Kissinger on Kissinger: Reflections on Diplomacy, Grand Strategy, and Leadership

Winston Lord, Kissinger on Kissinger: Reflections on Diplomacy, Grand Strategy, and Leadership, All Points Books, 2019.

In a series of riveting interviews, America's senior statesman discusses the challenges of directing foreign policy during times of great global tension. 

As National Security Advisor to Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger transformed America's approach to diplomacy with China, the USSR, Vietnam, and the Middle East, laying the foundations for geopolitics as we know them today. 

Nearly fifty years later, escalating tensions between the US, China, and Russia are threatening a swift return to the same diplomatic game of tug-of-war that Kissinger played so masterfully. Kissinger on Kissinger is a series of faithfully transcribed interviews conducted by the elder statesman's longtime associate, Winston Lord, which captures Kissinger's thoughts on the specific challenges that he faced during his tenure as NSA, his general advice on leadership and international relations, and stunning portraits of the larger-than-life world leaders of the era. The result is a frank and well-informed overview of US foreign policy in the first half of the 70s―essential reading for anyone hoping to understand tomorrow's global challenges.

On leadership

(page 2) Any leader has a series of practical problems that obtrude and that circumstances generate, and that I would call the tactical level. Beyond that, he has the task of taking his society from where it is to where it has never been. That's the challenge of leadership, to build arising circumstances into a vision of the future.... 

With respect to the leadership part, the qualities most needed are character and courage. Character because the decisions that are really tough 51 - 49.

Taiwan issue

(page 31) There had been 136 meetings in Geneva and Warsaw that all broke up on this issue: the United States would demand that China proclaim that it would solve the problem only peacefully. The Chinese demanded that we agree to the principles of Taiwan returning to China, and that there would be only one China.

(page 33) So did you and Nixon understand that by having a relationship with China, it would not hurt your relationship with the Soviet Union, but in fact might improve it?

One was the one Winston mentioned before. We did not want Russia to be the sole spokesman of the communist world; we wanted to split it. Second, we wanted to engage in an initiative that showed that we has a global view, and not just the regional view of Vietnam. Third, we thought we might, if it worked, balance China against Russia. And we believed that these objectives were so important that Nixon was willing to run the risk of Soviet displeasure. We did not know how the Soviet Union would react.  

(page 57) Are yet he was willing to take that risk. He didn't come to you and say, "Henry, I've got to worry about domestic concerns."

No, Nixon asked,  "Is it in the national interest? And what are we trying to achieve?" And he had that motto, "You pay the same price for doing something halfway as for doing it completely, so you might as well do it completely." So once Nixon was convinced of the direction of a course, he would usually take the most sweeping solution that was presented to him, or invent one.