The wise men review

A young Walter Isaacson in published a wonderful biography of Henry Kissinger , which I read this week.

Read steve jobs by walter isaacson

You walk away with a deep view into both the man and the era he shaped. Highly recommended. The Richard Holbrooke biography is another compelling look at a statesman who shaped our current foreign policy. His decisions with regards to both countries play a central role in the biography. My other personal interest here is Chile, where I lived more than a decade ago — another country where Kissinger exercised arguably problematic moral judgment.

The biography is balanced, according to people more expert than me who reviewed the book when it came out 20 years ago. He craved their approval and felt compelled to convert or charm them. Overall, the theme is an unbelievable level of paranoia and secrecy coupled with high IQ brilliance and a historic grasp of grand strategy and negotiation.

The Middle East is a different story. He always seemed busy with something gravely important, impatient with such trivialities as making small talk in the halls or advising his students. When challenges arose, Kissinger became intellectually engaged, almost obsessively so; Nixon became detached, almost eerily so.

Walter isaacson kissinger review

With no personal affection to serve as a foundation for their relationship, what had been a love-hate alliance eventually tilted toward the latter. William Safire was summoned back to write the speech. He was in New Orleans watching Dallas beat Miami in the Super Bowl when suddenly, as if he were an obstetrician, the public address system paged him to call his office.

If it was so secret, Safire asked in response, why had he been paged before eighty thousand fans?