Thomas A. Schwartz. Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography.

Abstract

Ninety-nine years of age and more than forty years into his retirement from government, Henry Kissinger remains one of the most controversial figures in American (and international) society. His jowly face is instantly recognizable, his gravelly voice easily identified, and his name stirs immediate responses of awe or revulsion. Some remember Kissinger as a figure who increased American power and prestige in the world; others condemn him as a defender of war, dictatorship, and violent abuses of human rights, particularly in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and southern Africa. Historians have long debated Kissinger’s record, and the continual release of new materials on his career, including Kissinger’s personal papers, will keep this debate going well into the future. A distinguished diplomatic historian, Thomas Schwartz has devoted many years of study to Kissinger’s career and the larger context around it. His deeply researched book, Henry Kissinger and American Power, is a detailed study of how Kissinger came to dominate American policymaking in the 1970s. A refugee, veteran, academic, and public intellectual before he entered the Nixon White House, Kissinger quickly placed himself at the center of most major US foreign policy decisions, often replacing the president, as Schwartz shows, during the months when Richard Nixon faced the most intensive Watergate investigations. At times Kissinger was the “president for foreign policy,” and Schwartz illustrates that he contemplated taking over the full job, if the constitutional limit on foreign-born citizens could be changed.