Kissinger was
also the architect who opened the relationship with China and Russia (USSR at
that time) in the post war era. He chatted with Chairman Mao Zedong as friend,
and walked with Leonid Brezhnev in a relax manner despite the seriousness of
the political talk.
In this book,
the story of the 1973 crucial year is actually a portrait of a man named Heinz
(Henry) Alfred Kissinger who played an important role on the foreign policy of
America, not only in that year but also that his trail of formulation of the
foreign policy of America continues to shape and may influence United States
foreign policy today.
The interesting
part is, although Kissinger served as the National Security Advisor in the
beginning of Nixon’s presidency in 1969, he was actually the one who drove the
foreign policy of America than the secretary of state William Rogers.
Because of the
high-skills of diplomacy, Kissinger – born in Furth-Bavaria, Germany in 1923 to
a German-Jewish family – always survives of his diplomat career even the
President of America changes several times. President George W. Bush asked him
to chair the 9/11 Commission in 2002 after the 9/11 attack.
In December
1973, Kissinger awarded Nobel Peace Prize along with Le Duc Tho (Head of the
Central Organizing Commission of the Communist Party of Vietnam) for their
works in negotiating the ceasefires to end the war and restoring peace in
Vietnam, but Le Duc Tho refused the award.
Of course,
there was a lot of works and tasks that had been done by Kissinger aside what
he did in 1973. He has plenty of stories and experiences that people can tell
about, and if we want to know how much or how huge is this, there is alleged
thirty-three tons of archives, making the life of Kissinger in office the most
documented that ever has been.
This book is a
good reference for those who like to dig deeper what happened in 1973
surrounding the foreign policy of America which impacting to the global
situation.
Henry Kissinger
(now 98 years old), of course, is not free with controversy. He remains an
enigmatic figure until today – as usual about a politician.
"Everything
is possible, from angels to demons to economists and politicians" (Paulo
Coelho)
***
Serpong, 12
Jun 2021
Titus J.
