Books, Arts & Manners: A Cool View of the Cold War

More Precious than Peace, by Peter W. Rodman (Scribner’s, 654 pp., $35)

Machiavelli said that only great leaders dare to have strong advisors. By this definition Henry Kissinger was a great leader indeed. In his eight years as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State he gathered and attracted strong personalities to his entourage. Unlike many other potentates, he liked to have people around who would disagree with him, as long as they were loyal, and especially if they stayed in the background. One of the strongest, most loyal, and most self-effacing was Peter Rodman, who remained in the innermost circle throughout Kissinger’s tenure. His strength was intellectual, his loyalty total, and in contrast to those colleagues of his who shoved many an ambassador into the shrubbery to stand next to Kissinger in the photo ops, one has to search very hard in the archives of the time to catch a fleeting glimpse of Rodman.

JF

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John F. Lehman

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More Precious than Peace, by Peter W. Rodman (Scribner’s, 654 pp., $35)

Machiavelli said that only great leaders dare to have strong advisors. By this definition Henry Kissinger was a great leader indeed. In his eight years as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State he gathered and attracted strong personalities to his entourage. Unlike many other potentates, he liked to have people around who would disagree with him, as long as they were loyal, and especially if they stayed in the background. One of the strongest, most loyal, and most self-effacing was Peter Rodman, who remained in the innermost circle throughout Kissinger’s tenure. His strength was intellectual, his loyalty total, and in contrast to those colleagues of his who shoved many an ambassador into the shrubbery to stand next to Kissinger in the photo ops, one has to search very hard in the archives of the time to catch a fleeting glimpse of Rodman.