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“David,” Henry Kissinger exclaimed to me in 2017, after a lengthy interview for the obituary that appeared Wednesday evening in The New York Times, “Are you writing one of those articles that will appear when I can no longer argue with its premise?”
He said it with a mischievous sparkle in his eye. In a series of running conversations stretched over roughly seven years, I had told Mr. Kissinger, when he asked, that I was “writing about your life”.
The master of diplomatic nuance knew exactly what that meant. Few who are being interviewed for their own obituary want to be reminded, too explicitly, about their mortality. But Henry Kissinger didn’t become Henry Kissinger without carefully tending his image, and this time he was waiting for an answer to his question.
“Mr. Secretary,” I finally said, “knowing you, you’ll find a way.” He chuckled, and we moved on.
The fires he ignited burned for decades. It struck me every time I interviewed his friends, his enemies and his friends who became his enemies
That meant interviews with Mr. Kissinger himself, and with those who worked with him, those who clashed with him, those who admired his vision and those who despised his tactics… Mr. Kissinger in London in 2016. Credit…Daniel Leal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
This was a page from an obituary about Henry Kissinger. Credit…Justin Fried/The New York Times
Unlike the images he portrayed to the world, Henry Kissinger was a hard figure to pin down privately. Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Kissinger’s aide, passed along suitable dates for a visit. Credit…Justin Fried/The New York Times
Hawks on Henry Kissinger are typically swans on Richard Nixon. This was a page from an obituary about Henry Kissinger. Credit…Justin Fried/The New York Times
In 2012, Richard Solomon, one of Kissinger’s former aides and by then the president of the United States Institute of Peace, asked me to conduct a public interview of the former secretary at a large event. Credit…Justin Fried/The New York Times
Mr. Kissinger in Salzburg. Hawks on Mr. Kissinger are typically swans on Mr. Nixon. This was a page from an obituary about Henry Kissinger. Credit…Justin Fried/The New York Times
Henry Kissinger in 1990. Hawks on Henry Kissinger are typically swans on Richard Nixon.
