Henry Kissinger is a Nobel Peace Prize winner branded by many as a war criminal. To call him controversial is to state the obvious. In his biography of the foreign policy scholar, advisor to power and onetime Secretary of State, Thomas A. Schwartz focuses on the policies Kissinger pursued rather than his personal life, albeit certain details are mentioned as formative. As a teenager, Kissinger fled Nazi Germany and was marked with paranoia and distrust of movements, left or right, that promised upheaval. The author, who teaches at Vanderbilt University, approaches Kissinger fairmindedly but not uncritically, identifying the “balance of power” strategy behind his foreign policy and the tactical willingness to ally America with distasteful foreign leaders in the pursuit of that balance.
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