It is written at about the times and events of six leaders, by someone who had experienced, touched, worked with, advised, interviewed, broken bread, travelled with, seen with his own eyes, the leaders’ actions and in-actions at handshaking distance; having seen history in the making and arguably on occasions, instrumental in its making; Time magazine appropriately introduced Henry Kissinger as ‘éminence grise.’
In the book, every leader of choice is introduced with a very informative mini biography, titled with each leader’s strategy of strength. The leaders discussed in the book are historical figures, each covered in a separate chapter such as ‘Konrad Adenauer: The Strategy of Humility,’ ‘Charles de Gaulle: The Strategy of Will,’ ‘Richard Nixon: The Strategy of Equilibrium,’ ‘Anwar Sadat: The Strategy of Transcendence,’ ‘Lee Kuan Yew: The Strategy of Excellence,’ and ‘Margaret Thatcher: The Strategy of Conviction.’
In the introduction to the book Kissinger writes,
“Without leadership, institutions drift, and nations court growing irrelevance and, ultimately, disaster. Leaders think and act at the intersection of two axes: the first, between the past and the future; the second between the abiding values and aspirations of those they lead.
Most leaders are not visionary but managerial….Their distinction can be categorized in to two ideal types: the statesman and the prophet.
For strategies to inspire society, leaders must serve as educators – communicating objectives, assuaging doubts and rallying support.
After serving in the us army during the second world war, kissinger taught history and government at harvard university for twenty years.
He served as national security advisor and secretary of state under richard nixon and gerald ford. A nobel peace laureate (1973), he has also received the presidential freedom medal of liberty.
Leaders can be magnified – or diminished -- by the qualities of those around them.
‘Strategy’ describes the conclusion a leader reaches under these conditions of scarcity, temporality, competition and fluidity…strategic leadership may be likened to traversing a tightrope….
The penalty for excessive ambition – what the Greeks called hubris – is exhaustion, while the price for resting on one’s laurels is progressive insignificance and eventual decay.”
Kissinger’s erudition and his larger-than-life persona, reflect from page after page, with references to art, philosophy, poetry, literature and of course history.
However, reading the book, one also learns that in the grand scheme of things, often the only individuals that mattered were the leaders. The lesser mortals were deemed dispensable: in scores, in hundreds, in thousands, some for and some as direct consequences of some leader’s wishes. As in the game of chess the pawns were there to be sacrificed, to protect the queen and to save the king.
I recommend this must-read book to everyone, including those of our leaders who have a conscience and a willingness and hunger… for knowledge and a desire to learn from the exemplary leaders and from this inspiring book itself.
Here is a statement from the great man himself:
‘In this book I tried to show how it was done by some people in different times. It is not a cookbook; it’s supposed to inspire some reflection.’
---Henry Kissinger in his interview with Time magazine July 25 / August 1, 2022. 
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