The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy

by Jussi M. Hanhimäki

Henry Kissinger dominated American foreign relations like no other figure in recent history. He negotiated an end to American involvement in the Vietnam War, opened relations with Communist China, and orchestrated détente with the Soviet Union. Yet he is also the man behind the secret bombing of Cambodia and policies leading to the overthrow of Chile's President Salvador Allende. Which is more accurate, the picture of Kissinger the skilled diplomat or Kissinger the war criminal?
In The Flawed Architect , the first major reassessment of Kissinger in over a decade, historian Jussi Hanhimaki paints a subtle, carefully composed portrait of America's most famous and infamous statesman. Drawing on extensive research from newly declassified files, the author follows Kissinger from his beginnings in the Nixon administration up to the current controversy fed by Christopher Hitchens over whether Kissinger is a war criminal. Hanhimaki guides the reader through White House power struggles and debates behind the Cambodia and Laos invasions, the search for a strategy in Vietnam, the breakthrough with China, and the unfolding of Soviet-American detente. Here, too, are many other international crises of the period--the Indo-Pakistani War, the Yom Kippur War, the Angolan civil war--all set against the backdrop of Watergate. Along the way, Hanhimaki sheds light on Kissinger's personal flaws--he was obsessed with secrecy and bureaucratic infighting in an administration that
self-destructed in its abuse of power--as well as his great strengths as a diplomat. We see Kissinger negotiating, threatening and joking with virtually all of the key foreign leaders of the 1970s, from Mao to Brezhnev and Anwar Sadat to Golda Meir.
This well researched account brings to life the complex nature of American foreign policymaking during the Kissinger years. It will be the standard work on Kissinger for years to come.

Genres: Politics, United States, History, American History, Nonfiction, Biography

576 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

An immense, well-researched look at Kissinger's dominance of American foreign policy during the 1970s. Much of interest here, though much is skimped on by the author: the October War of 1973 and Kissie's "shuttle diplomacy" gets short thrift (Patrick Tyler's work on this can be recommended), the dealings with Pinochet are hardly mentioned at all, and East Timor has a teeny bit. Informative as to how Kissie dominated Nixon's foreign policy establishment through secrecy and paranoia, largely an offshoot of Tricky Dick's own Byzantine White House. The Ford era gets equal time here with its concomitant descent of Kissie's value and reputation. Weirdly, the author concludes that Henry isn't a war criminal, but rather flawed in his amorality, disdain for the human costs of his actions, and infuriatingly misguided view of a bipolar Cold War world with little attention paid to local/regional issues. The author says we can only find Kissie guilty if we do the same for every US Prez since Truman

[Jeff St · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a tremendous look into the riddle of HAK. Written with a discipline and vigor that takes an honest, open look at Kissinger's great effect for good and evil on virtually every citizen who's walked the earth for the last 50 years. A must read for those interested in the wheels of power and the people who spin them.

[Nicholas Lecchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

In truth, I'd probably give this book 4.5 stars, but I'm feeling generous.

For anyone with even a passing interest in the history of the Cold War, this book is an absolute must-read. Although The Flawed Architect is far from the most exhaustive biographical exploration of Kissinger's life and career, Hanhimäki's analysis (predominantly focused as it is on the period between 1968 and 1976) still covers an extraordinary amount of ground and does a great job contextualizing and assessing most of the major controversies associated with his subject's time in the halls of power.

Hanhimäki's negative verdict on Kissinger as a man who ultimately committed many of the same errors as his ideological adversaries and political predecessors, is, furthermore, a fair but sobering judgment impelling some serious reflection on the nature of America's orientation towards those countless supporting actors in the Cold War's geopolitical drama.