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One reason for Kissinger's exalted reputation as a wonderworker, obviously, is the record of his diplomatic successes. Another is the fact that, with Richard Nixon hampered and crippled by Watergate, Kissinger increasingly looms as the architect as well as the voice of U.S. policy. That, of course, is not quite the case. Kissinger himself always makes it clear that the necessary thrust of the White House is behind his success, but the misperception is understandable. Still another reason is that Kissinger happens to be the right man in the right place at the right time. As London Times Foreign Editor Louis Keren recently put it: "Much of the world, East as well as West, hankers for Superman. The role was thrust upon him, although presumably he did not have to be persuaded." In fact, as Kissinger readily agrees, he did not.
Chain Reaction. Some tradition-oriented European diplomats insist that Kissinger's success is built mainly on naked power politics, as is Soviet foreign policy. "He is a troublemaker out of the 19th century," snaps a ranking French Gaullist. In fact, Kissinger has created a novel personal approach to diplomacy fashioned primarily out of self-confidence, charm, boundless energy, humor when applicable, and an ability to grasp what Kissinger, the once—and perhaps future—scholar, calls "the historical process."
Israel's Deputy Premier Yigal Allon, a friend and former student (see box page 28), describes the triumph another way. "He does his homework," says Allon, who also admires Kissinger's "mastery of detail, quick mind and acute sense of timing." The success of the Secretary's "chain reaction" diplomacy is that Kissinger "manages to make you feel that he is listening to you with great understanding, and yet he is never soft.
He does not antagonize you by coming with a specific plan, although I am sure he has his own ideas. He gives you the feeling that he really cares about you, your country, and the Middle East."
A man with a large measure of self-esteem—some critics call it egomania —Kissinger considers himself a statesman rather than a diplomat. Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's former Chief of Staff, as well as Ambassador to Washington and now Minister of Labor, recalls vividly Kissinger's own definition of the distinction: "The diplomat believes that an international conflict derives from misunderstanding. Therefore he seeks a verbal formula to overcome it. The statesman believes that conflict derives from a difference of interest and confrontation positions. Therefore he tries to change the realities on the ground."
The Secretary believes in taking what he calls a "conceptual approach" to negotiations: he tries to consider not problems or areas but the overall perspective. He carefully judges how far each side in his negotiations is prepared to go. He also tries to avoid getting bogged down in either minute detail or rhetorical polemics. A classic example:
the Egyptian-Israeli disengagement negotiations, which climaxed with Kissinger, in his now famous shuttle diplomacy, making almost daily flights between Jerusalem and President Anwar Sadat's vacation retreat in Aswan.