Nixon and Kissinger; Partners in Power

New York, N.Y.: HarperCollins Books, 2007. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good/Very good. xii, 740 pages. Illustrations. Acknowledgments. Sources. Notes. Bibliography. Photo Credit. Index. Slightly shaken and cocked. Bottom edge stained. Includes Part One--Brethren of a Kind (Nixon, Kissinger, and 1968); Part Two--The Limits of Power (The Nixon-Kissinger White House; Hope and Illusion; The Politics of Foreign Policy; Troubles Galore; Crisis Managers; Winter of Discontent); Part Three--The Best of Times (The Road to Détente, Détente in Asia: Gains and Losses; The Warriors as Peacemakers; Tainted Victories; Part Four--The Worst of Times--New Miseries; In the Shadow of Watergate; The Nixon-Kissinger Presidency; and The End of a Presidency. Inscribed by the author on the title page. Inscription reads: To: John Fogarty, With Warm Good Wishes, Robert Dallek. Robert A. Dallek (born May 16, 1934) is an American historian specializing in the presidents of the United States, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon. He retired as a history professor at Boston University in 2004 and previously taught at Columbia University, the University of California, Los Angeles, and Oxford University. He won the Bancroft Prize for his book Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945 as well as other awards. In 2007 Dallek published Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power, which claims that they were visionaries and cynics at the same time, in an attempt to explain the ups and down of their diplomatic careers. The book was a finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in History. Tapping into a wealth of recently declassified archives, Robert Dallek uncovers fascinating details about Nixon and Kissinger's tumultuous personal relationship and the extent to which they struggled to outdo each other in the reach for achievements in foreign affairs. Dallek also brilliantly analyzes their dealings with power brokers at home and abroad, while recognizing how both men wee continually plotting to distract the American public's attention from the growing scandal of Watergate. With unprecedented detail, Dallek reveals Nixon's erratic behavior during Watergate and the extent to which Kissinger was complicit in trying to help Nixon use national security to prevent his impeachment or resignation. Derived from a Kirkus review: Two men strive to be somebody, and nearly take down a nation along the way. Historian and biographer Dallek observes that neither Richard Nixon nor Henry Kissinger had much patience with psychoanalysis, but that does not deter him from engaging in a little psychobiography: Both Nixon and Kissinger, who were in essence co-presidents for the last months before Nixon resigned in 1974, were driven, needful men, able to apply themselves to the hardest work and quick to align themselves with those who could advance them. Kissinger, for instance, tried to insinuate himself in the Kennedy administration, but, rebuffed, was happy to find a place in Nixon's. As Dallek shows, Nixon and Kissinger were odd partners, each despising and fearing the other; years into their partnership, Kissinger was nearly the only Nixon administration figure to enjoy high standing in the court of public opinion. Much as he may have wanted to, however, Nixon never fired Kissinger, who in turn helped engineer Nixonian triumphs such as the opening of China and the American withdrawal from Vietnam, but who also authored the loss of Vietnam and, though he denied it, the coup in Chile. Dallek effectively relates Nixon and Kissinger's strange relationship, which crumbled after Nixon left office. Along the way, he offers telling notes that a careful reader will link to current events, such as the congressional veto-busting that led to the War Powers Act and Nixon's last-minute appeal, very late in the game, that America should become energy-independent. In the end, a fine, readable and often disturbing look at power and its infinitely corruptible ways.