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Title: KISSINGER by Walter Isaacson ISBN: 0-671-87236-2 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 October, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.7 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Decent Biography
Comment: Walter Isaacson simply set out to chronicle and highlight to the life and times of Henry Kissinger. What resulted was one of the most comprehensive, insightful, and nonpartisan biographies of the field. Isaacson draws extensively from Kissinger's own memoirs, Years of Upheaval, White House Years, and Years of Renewal, as well as other works written by Kissinger. However, Isaacson also uses other secondary sources written by authors sympathetic and unsympathetic to the former Secretary of State. Yet Isaacson doesn't narrow his focus to any particular period of time in Kissinger's life or career. He details Kissinger's experiences as a university student at Harvard, as a professor there, then as a prominent government figure, then into a full blown public position as National Security Advisor and then Secretary of State. Isaacson does not shy away from controversial topics in or facets of Kissinger's life. He mentions Kissinger's standing as a jet-setter, courting the heads of state and traveling the world, solving, or working to solve, major world problems such as the Vietnam war, the Yom Kippur War, problems with the Soviet Union, and many more. Part of what makes Isaacson's biography a work of quality is his attention to the lesser known events in which Kissinger was a major player. It is up to the reader to judge whether or not Kissinger is biased, manipulative, or any of the other range of qualities, positive or negative, on which Isaacson sheds light. Isaacson, although judgmental at times, simply provides enough material or direction for any reader to make such a choice. It is more than likely that Kissinger is a polarizing figure of such magnitude that any author or biographer simply cannot resist the temptation to judge. Isaacson's work remains, in spite of any judging, a must-have resource for any reader set on inquiring into Kissinger's life and career. It is a very thorough introductory survey of Kissinger despite any shortcomings.
Rating: 2
Summary: Disappointing and shallow
Comment: Isaacson operates on the level of a "gotcha" analysis and revels in endlessly reporting Kissinger's little idiosyncrasies, his daily turf battles and therefore never comes close to touching upon how Kissinger succeeded. Isaacson fails to do this because he is more concerned with attacking Kissinger's character than with explaining how Kissinger's theories and practices made him--which Isaacson occasionally admits--a great player on the world stage. For the student of history and philosophy, which are the disciplines Kissinger himself tells us are indispensible for the statesman, the fact that a statesman is not totally forthcoming or honest in the way that an everyday common man thinks of the terms is far from surprising, and certainly not desirable--not if you want the statesman to be effective, especially in a republic. Socrates and his pupil Plato were proponents of the noble or salutary lie. "How, then, might we contrive one of the opportune falsehoods of which we were just now speaking, so as by one noble lie to persuade if possible the rulers themselves, but failing that the rest of the city?" (_Republic_ 414b-c) This may not be what the uninitiated like to hear but it is reality. Appeals to universal "rights" do not change tens of thousands of years of human evolution. The "divine right" of kings legislated in seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe has its source in the same place as the "natural rights" of man: the metaphysical hinterwelt, alternately used to legitimize political power. Whence the noble lie of our great philosophers. "It is not for nothing that you were so bashful about coming out with your lie." (_Republic_ 414e)
Isaacson constantly tells us what he believes are Kissinger's shortcomings and occassionaly admits that Kissinger was a diplomatic genius and often quite successful at achieving his ends. There is virtually nothing in the way of actual analysis--geopolitical, or, as the more humane like to preach, moral (and there certainly are both geopolitical and moral arguments to be made on Kissinger's behalf)--of how Kissinger's manoeuvers gave the United States the upper hand with the Soviets, pushing them back in Asia and, especially, the Middle East, basically laying the groundwork for the demise of the Soviet Union within a generation. (The Russians are still trying to get back in the Middle East. Kissinger is responsible for them not being there.) This, you can be sure, was not achieved by appealing to Brezhnev's innate sense of morality and justice. Is it not necessary, as Mao Zedong, speaking of the Soviet Union, told Kissinger in one of their meetings, to use means that one would not otherwise employ when dealing with a ruthless bastard?
Doubtless Isaacson approaches Kissinger from the very perspective that Kissinger openly admits he disdains, that of moralizing Wilsonianism--a moralizing that lacks the courage of its convictions you might say. Of course Isaacson does not come out and tell us this; he just assumes the reader shares his populist view (after all, being in the majority makes one "objective") and will agree with him that Kissinger must have been a bad guy because he admired the political skills of Bismark and Richelieu. In fact, Isaacson is fascinated with what he tacitly describes as the nefarious German connection between Kissinger and Bismark and appears ignorant of the fact that Bismark was one of the greatest foreign policy minds of Modern Western politics. That is the side of the Kissinger story Isaacson does not tell us. Mere allusions to Kissinger's successes do not explain them. The result is an 800 page magazine article in the form of a book that never touches the genius of its subject because of the author's inability to move beyond the level of analysis you find in pop news magazines.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Intensely Interesting Biography
Comment: I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book so much. Every time I put it down, I found myself thinking of when I would have time to pick it up and continue reading it. Mr. Isaacson has really grasped his subject matter and written a balanced book. It does not seek to praise or castigate Kissinger. His goal seems to be to present him as objectively as possible, yet not without assessment.
The overarching question that came to me again and again as I read this book concerned integrity. I kept wondering how anyone could believe anything that comes out of Kissinger's mouth. To say he is disingenuous seems to be an understatement. Isaacson brings out the fact that Kissinger would flatter a person and then insult him behind his back. Quite often this would come back to haunt Kissinger.
Isaacson does a masterful job in articulating the "realist" school of foreign policy and the "idealist" school. The realist view sees things in terms of balances of power, whereas the idealist school sees things in terms of promoting American values in foreign policy (like democracy, human rights, etc.). Kissinger, holding to the former school, had no feel for the latter whatsoever. This left his foreign policy open, and I believe rightly so, to criticism from human rights groups and from average Americans who felt we should put our best values forward in conducting foreign affairs.
Isaacson makes the point that Kissinger waited five years until he started his international consulting business. He has literally made millions as a consultant. He was also on the boards of major corporations. While there is nothing unethical in serving in those capacities, he was, at the same time, a paid commentator on foreign affairs for major networks. Just as a judge is bound to excuse himself in a case where he has conflicting interests, it seems to me that Kissinger should have done the same when it came to offering his views about foreign policy concerns. I think it reprehensible that journalists rarely, if ever, brought up his possible conflict of interests. Evidently his flattery routine worked quite well on journalists also. Over the years, I have never read or heard any meaningful criticism of Communist China from Kissinger. Quite the contrary, he seems to be their greatest apologist! Is this because of his realist view of foreign policy? Is it because he has business interests in China? I guess we will never know. So I take what he says with a grain of salt.
Which takes me back to the overarching question of how anyone can believe anything he says. Isaacson's book can't answer that question, but it makes the asking of it necessary.
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Title: The Trial of Henry Kissinger by Christopher Hitchens ISBN: 1859843980 Publisher: Verso Books Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Nixon-Kissinger Years: The Reshaping of American Foreign Policy by Richard C. Thornton, Richard C. Thorton ISBN: 0887020682 Publisher: Paragon House Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Benjamin Franklin : An American Life by Walter Isaacson ISBN: 0684807610 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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Title: A Tangled Web : The Making of Foreign Policy in the Nixon Presidency by William P. Bundy ISBN: 0809016249 Publisher: Hill & Wang Pub Pub. Date: 04 June, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Waging Modern War: Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Future of Combat by Wesley K. Clark ISBN: 1586481398 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 06 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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