Kissinger: 1973, the Crucial Year Paperback – Illustrated, 29 Jun. 2010

This is an important book for those who wish to be reminded of a period of our history that one should know and remember. Richard Nixon was a great President, and history will say so, in time to come.

Excellent

Watching Fawlty Towers, the habitually tormented Basil retorts "I'm not Henry Kissinger" (Gourmet Night 1975). A thirty something next to me asked Henry WHO? The passage of time is cruel, not that far back he was perhaps the most famous man in the world. Kissinger is now a largely demonised figure. The neo-cons accuse him of appeasing communism while liberals decry him as a vicious sponsor of American self-interest and some even a war criminal. Alistair Horne's book puts Kissinger in context and is largely sympathetic.This book requires knowledge of American politics in the sixties and seventies, the world of an isolated China, a belligerent Russia, and especially Vietnam and Watergate. Horne selects one year but this was no ordinary year, 1973 was probably the most intense period any American president has ever engineered and endured. "Between the murder of President Kennedy...and the terrorist attacks of September 11...Watergate was quite simply the most destructive blow to the body corporate of America" (p168). At the same time Kissinger was creating and managing arguably Americas' most energetic ever period of foreign policy. The events and characters would embarrass a popular thriller writer; the plot is just too overloaded to be credible and normal humans just don't have that much stamina or are that conspiratorial.Kissinger sought to negotiate "peace with honour" extricating the US from Vietnam. The North however had time on their side and were cleverer, they simply went round the diplomatic "Maginot" line. Kissinger's efforts were a failure and American humiliation, and the betrayal South Vietnam, total (yet Kissinger shared a Nobel Peace Prize!). Simultaneously Kissinger and Nixon unlocked relations with China while pursuing detente with Russia. Kissinger made mistakes; his Year of Europe was a failure (Chapter 5) while he was out of his depth in negotiating missile strength (p151). This was a dangerous world, America and Russia had huge nuclear capabilities and wanted more, they bickered over who had the most matches while sitting in a swimming pool filled with gasoline. In Chapter 10 Horne assaults the left liberal received wisdom on Chile, the US and Kissinger's involvement in the demise of Allende. The bulk of the book however deals with the Yom Kippur war, another amazing intelligence failure (why is it American satellites never spot massed armies in the desert?). The intense shuttle diplomacy is described in some detail. And with DEFCON 3 declared (who gave the order no one can remember - Chapter 12) how close were we to World War 3?I found this book absorbing; it shows international politics taking place in real time. Historians typically select a subject (the Vietnam war, arms limitations talks, Yom Kippur, US European relationship etc) in isolation and over longer periods. Horne shows how they were occurring simultaneously, the pace frenetic nothing was conclusive. This is also the weakness of the book, it is fragmented, we see the political process without resolution. Yes Horne is sympathetic to Kissinger but he provides enough material to allow readers to form their own conclusions. At times he is more the journalist than historian. For example he ferociously criticises Edward Heath (p111), the British premier, for daring to take a pro European stance rather than the usual blind obedience to American leadership (in pursuit of the "special relationship"). This book is not Hornes' finest hour and in places self indulgent. Perhaps a little too much time in Kissinger's company?Had Nixon not fallen, had he and Kissinger been able to develop their foreign policy would that have made the world a better place? Kissinger emerges from this book as a sycophant, an immense ego and risk taker. For every door he opened, he slammed shut another. The fear that he might have overplayed his hand, forced confrontations that could not be controlled makes me for one relieved that he left government forming a consulting company - Kissinger Associates - to peddle his expertise (or celebrity) to the great and the gullible. He has also, with his prodigious production of books, been able to enhance his own role as an action oriented intellectual.As for Kissinger at 86 he is now a fading memory, having emerged from academia he is destined to become of interest only to academics. But for a period he was de facto president the most powerful player on the world stage. This is a clever book but one for those seriously interested in the subject.