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A review by swagavad_gita
Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger, Γιούρι Κοβαλένκο
3.0
There is Kissinger the statesman and Kissinger the intellectual. And while I maintain bottomless contempt for the former, whose policy workings stirred chaos instead of order and killed innocent people, I am surprised by the latter. This book surveys just what exactly diplomacy is. It’s a masterclass genealogy of diplomatic relations beginning with Cardinal Richelieu and ending with the fall of the Berlin Wall. He gets a star for the sheer amount of research that went into this thing. His sources comprise 50 pages of single-spaced size 10 font.
On top of that, it’s funny to read his descriptions of various world leaders. He swoons for Nixon the same way he swoons for Bismarck. He describes Stalin’s foreign policy with such reverence that one can only extrapolate admiration from Kissinger. He will call Wilsonian idealism misguided and feckless while spending 100 pages blaming everyone else for our failures in Vietnam. This tome has everything a student of foreign policy, international relations, or history could want. It’s just a shame a war criminal wrote it.
On top of that, it’s funny to read his descriptions of various world leaders. He swoons for Nixon the same way he swoons for Bismarck. He describes Stalin’s foreign policy with such reverence that one can only extrapolate admiration from Kissinger. He will call Wilsonian idealism misguided and feckless while spending 100 pages blaming everyone else for our failures in Vietnam. This tome has everything a student of foreign policy, international relations, or history could want. It’s just a shame a war criminal wrote it.