Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography

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.