The definitive biography of Henry Kissinger, based on unprecedented
access to his private papers
No American statesman has been as revered and 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 biography, the idea of Kissinger as the ruthless
arch-realist is based on a profound misunderstanding. Drawing not only
on Kissinger's hitherto closed private papers but also on documents from
more than a hundred archives around the world, Ferguson argues that the
true foundation of Kissinger's thought is philosophical
idealism--combined with history itself.
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 the single most important strategic
thinker 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.
