavaria living under Nazi persecution--and his assimilation of the academic work of fellow German Jewish intellectuals Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, and Hans Morgenthau as he steered American statecraft in the 1970s. While Kissinger is considered by some as criminal, even evil, for his advocating for the overthrow of Salvador Allende, the democratically elected leader of Chile, and other dispassionate realpolitik decisions as secretary of state under Richard Nixon, Gewen takes a more philosophical approach to his subject, delving into the reasons behind Kissinger's coolheaded "assessment of power" and refusal to be swayed by "high moral principles like self-determination or national sovereignty." Because he was hounded by the Nazis during his youth, Kissinger recognized the "realities of power" and, through his own father's "powerlessness," began to believe that "weakness...was synonymous with death" (as he wrote near the end of World War II). Kissinger was deeply influenced by the work of Strauss and Arendt, who "opposed tyranny but nursed a deep suspicion of democracy and majoritarian processes," and became a colleague to Morgenthau, who eschewed traditional moralistic certainties for an approach based more on "incrementalism and perfectionism," "stability rather than justice," and "the less bad rather than the unqualified good." In this well-measured, beautifully written book, Gewen thoroughly considers each facet of Kissinger's evolution and how his choice of "less bad" became his modus operandi--e.g., the "Christmas bombing" of North Vietnam at the end of 1972, forcing Hanoi to the negotiating table--ultimately tarnishing his elusive, urbane legacy. Gewen has used the distance from events to refine his research into an elegant, elucidating study of comparative statecraft.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 1, 2020

Gewen, longtime editor of the New York Times Book Review, presents a balanced, erudite biography of former U.S. Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger (b. 1923), asserting that he is the most important diplomat of the nuclear age. Kissinger, as the author lucidly shows, is an advocate of realism, the political school that promotes balance of power and national interest. More than a third of the book is devoted to realism's founders: Hannah Arendt, Leo Strauss, and Kissinger's mentor, Hans Morgenthau. All four shared a mistrust of democracy in international relations because of their Holocaust experiences; additionally, all barely escaped Nazi Germany, where Kissinger lost 13 relatives. Kissinger, a master of realpolitik, promoted praiseworthy policies that opened China and established d�tente with the USSR, but supported less-than-honorable strategies in Southeast Asia that sacrificed Vietnamese and American lives for a face-saving U.S. retreat. Gewen skillfully shows that Kissinger's realism diplomacy accepted evil as something that could not be destroyed, making tragedy inevitable. VERDICT This authoritative and exhaustive biography will challenge general readers, but will find an appreciative audience among political scholars and modern philosophy academics. A solid companion to Thomas Schwartz's Henry Kissinger and American Power (2020).--Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 13, 2020
America’s most celebrated and vilified diplomat was a philosopher-statesman shadowed by his experience as a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany, according to this trenchant debut. New York Times Book Review editor Gewen assesses Kissinger, national security adviser and secretary of state to Presidents Nixon and Ford, as an intellectual whose foreign-policy “Realism” cold-bloodedly pursued national interests and an international balance of power while eschewing “idealistic” goals of anti-communist crusading, promoting human rights, or spreading democracy abroad. Gewen first offers a fascinating interpretation of Hitler as a popular democratic politician, then delves into the ideas of philosophers Leo Strauss and Hannah Arendt and “Realist” political scientist (and Kissinger friend) Hans Morgenthau, all of them German-Jewish refugees fearful, like Kissinger, that democratic idealism can lose to totalitarianism. Gewen also explores Kissinger’s opposition to Chile’s socialist president Salvador Allende (in an eye-opening chapter, Gewen paints Allende as a potential dictator and mostly absolves Kissinger and the U.S. of blame for orchestrating the coup that overthrew him) and his détente with Russia and China. Gewen’s defense of some of Kissinger’s policies, however, including prolonging the Vietnam War for the sake of American “credibility” and “prestige,” isn’t always convincing. Still, this is a rich, nuanced, thought-provoking reconsideration of Kissinger’s worldview and its impact on history.

Starred review from February 15, 2020
The most admired and reviled Secretary of State in recent U.S. history, Henry Kissinger set a standard for his successors. His conduct of the nation's diplomacy during the Vietnam War has led to cries for him to be considered a war criminal. Yet others see him as no less than a visionary for his reinstitution of relations between the U.S. and China, and still others hold him as a virtual savior of the Republic for his steady hand during the collapse of the Nixon Presidency. New York Times Book Review editor Gewen offers a biography focused on the major historical and philosophical influences on Kissinger's approach to diplomacy. In long chapters on Adolf Hitler, Leo Strauss, Hannah Arendt, and Hans Morgenthau, Gewen analyzes their roles in history and impacts on Kissinger's work. Gewen's analysis of Hitler's rise to power in Weimar Germany insightfully reveals how he skillfully used democratic means to achieve a tyrannical goal. The narrative picks up speed as Kissinger manages the extrication of the U.S. from Vietnam. Gewen sorts out history's ambiguities; yet, in the multitude of details he never loses direction or purpose, and his achievement stands as both diplomatic and intellectual history at its best.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)