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In forging Washington's new links with Peking and establishing a personal rapport with Chou, Kissinger shrewdly capitalized on China's fears of Soviet expansionism. Tuning, Kissinger readily concedes, has always played a large part in his success as a statesman. But says one Washington friend and admirer: "Sure, a lot of doors open for him. but he walks through them with class."
Flexible Tactician. Kissinger approaches negotiations, not as a lawyer trying to dispose of a case, but as an intellectual and historian. His thorough steeping in the facts about a country and its problems seldom fails to impress government leaders. Although a flexible tactician, he will, if necessary, present a proposal over and over in hopes of getting it accepted. In Paris during 1972. negotiating an end to U.S. participation in the Vietnamese war, Kissinger often worked double sessions, seeing the North and South Vietnamese separately and at length in search of ways to bring the two antagonists closer. He established a respectful relationship with Hanoi's chief representative Le Due Tho. despite his exasperation with the doggedly hortatory North Vietnamese approach to negotiations.
Kissinger has a finely tuned sense of hierarchy and addresses those he deals with in subtly differing ways. When he meets Israeli leaders, for instance, Kissinger calls Golda Meir "Madame Prime Minister," while Dayan and Allon are always "Moshe" and "Yigal." Foreign Minister Abba Eban, by contrast, is simply "Eban." Explains one participant in their talks: "For Mrs. Meir he has high respect, with Dayan good rapport, with Allon comradeship. With Eban there is not much more than a colleague-to-colleague relationship, since Eban is the silent man on the team who does not have much to say." Although Sadat addresses his "dear friend" as "Henry," Kissinger calls the Egyptian leader "Mr. President."
Once he begins negotiations, the particular Kissinger mystique begins to operate, and that in itself is almost a harbinger of success. Wit and humor are key weapons. After many years of conferences and confrontations, he has even relaxed poker-faced Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko to the point that they can kid each other about the recording devices hidden in rooms they are using.
During one sensitive stage of last fall's disengagement negotiations, Kissinger felt that the Israelis were trying to propose more than the Egyptians were prepared to consider. He advised the Israelis to hold back a bit. When an edgy Cabinet minister declared that it would be wrong to offer less than Israel was genuinely willing to concede, Kissinger smiled and answered: "Don't push it. Be despicable—like me." He feels that tension-easing banter can often help negotiations proceed smoothly, which may explain in part his lack of success with relatively humorless Japanese diplomats.