Word: nixon
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...been 17 years since Henry Kissinger published the second of his three volumes of memoirs, which took him through Richard Nixon's resignation, and some wondered whether he would ever really write this final volume. The Gerald Ford years, after all, were filled with events (communist victories in Vietnam and Cambodia, the end of detente with Russia, arms-control stalemates) that weren't exactly ripe for recounting with relish...
...worth the wait. Kissinger again displays an intellectual ambition, provocativeness and mix of sweep and detail that make other memoirs seem pale. Of course that doesn't mean Years of Renewal (Simon & Schuster; $35) is a relaxing beach read. The narratives and character sketches (including those of Nixon and Ford, excerpted in this issue) are often vivid delights, but they are leavened by meticulous trudges through old battlegrounds (some repetitive of previous volumes) that make up in defensiveness what they lack in concision. To paraphrase a reviewer of one of his first books, 40 years ago: Kissinger...
...enduring successes of the Ford years came not from merely pursuing the pragmatic calculations of the Nixon years. The 1975 Helsinki accord, for example, including its uber-idealistic declaration on human rights, will be "considered by posterity as a landmark in the West's victory over communism," as Kissinger points out. More broadly, the Ford years restored a sense of honesty, openness and morality to the conduct of foreign affairs. In portraying them as years of renewal, Kissinger conveys his appreciation of these values, perhaps even more fully than he did at the time...
Among other things, he wanted me to read the third volume of his memoirs. TIME had published excerpts of the previous two, and he offered us the chance to do so again. I actually liked his book more than he had mine, especially the character sketches of Richard Nixon--which he felt he could do fully only after Nixon's death--and Gerald Ford...
Henry Luce wanted TIME to convey the history of our times through the fascinating characters who make it. The very different personalities and foibles of Nixon, Ford, Clinton and Lewinsky (as well as the insightful look at George W. Bush by Jay Carney and John Dickerson) are all part of that mix this week...