Henry Kissinger and American Power

June 1, 2020
A foreign relations expert reassesses Henry Kissinger's central role in American foreign policy. Overall, Schwartz, a professor of history at Vanderbilt, aims to remain "dispassionate" in his account of Kissinger during his years of real power under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. The author downplays some of the more "thundering moral pronouncements of condemnations" leveled at Kissinger over the years, such as his role in widening the Vietnam War into Cambodia and Laos, among others. Seeking to "reintroduce...Kissinger to the American people and to an international audience," Schwartz is particularly fascinated by his subject's courtly personality, his "intellectual brilliance, skill as a courtier, and Machiavellian maneuvering within and against the bureaucracy." As a Harvard professor, Kissinger was chosen to serve as Nixon's national security adviser, a position that Kissinger himself had helped devise as a way to bring "a more centralized and secretive approach to foreign policy...into the White House, something both [John] Kennedy and [Lyndon] Johnson had also sought to do." Eventually, this "odd couple" complemented each other in setting policy: aiming to end the Vietnam War, navigate arms control with the Soviet Union, achieve d�tente with China as well as peace between Israel and the Arabs. As the author shows, all of these diplomatic projects were guided by "new realism" rather than ideology. Kissinger was Nixon's "secret agent," undermining Secretary of State William Rogers. As Watergate hearings heated up in the summer of 1973, Nixon felt compelled to replace Rogers with Kissinger ("Nixon's own Frankenstein monster") in hopes of maintaining the focus on the president's largely successful foreign policy. Using the era's ample TV record as part of his presentation, Schwartz asserts that "it is not necessary to render a moral judgment on Henry Kissinger in order to learn from his career." Many readers and historians will disagree, but the author provides a useful political biography for those interested in modern American history. An elucidating, stick-to-the-record study for students of foreign policy.

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June 8, 2020
Vanderbilt University historian Schwartz (coeditor, The Strained Alliance) examines the eventful career and divisive legacy of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in this even-handed biography. After sketching Kissinger’s flight from Nazi Germany, WWII military service, Harvard education, and arrival in Washington, D.C., Schwartz focuses on the period from 1969 to 1977 when Kissinger served, first as national security advisor and then as secretary of state, in the Nixon and Ford administrations. Deployed by Nixon as an envoy to China, Russia, and Vietnam, Kissinger ensured that credit for foreign policy achievements would go to the White House rather than the State Department. Schwartz skillfully illustrates the complex dynamics between the two men as Kissinger’s fame and regard rose, culminating in a Nobel Peace Prize, and Nixon’s influence ebbed during the Watergate scandal. Schwartz provides succinct explanations of key strategies such as “triangular diplomacy,” but the book’s comprehensive coverage of all the international conflicts Kissinger dealt with doesn’t allow for too much deep analysis. Schwartz also treats controversies, such as allegations that Kissinger leaked privileged information about peace talks with North Vietnam to Nixon’s camp during the 1968 election, rather lightly. Still, this exhaustive yet accessible account serves as a worthwhile introduction to Kissinger and the geopolitics of the 1960s and ’70s.

Starred review from June 1, 2020
Henry Kissinger's role in American foreign policy in the 1960s and '70s made him a supremely controversial figure, evoking both extravagant praise for his diplomatic prowess and vilification as an accused war criminal. This intellectually challenging but masterfully written biography focuses on Kissinger's political life, especially the personalization of foreign affairs that he came to typify. The core of the book concerns Kissinger's relationship, as national security advisor and secretary of state, with Richard M. Nixon. Schwartz's position as distinguished professor of history at Vanderbilt University allowed him access to Kissinger and Nixon's television archives, which he utilizes effectively. Kissinger's career was long and complex, and his roles varied. He was involved at the highest levels with the Soviet Union (during the Cold War and de�tente), China (planning Nixon's landmark trip), the Middle East (at a time of cataclysmic tension), Latin America, Africa, and Vietnam. Schwartz grounds his analysis of Kissinger's distinguished intellectual background with thorough coverage of his youth and academic life, and his voluminous writings. Kissinger's ideological posture vacillated dramatically, and it is Schwartz's great strength that he deals objectively with the manifold sides of his subject's personality: Machiavellian, reckless, prone to creative ambiguity. This is a sophisticated, well-textured study of a major figure in American political history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

Starred review from July 1, 2020

Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger (b. 1923), who has not held a government office since 1977, remains one of the most polarizing officials of the modern era, claims Schwartz (history, Vanderbilt Univ.; Lyndon Johnson and Europe) in this deeply researched, first-rate narrative. The author bridges those who accuse Kissinger of being a war criminal for his politics toward Vietnam, Cambodia, and Chile, and those who praise his negotiations with China, the Soviet Union, and the Middle East. Kissinger is portrayed as a skillful media manipulator, which made him the most sought-after foreign policy TV commentator for decades and cemented his role as the acting foreign-policy president, according to Schwartz, during President Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal. The author faults Kissinger for his arrogance and pettiness, which led to bureaucratic warfare and a bitter relationship with Nixon, but concludes that Kissinger is too complex to be viewed in a two-dimensional manner. Although he was always controversial, every president from Carter through Trump has sought Kissinger's insights into realpolitik. VERDICT This richly detailed investigation will find an appreciative audience among Cold War scholars and current history readers. See Barry Gewen's The Inevitability of Tragedy for more insight into Kissinger's political underpinnings.--Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

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