Kissinger the Negotiator – Lessons from Delamaking at the highest level

Henry Kissinger is rated as the best Secretary of State for the US in the last century. He is credited with path breaking negotiations with China, in West Asia n during the Vietnam War. This book analyses Kissinger’s negotiating skills and comes out with 15 lessons to be learnt. A good book to know what Kissinger did during a brief period of less than a decade in office. Phrases like ‘constructive ambiguity’ are attributed to him by d researchers. However, it can’t be ignored that while China and Rhodesia are bright spots of Kissinger, there are areas where his counterparts turned out shrewder than Kissinger. Special mention needs to be made about d North Vietnam interlocutor Le Duc Tho who had completely outmanoeuvred and outsmarted Kissinger and the Americans. As d book states inter alia, success of any negotiation depends partly on luck too. In Kissinger’s case, he had the skill and luck both playing a part. To understand, one can read this book, although not a must read.