Leaders & Notable People
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Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy
An instant New York Times bestseller
Henry Kissinger, consummate diplomat and statesman, examines the strategies of six great twentieth-century figures and brings to life a unifying theory of leadership and diplomacy
"An extraordinary book, one that braids together two through lines in the long and distinguished career of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger...In Leadership he presents a fascinating set of historical case studies and political biographies that blend the dance and the dancer, seamlessly." - James Stavridis, The Wall Street Journal
"Leaders," writes Henry Kissinger in this compelling book, "think and act at the intersection of two axes: the first, between the past and the future; the second, between the abiding values and aspirations of those they lead. They must balance what they know, which is necessarily drawn from the past, with what they intuit about the future, which is inherently conjectural and uncertain. It is this intuitive grasp of direction that enables leaders to set objectives and lay down a strategy."
In Leadership, Kissinger analyses the lives of six extraordinary leaders through the distinctive strategies of statecraft, which he believes they embodied. After the Second World War, Konrad Adenauer brought defeated and morally bankrupt Germany back into the community of nations by what Kissinger calls "the strategy of humility." Charles de Gaulle set France beside the victorious Allies and renewed its historic grandeur by "the strategy of will." During the Cold War, Richard Nixon gave geostrategic advantage to the United States by "the strategy of equilibrium." After twenty-five years of conflict, Anwar Sadat brought a vision of peace to the Middle East by a "strategy of transcendence." Against the odds, Lee Kuan Yew created a powerhouse city-state, Singapore, by "the strategy of excellence." And, though Britain was known as "the sick man of Europe" when Margaret Thatcher came to power, she renewed her country's morale and international position by "the strategy of conviction."
To each of these studies, Kissinger brings historical perception, public experience and-because he knew each of the subjects and participated in many of the events he describes-personal knowledge. Leadership is enriched by insights and judgements that only Kissinger could make and concludes with his reflections on world order and the indispensability of leadership today.
Henry Kissinger, consummate diplomat and statesman, examines the strategies of six great twentieth-century figures and brings to life a unifying theory of leadership and diplomacy
"An extraordinary book, one that braids together two through lines in the long and distinguished career of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger...In Leadership he presents a fascinating set of historical case studies and political biographies that blend the dance and the dancer, seamlessly." - James Stavridis, The Wall Street Journal
"Leaders," writes Henry Kissinger in this compelling book, "think and act at the intersection of two axes: the first, between the past and the future; the second, between the abiding values and aspirations of those they lead. They must balance what they know, which is necessarily drawn from the past, with what they intuit about the future, which is inherently conjectural and uncertain. It is this intuitive grasp of direction that enables leaders to set objectives and lay down a strategy."
In Leadership, Kissinger analyses the lives of six extraordinary leaders through the distinctive strategies of statecraft, which he believes they embodied. After the Second World War, Konrad Adenauer brought defeated and morally bankrupt Germany back into the community of nations by what Kissinger calls "the strategy of humility." Charles de Gaulle set France beside the victorious Allies and renewed its historic grandeur by "the strategy of will." During the Cold War, Richard Nixon gave geostrategic advantage to the United States by "the strategy of equilibrium." After twenty-five years of conflict, Anwar Sadat brought a vision of peace to the Middle East by a "strategy of transcendence." Against the odds, Lee Kuan Yew created a powerhouse city-state, Singapore, by "the strategy of excellence." And, though Britain was known as "the sick man of Europe" when Margaret Thatcher came to power, she renewed her country's morale and international position by "the strategy of conviction."
To each of these studies, Kissinger brings historical perception, public experience and-because he knew each of the subjects and participated in many of the events he describes-personal knowledge. Leadership is enriched by insights and judgements that only Kissinger could make and concludes with his reflections on world order and the indispensability of leadership today.
Editorial Reviews
"An extraordinary book, one that braids together two through lines in the long and distinguished career of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The first is grand strategy: No practical geopolitical thinker has more assuredly mastered the way the modern global system works or how nations use the tools of statecraft to bend an often-resistant world to their will. But Mr. Kissinger is also an astute observer of the personal element in strategy-the art and science of leadership, or how, on the executive level, ‘decisions [are] made, trust earned, promises kept, a way forward proposed.' In Leadership he presents a fascinating set of historical case studies and political biographies that blend the dance and the dancer, seamlessly." -James Stavridis, The Wall Street Journal
"Although Kissinger, now aged 99, has not held office since 1977, he has advised virtually every US president since Nixon. . . . Elder statesman is an overused term but Kissinger is the genuine article, and worth listening to." -Financial Times
"A must read. . . . [Kissinger] continues to contribute to our understanding of the world. His books-including this one-will hopefully be read well into the future. Indeed, our present and future leaders would benefit from reading all of Kissinger's books. They are timeless." -New York Journal of Books
Kissinger's combination of historical awareness, personal familiarity with the leaders, and diplomatic experience provides for a cogent read on the iconic statesmen of the Cold War era." -The New Criterion
"Kissinger fulfills expectations with a reflective, contextual analysis of 20th century political leaders he knew. . . . Recommended for Kissinger's distinctive perspectives imbedded in scholarly, readable prose." -Library Journal (starred review)
"One of America's most legendary diplomats finds the soul in statecraft in these enlightening sketches of world leaders. . . . Kissinger infuses his lucid policy analyses with colorful firsthand observations. . . . Kissinger's portraits of politicians spinning weakness and defeat into renewed strength are captivating. This is a vital study of power in action." -Publishers Weekly
"Although Kissinger, now aged 99, has not held office since 1977, he has advised virtually every US president since Nixon. . . . Elder statesman is an overused term but Kissinger is the genuine article, and worth listening to." -Financial Times
"A must read. . . . [Kissinger] continues to contribute to our understanding of the world. His books-including this one-will hopefully be read well into the future. Indeed, our present and future leaders would benefit from reading all of Kissinger's books. They are timeless." -New York Journal of Books
Kissinger's combination of historical awareness, personal familiarity with the leaders, and diplomatic experience provides for a cogent read on the iconic statesmen of the Cold War era." -The New Criterion
"Kissinger fulfills expectations with a reflective, contextual analysis of 20th century political leaders he knew. . . . Recommended for Kissinger's distinctive perspectives imbedded in scholarly, readable prose." -Library Journal (starred review)
"One of America's most legendary diplomats finds the soul in statecraft in these enlightening sketches of world leaders. . . . Kissinger infuses his lucid policy analyses with colorful firsthand observations. . . . Kissinger's portraits of politicians spinning weakness and defeat into renewed strength are captivating. This is a vital study of power in action." -Publishers Weekly
Readers Top Reviews
Nirmal Patel
This is Kissinger's last book. But it is easily the first of Kissinger's books that you should read. Especially the chapter on Richard Nixon. This is where the more mature Kissinger as author makes his role as diplomat subservient to the main leadership role played by Nixon as President. Also, this book is a primer to reading other more complex books on diplomacy by Kissinger himself and also educates you in the first steps of reading about diplomacy to appreciate other books by other diplomats of the USA.
Prof Tom PlateDr Mer
Vintage Kissinger -- filled with useful insights, backed by precise research work by staff....highly recommended
Cameron Cullen
There aren’t many men who have a book published in their hundredth year. And more impressive is that it’s written well and bears relevance on our own age of flux. Kissinger is a name that resonated through the politics of the mid-twentieth century. In this study he chooses six world leaders. He imparts his perceptions of them, with the advantage of personal experience. That rather ties those choices to a specific time frame. It also plays safe to a great extent. You’d have to be fifty or over in 2022 to feel affected by the Thatcher era at first hand. And even older to recall Nixon’s fall from grace. For some, these are distant figures that might not spark great interest today. He doesn’t shy away from addressing Nixon, with whom he shares a personal history. The difficult questions and issues from that era aren’t ignored. But if you want more detail, then you’ll have to peruse Kissinger’s earlier books. It’s that first-hand knowledge and formidable memory that make this book interesting. Kissinger has an astute mind, and has much insight into his subjects. Unlike many historians, he can delineate with careful precision. His rhetoric is both eloquent and subtle. To chart an uncertain world in transition, we look to the past for inspiration. History is not a fixed paradigm, but a concept that is always reflected against our present age. But also it raises concern because we fear falling backwards as a civilization. Kissinger chooses; Konrad Adenauer, who restored a Germany devastated by defeat. Charles de Gaulle, the negotiator who gave France strength of victory after defeat. Richard Nixon, who forged ahead against the difficult backdrop of Vietnam. Anwar Sadat, who became a figurehead for peace in the Middle East. Lee Kwan Yew, who transformed Singapore into something that defined excellence. Margaret Thatcher, whose conviction transformed a country into a strong international player. The six choices are not immediately obvious, but they are all the better for that. There’s controversy here, but also the balance line of history. There’s much contrast here in choosing disparate leaders. If one theme binds them all, it may be the ability to transform a country or state as a form of illusion. The qualities needed transcend democracy and lapse into mysticism. The cult of personality looms large. The spirit of finding virtue and progress through the conviction of ideals. Anyone looking for a critique of leaders today in positions of power must look elsewhere. That might be an inconvenient aspect in an age of restless expectation. It would have been interesting to have the author address some of the worst leaders, past and present. But the book and the author wants to guide us to better things, by way of better leaders.
Dr. M.
To me Charles deGaulle was a petty & irritating leader. Not after reading this masterpiece of a book. All of the 6 leaders in this book, including Charles deGaulle, were first class pioneers who achieved greatness by serving their countries in unique and crucially important ways. Kissinger knew them all personally. He describes what they accomplished, how they did it, the opposition they had to overcome and their personalities. One particular episode brought tears to my eyes. It concerned Charles deGaulle playing patty-cake with his young daughter who had Down's syndrome. Instead of aborting their daughter, the deGaulle's decided to let her live and to bring her up themselves. A courageous decision and one that Charles explains helped him to succeed politically.
Short Excerpt Teaser
1
Konrad Adenauer:
The Strategy of Humility
The Necessity of Renewal
In January 1943, at the Casablanca Conference, the Allies proclaimed that they would accept nothing less than the 'unconditional surrender' of the Axis powers. US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was the driving force behind the announcement, sought to deprive any successor government to Hitler of the ability to claim that it had been deluded into surrender by unfulfilled promises. Germany's complete military defeat, together with its total loss of moral and international legitimacy, led inexorably to the progressive disintegration of the German civil structure.
I observed this process as part of the 84th Infantry Division of the US army as it moved from the German border near the industrial Ruhr territory to the Elbe River near Magdeburg - just 100 miles away from the then-raging Battle of Berlin. As the division was crossing the German border, I was transferred to a unit responsible for security and prevention of the guerrilla activity that Hitler had ordered.
For a person like me, whose family had fled the small Bavarian city of FŸrth six years earlier to escape racial persecution, no greater contrast with the Germany of my youth could have been imagined. Then, Hitler had just annexed Austria and was in the process of dismembering Czechoslovakia. The dominant attitude of the German people verged on the overbearing.
Now, white sheets hung from many windows to signify the surrender of the population. The Germans, who a few years earlier had celebrated the prospect of dominating Europe from the English Channel to the Volga River, were cowed and bewildered. Thousands of displaced persons - deported from Eastern Europe as forced labor during the war - crowded the streets in quest of food and shelter and the possibility of returning home.
It was a desperate period in German history. Food shortages were severe. Many starved, and infant mortality was twice that of the rest of Western Europe. The established exchange of goods and services collapsed; black markets took its place. Mail service ranged from impaired to nonexistent. Rail service was sporadic and transport by road made extremely difficult by the ravages of war and the shortage of gasoline.
In the spring of 1945, the task of occupying forces was to institute some kind of civil order until trained military government personnel could replace combat troops. This occurred around the time of the Potsdam conference in July and August (of Churchill/Attlee, Truman and Stalin). At that summit, the Allies divided Germany into four occupation zones: for the United States, a southern portion containing Bavaria; for Britain, the industrial northern Rhineland and Ruhr Valley; for France, the southern Rhineland and territory along the Alsatian border; and for the Soviets, a zone running from the Elbe River to the Oder-Neisse Line, which formed the new Polish frontier, reducing prewar German territory by nearly a quarter. The three Western zones were each placed under the jurisdiction of a senior official of the occupying powers with the title of high commissioner.
German civil governance, once demonstrably efficient and unchallengeable, had come to an end. Ultimate authority was now exercised by occupation forces down to the county (Kreis) level. These forces maintained order, but it took the better part of eighteen months for communications to be restored to predictable levels. During the winter of 1945-6, fuel shortages obliged even Konrad Adenauer, who was to become chancellor four years later, to sleep in a heavy overcoat.
Occupied Germany carried not only the burden of its immediate past but also of the complexity of its history. In the seventy-four years since unification, Germany had been governed successively as a monarchy, a republic and a totalitarian state. By the end of the war, the only memory of stable governance harked back to unified Germany's beginning, under the chancellorship of Otto von Bismarck (1871-90). From then until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the German empire was hounded by what Bismarck would call the 'nightmare' of hostile external coalitions provoked into existence by Germany's military potential and intransigent rhetoric. Because unified Germany was stronger than any of the many states surrounding it and more populous than any save Russia, its growing and potentially dominant power turned into the permanent security challenge of Europe.
After the First World War, the newly established Weimar Republic was impoverished by inflation and economic crises and considered itself abused by the punitive provisions included in the postwar Treaty of Versailles. Under Hitler after 1933, Germany sought to impose its tota...
Konrad Adenauer:
The Strategy of Humility
The Necessity of Renewal
In January 1943, at the Casablanca Conference, the Allies proclaimed that they would accept nothing less than the 'unconditional surrender' of the Axis powers. US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was the driving force behind the announcement, sought to deprive any successor government to Hitler of the ability to claim that it had been deluded into surrender by unfulfilled promises. Germany's complete military defeat, together with its total loss of moral and international legitimacy, led inexorably to the progressive disintegration of the German civil structure.
I observed this process as part of the 84th Infantry Division of the US army as it moved from the German border near the industrial Ruhr territory to the Elbe River near Magdeburg - just 100 miles away from the then-raging Battle of Berlin. As the division was crossing the German border, I was transferred to a unit responsible for security and prevention of the guerrilla activity that Hitler had ordered.
For a person like me, whose family had fled the small Bavarian city of FŸrth six years earlier to escape racial persecution, no greater contrast with the Germany of my youth could have been imagined. Then, Hitler had just annexed Austria and was in the process of dismembering Czechoslovakia. The dominant attitude of the German people verged on the overbearing.
Now, white sheets hung from many windows to signify the surrender of the population. The Germans, who a few years earlier had celebrated the prospect of dominating Europe from the English Channel to the Volga River, were cowed and bewildered. Thousands of displaced persons - deported from Eastern Europe as forced labor during the war - crowded the streets in quest of food and shelter and the possibility of returning home.
It was a desperate period in German history. Food shortages were severe. Many starved, and infant mortality was twice that of the rest of Western Europe. The established exchange of goods and services collapsed; black markets took its place. Mail service ranged from impaired to nonexistent. Rail service was sporadic and transport by road made extremely difficult by the ravages of war and the shortage of gasoline.
In the spring of 1945, the task of occupying forces was to institute some kind of civil order until trained military government personnel could replace combat troops. This occurred around the time of the Potsdam conference in July and August (of Churchill/Attlee, Truman and Stalin). At that summit, the Allies divided Germany into four occupation zones: for the United States, a southern portion containing Bavaria; for Britain, the industrial northern Rhineland and Ruhr Valley; for France, the southern Rhineland and territory along the Alsatian border; and for the Soviets, a zone running from the Elbe River to the Oder-Neisse Line, which formed the new Polish frontier, reducing prewar German territory by nearly a quarter. The three Western zones were each placed under the jurisdiction of a senior official of the occupying powers with the title of high commissioner.
German civil governance, once demonstrably efficient and unchallengeable, had come to an end. Ultimate authority was now exercised by occupation forces down to the county (Kreis) level. These forces maintained order, but it took the better part of eighteen months for communications to be restored to predictable levels. During the winter of 1945-6, fuel shortages obliged even Konrad Adenauer, who was to become chancellor four years later, to sleep in a heavy overcoat.
Occupied Germany carried not only the burden of its immediate past but also of the complexity of its history. In the seventy-four years since unification, Germany had been governed successively as a monarchy, a republic and a totalitarian state. By the end of the war, the only memory of stable governance harked back to unified Germany's beginning, under the chancellorship of Otto von Bismarck (1871-90). From then until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the German empire was hounded by what Bismarck would call the 'nightmare' of hostile external coalitions provoked into existence by Germany's military potential and intransigent rhetoric. Because unified Germany was stronger than any of the many states surrounding it and more populous than any save Russia, its growing and potentially dominant power turned into the permanent security challenge of Europe.
After the First World War, the newly established Weimar Republic was impoverished by inflation and economic crises and considered itself abused by the punitive provisions included in the postwar Treaty of Versailles. Under Hitler after 1933, Germany sought to impose its tota...
