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The October war had ended with both armies hunkered down along the Suez Canal in a hazardous politico-military tangle. Kissinger began the negotiations on disengagement by going to each side and asking, in effect, "What would you like to get out of this situation? What are the minimum requirements with which you would be satisfied?" From then on, it was a matter of trying to reconcile the two positions, trying to make one side see and understand the other's conditions, suggesting subtle adjustments here and there—all the while keeping a basic concept in sight.
Kissinger himself appears to work best when, rather like a playground basketball superstar, he can go one-on-one with a leader who shares his own sense of geopolitical realities. "He always looks for the guy who can deliver," says an aide who has sat in on many of Kissinger's negotiating sessions.
Kissinger's diplomatic success in the Middle East so far is due, in part, to the fact that the October war ended in a stalemate, and both sides were psychologically ready for some kind of settlement. The situation was tailor-made for Kissinger: the Israelis, from sad past experience, greatly distrust the United Nations, and the Russians, besides being wholly committed to the Arab cause, had no diplomatic relations with Israel. But to make progress Kissinger also had to deal with an Arab leader who possessed both courage and imagination. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat turned out to be that kind of man.
Last October, for instance, Sadat took a major political risk by tolerating the encirclement of Egypt's Third Army by Israeli forces in the Sinai.
Moreover, he did not overreact when Israeli troops violated the Oct. 22 cease-fire and surrounded the city of Port Suez. Sadat's restraint allowed Kissinger to make a convincing case to the Israelis that Egypt really wanted an agreement.
Kissinger considers Sadat the outstanding Arab leader, "a man of vision and courage, not concerned about standing up against enormous, difficulties." Egypt's President enthusiastically returns the praise. As Sadat told TIME in a recent interview, "He is a very good man. For the first time, you have a real politician as Secretary of State. He is a man of vision and also a strategist. Above all, he is a man of his word."
Another Middle Easterner who seems to have a conceptual knack for successful bargaining is Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan. He handled many of the negotiations with Sadat —through Kissinger, of course—and has been designated Israel's representative in the disengagement talks with Syria that will begin in Washington this week.
Another Kissinger favorite, surprisingly enough, is French Foreign Minister Michel Jobert, who has been the Secretary's most acerbic critic in European assemblies. Kissinger's superlatives, though, are saved for Chinese Premier Chou Enlai, whom he describes as "the greatest statesman of our era."