The gripping history of one of America's most enigmatic and influential foreign policy advisers during a pivotal year in the country's postwar history. By any measure, 1973 should have been Henry Kissinger's year of triumph. But major events--defeat in Vietnam, Watergate, war in the Middle East, the Arab oil embargo--shattered whatever peace and calm America had attained in the early part of the decade. Rather than progressing on all fronts, as he had expected, Kissinger had to confront some of the most critical policy challenges of his career, including the blowup in the Middle East, détente with Russia, and the opening of the door to China.
