The Enigmatic Kissinger

Alistair Horne, the writer of the book selected 1973 as the crucial year not only for Kissinger or United States of America but also for the world, because of major events shattered America surrounding the defeat in Vietnam war, Watergate scandal that culminating President Nixon’s resignation, war in the Middle East - the Yom Kippur war, Augusto Pinochet coup d’etat in Chile, and finally the economic collapse caused by Arab oil embargo.

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.

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