The World in Their Hands

Margaret MacMillan reviews Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power by Robert Dallek, in the Washington Post:

Screenhunter_03_may_16_0151So close was the partnership between Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger that one historian has talked of a “Nixinger” foreign policy. In the first 100 days of his presidency, Nixon met with Kissinger, then his national security adviser, 198 times; by contrast, William Rogers, the secretary of State, met with the president only 30 times.

Nixon and Kissinger shared a similar view of the world — that nations should act to promote their own interests and to encourage international stability. Both worried about what Vietnam had done and was continuing to do to the United States; both wanted to mend relations with their allies, particularly in Europe; and both wanted a better understanding, including arms control agreements, with the Soviet bloc. Yet they were never friends, and both tried to take credit for the administration’s foreign policy successes.

More here.