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The clients, 27 at present, pay top-of-the-line fees of about $225,000 for advice about the risks they face with their international investments. Political upheavals, debt crises, pressures to nationalize foreign holdings -- all can affect millions of dollars in private investments. Kissinger, tight-lipped about the nature of the advice, volunteers, "An obvious case is South Africa. They want to know what do I think is going to happen there? In the Middle East? We give them a political risk assessment." Kissinger's advice to prospective clients is blunt: "If they are looking for hot tips, they are not going to get them. We can be useful in strategy, middle-term decisions." What they get, says Eagleburger, is "Henry's fingerspitzengefuhl," his instinctive feel for a situation.
Furio Colombo, president of Fiat, USA, explains why his parent company, * which builds airplane engines, agricultural equipment and airports as well as automobiles, turns to Kissinger Associates: "He understands not just the external factors but the company's inside way of thinking, the different kinds of products, different cultural needs. He is both flexible and deep, two things that don't come together easily."
There is also a personal component: when Fiat Chairman Giovanni Agnelli flies in from Italy, Kissinger has been known to call his wife Nancy and have an extra place set at their next dinner party. The president of one U.S.-based company says that "Kissinger offers not only a valuable geopolitical analysis of the world, but also provides valuable entree and contacts to government and business leaders around the world."
Kissinger bridles when rivals suggest that he trades on his name and contacts. "We are not door openers," he snaps. "Everywhere I have traveled in the past year, the heads of governments receive me. I do not ask them to do a favor for a client, and I don't bring clients in with me." The flare of anger indicates how deeply the criticism stings. He refutes the innuendo: "Some time ago a foreign company offered me $1 million, to be deposited in a Swiss bank the minute the company chairman walked through the door of a certain important finance minister. It would have required one phone call -- the minister was a close personal friend. I turned it down." He also scoffs at critics who say the clients are buying the name. "Nobody continues paying you for your name. You either do something they can justify to their boards, or they drop you." So far only two, in financial trouble, have done so.
In addition to his role as diplomat-for-hire, lecturer and special commentator for ABC, Kissinger composes a newspaper column every month for the Los Angeles Times syndicate. While the column, carried by the Washington Post, is vintage Kissinger in its grand sweep and magisterial voice, his careful avoidance of direct criticism of the Administration has made it less trenchant -- and less influential -- than it might otherwise be. It all adds up to a life that is both lucrative and satisfying. Still, he says, "I would put national service above business, as a general proposition -- if it is important." Then he laughs: "I don't want to sound like I'm looking for a job."