Sydney M. Williams
February 18, 2023
“For a nation to pretend to total autonomy is a form of nostalgia;
reality dictates that every nation – even the most powerful – adapt its
conduct to the capability and purposes of its neighbors and rivals.”
Henry Kissinger (1923-)
Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy 2022
The leaders Kissinger discusses were forged in the crucible of the Second World War, the three oldest as players, the three youngest as observers. They were all classically educated, at a time when character was emphasized; they were intelligent, aspirant, and advanced to positions of authority based on merit. They had a positive effect on the world they inherited. Kissinger writes: “…[In] the unending contest between the willed and the inevitable, [they] understood that what seems inevitable becomes so by human agency.”
Another author might have selected different leaders; this list comprises those whom Kissinger knew, worked with, and respected. The central foreign policy challenges of this period – the end of World War II through the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 – the rebuilding of Europe and Japan and the building of a world order; the Cold War; and the struggle between liberty and tyranny. While each was unique, these six had in common directness and boldness, and they were unafraid of offending entrenched interests.
Through biographical sketches, Kissinger presents a history of those forty-five years, which saw the economic and political revival of former Axis powers, the end of European imperialism, the birth and struggle of new nations, and the collapse of the Soviet Union:
Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967): He served as Mayor of Cologne from 1917 until 1933. “As an adult,” Kissinger writes, “Adenauer had experienced the German state’s three post-Bismarck configurations…under the Kaiser…under the Weimar Republic…and under Hitler, culminating in self-destruction and disintegration.” He was elected the Federal Republic of Germany’s first post-War Chancellor. In ten years, his Country had become a full partner in Europe and the Atlantic Alliance.
Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970): “A sensitive reader and author of poetry as a child…The virtue of self-mastery, sketched in his journal, was to become a central feature of his character.” During the War, he kept alive the concept of sovereign France, saying she must be on the side of victory. “If she is,” Kissinger quotes from de Gaulle’s journal, “she will become what she was before, a great and independent nation. That, and that alone, is my goal.” De Gaulle restored the dignity of France.
Richard Nixon (1913-1994): Kissinger served as Nixon’s Secretary of State, so knew him well. He doesn’t shy from his faults. There was the decisive and thoughtful Nixon, the one he describes in this book. But there was also the insecure Nixon “uncertain of his authority and plagued by a nagging self-doubt.” We are told that Nixon’s foreign policy views were “more nuanced than his critics’ perception of them.” “The essence of Nixon’s diplomacy lay in his disciplined application of American power and national purpose…,” with the opening of China his principal accomplishment.
Anwar Sadat (1918-1981): “Of the individuals profiled in this volume,” Kissinger writes, “Sadat was the one whose philosophical and moral vision constituted the greatest breakthrough for his time and context.” “His policies,” he adds, “flowed organically from his personal reflections and his own interior transformations.” He believed “that Egypt’s freedom would be achieved through independence…His aim was to resurrect an ancient dialogue between Jews and Arabs…their histories were meant to intertwine.” This he did, as Egypt’s President from October 1970, until he was assassinated on October 6, 1981.
Lee Kuan Yew (1923-2015): The first Prime Minister of an independent Singapore, he served from 1959 until 1990. Singapore is an authoritarian state, but Lee’s rigorous enforcement of the city-state’s laws has made it one of the least corrupt nations in the world. In a world of relaxed Western morals, which Lee saw as “freedom run amok,” he was a pragmatist. He preferred a market economy to statism, because it produces higher growth rates. He sought talented foreigners and brought women into the workforce, because he could not achieve his goals without them. “I was never,” Kissinger quotes Lee, “a prisoner of any theory. What guided me were reasons of reality.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013): She was brought up in rooms above her father’s store, “lacking hot water and an indoor bathroom.” A graduate of Oxford with a degree in chemistry, she was turned down for a research job at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI): “This woman is headstrong, obstinate, and dangerously self-opinionated,” was ICI’s internal assessment. Ironically, those qualities led to her political success. Thatcher, Kissinger writes, “was an implacable advocate of self-determination…in the right of citizens to choose their own form of government…and in the responsibility of states to exercise sovereignty on their own behalf.” She restored England’s economy, her sense of dignity and self-respect, in a world where she was no longer hegemonic.
The world in which these six leaders lived had changed from an hereditary-aristocratic model prior to World War I to a middleclass-meritocratic one in the post-World War II period. During that time, the sun set on the British Empire, affecting both Egypt and Singapore. World War II saw the collapse of France in 1940, the near collapse of England the same year, and the devastation of Germany by 1945. The United States emerged as the wealthiest and most powerful nation on Earth. None of the six profiled grew up privileged. Two of them – Adenauer and Sadat – spent time in prison. De Gaulle and Lee had to deal with enemy occupiers of their countries. All were students of history.
Henry Kissinger has provided an intimate and masterful history of that time, with an emphasis on six individuals who played out-sized roles. In his conclusion about Thatcher he writes, in words appropriate to all six: “But only love of country and her people can explain how she wielded power and all that she achieved with it.”
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Top reviews from other countries
Nirmal Patel
Kissinger's superb 'essays' on top 6 leaders of the past century
Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on July 14, 2022
