Henry Kissinger—diplomat, statesman, and unprosecuted war criminal—examines the strategies of six twentieth-century figures and brings to life a unifying theory of leadership and diplomacy.
As is evident from the subtitle, Six Studies in World Strategy, Kissinger, the geopolitical guru, is most interested in how leaders act on the world stage rather than, say, if they lie to their parliaments or transgress their own laws...At the heart of his political outlook is the notion of strategy, and that in turn is informed by a concept of national interest and power relations that hasn’t changed much since the mid-17th century and the Westphalian settlement...As such, his portrait of Nixon is predictably sympathetic, while not hiding some of the man’s notable character flaws...Unsurprisingly, he hails his efforts in foreign policy, which were all but indistinguishable from Kissinger’s own...The world, viewed through Kissinger’s eyes, is not so very different from the kinds of inter-house machinations dramatised in Game of Thrones, and you could picture him as the Hand of the King, forever whispering fiendish plots and dark truths to a paranoid master...The most finely drawn portrait of the six is of De Gaulle...If a vital aspect of leadership is self-belief, then few leaders have ever displayed more of it in less auspicious circumstances...You sense that Kissinger, who has never undersold himself, admires De Gaulle’s gall, but it’s his statecraft that most commands his respect: 'On every major strategic question facing France and Europe over no fewer than three decades, and against an overwhelming consensus, De Gaulle judged correctly'...That’s a large claim, but then Kissinger prides himself on being able to see the grand sweep of history, undistracted by minor diversions.
It purports to be a series of profiles in power, the subjects being West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, French President Charles de Gaulle, American President Richard Nixon, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...At such a point, a very heavy sigh would be entirely permissible...99 years old, but still, still pushing out the kind of platitudes that not only can be used to excuse the most evil people in the history of the species but that are designed to do exactly that...This rhetoric-as-strategy is obvious right from this book’s cast of characters...A reader might first wonder what Konrad Adenauer is doing drawn among these heartless hinds, but eyebrows might raise at de Gaulle and even Sadat as well...A moment’s thought reveals the beady-eyed rationale behind this grouping; it’s not to pull down good men, it’s to raise up genuine fire-eyed black-pelted yellow-fanged monsters...Henry Kissinger might not be able to climb a flight of stairs anymore, but he’s still capable of telling a lie before he’s even finished his Table of Contents...As he’s winding up this ghastly, conscienceless book, Kissinger contentedly admits that his subjects weren’t always popular...Not everyone admired them or 'subscribed to their policies'...Sometimes, in fact, they faced resistance, and their separate memories still sometimes face such resistance...Almost like there might be debate about their legacies, or something...Leadership might very well be Kissinger’s most mandarin-hateful book, even surpassing 2014’s truly odious World Power...It’s his 19th book...Here’s hoping it’s his last.
Someone looking for a summer read with heroes and villains, far-sighted titans and dastardly domestic subversives could do worse than Henry Kissinger’s new book, Leadership, which could just as easily be titled 'How Henry and His Friends Made History and Why We Should All Be Very, Very Grateful'...The heroes of the story are six of the most important leaders of the second half of the 20th century, all of whom Kissinger, now 99, met and most of whom he worked and socialised with...The leaders all share certain similarities that Kissinger emphasises and which, though it’s not stated, could be said to be shared by Kissinger himself...If you choose to make this story of good and bad, realists and idealists one of your summer selections, you will be rewarded with heroes and villains...Ultimately the purpose is clear...Enjoy your holidays, relax with your silly ideas, but please, please, don’t disturb the great work of brilliant statesmen like Henry and his chums, all of whom know what is good for you better than you could ever understand.
