1923-1968: The Idealist

Preface

Indeed I cannot conceive a more perfect mode of writing any man s life, than not only relating all the most important events of it in their order, but interweaving what he privately wrote, and said, and thought; by which mankind are enabled as it were to see him live, and to live o er each scene with him, as he actually advanced through the several stages of his life. . . . I will venture to say that he will be seen in this work more completely than any man who has ever yet lived. And he will be seen as he really was; for I profess to write, not his panegyrick, which must be all praise, but his Life. . . . [I]n every picture there should be shade as well as light.

BOSWELL, Life of Johnson1

The task of the biographer, as James Boswell understood, is to enable the reader to see, in her mind s eye, his subject live. To achieve this, the biographer must know his subject. That means reading all that he wrote as well as much that was written about him. It also means, if the subject is living, not merely interviewing him but getting to know him, as Boswell got to know Johnson: conversing with him, supping with him, even traveling with him. The challenge is, of course, to do so without falling so much under the subject s influence that the reader ceases to believe the disclaimer that the work is a life, not a panegyric. Boswell, who grew to love Johnson, achieved this feat in two ways: by making explicit Johnson s boorish manners and slovenly appearance, but also (as Jorge Luis Borges noted) by making himself a figure of fun a straight man to Johnson s wit, an overexcitable Scot to Johnson s dry Englishman.2 My approach has been different.

In addition to the help of all those thanked in the acknowledgments, this author has had one noteworthy advantage over his predecessors: I have had access to Henry Kissinger s private papers, not only the papers from his time in government, housed at the Library of

Niall Ferguson is one of the world's most renowned historians. He is the author of Paper and Iron, The House of Rothschild, The Pity of War, The Cash Nexus, Empire, Colossus, The War of the World, The Ascent of Money, High Financier, Civilization, The Great Degeneration, Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist, and The Square and the Tower. He is Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. His many awards include the Benjamin Franklin Prize for Public Service (2010), the Hayek Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2012) and the Ludwig Erhard Prize for Economic Journalism (2013).

Magisterial .Like Mr. Kissinger or loathe him, this is a work of engrossing scholarship. The Economist
 
 
  Mr. Ferguson offers a remarkably rich discussion of Mr. Kissinger s strategic thought and of how it took shape over time The book is well worth reading as a corrective to harsher historical judgments of Mr. Kissinger. Wall Street Journal
 
If Kissinger s official biographer cannot be accused of falling for his subject s justifiably famed charm, he certainly gives the reader enough evidence to conclude that Henry Kissinger is one of the greatest Americans in the history of the Republic, someone who has been repulsively traduced over several decades and who deserved to have  defense of this comprehensiveness published years ago .Niall Ferguson already has many important, scholarly and controversial books to his credit.  But if the second volume of Kissinger is anywhere near as comprehensive, well written and riveting as the first, this will be his masterpiece. Andrew Roberts, The New York Times Book Review


Combine careful and extensive scholarship, clear writing, and a magnificent subject and you get Niall Ferguson on Kissinger, a genuinely educational read. -George P. Schultz, 60th U.S. Secretary of State

When an accomplished historian writes about one of the world s great diplomats, the results are sure to be a masterpiece -- and that is exactly how to describe Niall Ferguson s epic on Henry Kissinger. -James A. Baker, III, 61st U.S. Secretary of State


This is a terrific biography, and a must read for understanding the evolution of one of the most important and compelling architects of American foreign policy of our age. -Condoleezza Rice, Former Secretary of State and Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business


With all that s been written about Kissinger over so many years, you might think that there d be little new to say. Think