"Diplomats are often the heroes of history. They are the men who walk along the edges of battlefields and persuade the belligerents to lay down their arms, turning swords into plowshares. At the dawn of the 19th century, Prince Metternich of Austria famously negotiated a century of peace among the European kingdoms that had fought one another nonstop for a hundred years. He was the model diplomat of his age, and the inspiration for many followers, including the American national security adviser and secretary of state Henry Kissinger.
"Martin Indyk's book places Kissinger in a class with Metternich and other 'masters of the game.' He is not the first to do this. Kissinger has made the case for himself in an outpouring of thick, ponderous books, most especially his more than 3,000 pages of memoirs, published in three volumes. Among modern statesmen, only Winston Churchill wrote more to promote himself."