In his very fine political biography...Thomas A. Schwartz takes a fairly conventional approach and addresses the expected issues ... But Schwartz also separates his work from most others. He tackles an angle that is often overlooked in the never-receding field of Kissingerology: how domestic political concerns and necessities inform and shape foreign policy discourse and policies. In Schwartz’s apt and original rendering, Kissinger the realist intellectual is in fact a quintessential 'political actor' ... In adopting this approach and in spite of a narrative that at times is a bit dry and overly dense, Schwartz offers a remarkably intelligent and sensible assessment of Kissinger’s years in government—possibly the best we have to date ... The third [part is] remarkably rich and original ... Schwartz provides a very balanced examination of Kissinger’s intellectual and political trajectory, neither prejudicially critical nor too laudatory ... a critique that is often as indirect as it is ferocious.
Drawing on a vast amount of primary sources (including interviews with the man himself), Schwartz carefully charts Kissinger's evolution as one of the 20th century's most controversial statesmen ... Schwartz always remembers to add darkly fascinating personal elements ... readers who watched that history as it was unfolding will almost certainly find Henry Kissinger and American Power disconcertingly evenhanded in assessing how Kissinger acquired the reputation upon which so much political clout rests.
Kissinger’s contribution to the making of American power in the face of severe challenges from the Vietnam War to the oil crisis constitute the large work of diplomacy, statecraft, and national interest, but Schwartz places Kissinger in the middle of the petty realism of domestic and bureaucratic politics ... Kissinger—as do other leaders—likes to claim his decisions serve national interests first, but it’s worth examining that premise, and Schwartz helps by writing at length about Kissinger’s efforts to preserve his relationship with his boss, Richard Nixon.
The author recognizes Kissinger’s (and Nixon’s) accomplishments—the opening to China, triangular diplomacy with China and the Soviet Union, shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East—but sees politics and personal ambition as the driving force of policy. This is unfair to Kissinger (and to Nixon, for that matter) ... His three-volume memoirs get short shrift in Schwartz’s book but they are—especially the first two volumes—among the best-written and informative memoirs of any American policymaker ... Kissinger...is not the war criminal or the Machiavellian demon that his detractors make him out to be. He was a great if flawed public servant—above all a patriot who like Bismarck, traveled the current of history and attempted, however imperfectly, to steer the nation to safety and security.
... [a] deeply researched, first-rate narrative ... This richly detailed investigation will find an appreciative audience among Cold War scholars and current history readers.
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.
The author downplays some of the more 'thundering moral pronouncements of condemnations' leveled at Kissinger over the years ... 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.
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.
