Nial Ferguson: Kissinger: Volume I: The Idealist, 1923-1968, Penguin
Risvolto
The definitive biography of Henry Kissinger, based on unprecedented access to his private papers
No
American statesman has been as revered or as reviled as Henry
Kissinger. Once hailed as “Super K”—the “indispensable man” whose advice
has been sought by every president from Kennedy to Obama—he has also
been hounded by conspiracy theorists, scouring his every “telcon” for
evidence of Machiavellian malfeasance. Yet as Niall Ferguson shows in
this magisterial two-volume biography, drawing not only on Kissinger’s
hitherto closed private papers but also on documents from more than a
hundred archives around the world, the idea of Kissinger as the ruthless
arch-realist is based on a profound misunderstanding.
The first
half of Kissinger’s life is usually skimmed over as a quintessential
tale of American ascent: the Jewish refugee from Hitler’s Germany who
made it to the White House. But in this first of two volumes, Ferguson
shows that what Kissinger achieved before his appointment as Richard
Nixon’s national security adviser was astonishing in its own right.
Toiling as a teenager in a New York factory, he studied indefatigably at
night. He was drafted into the U.S. infantry and saw action at the
Battle of the Bulge—as well as the liberation of a concentration
camp—but ended his army career interrogating Nazis. It was at Harvard
that Kissinger found his vocation. Having immersed himself in the
philosophy of Kant and the diplomacy of Metternich, he shot to celebrity
by arguing for “limited nuclear war.” Nelson Rockefeller hired him.
Kennedy called him to Camelot. Yet Kissinger’s rise was anything but
irresistible. Dogged by press gaffes and disappointed by “Rocky,”
Kissinger seemed stuck—until a trip to Vietnam changed everything.
The Idealist is the story of one of the most important strategic thinkers America has ever produced. It is also a political Bildungsroman,
explaining how “Dr. Strangelove” ended up as consigliere to a
politician he had always abhorred. Like Ferguson’s classic two-volume
history of the House of Rothschild, Kissinger sheds dazzling new light on an entire era. The essential account of an extraordinary life, it recasts the Cold War world.
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