A Tangled Web: Making of Foreign Policy in the Nixon Presidency

Richard Nixon's accomplishments in foreign affairs - his China policy, detente with the USSR and the conclusion of the Vietnam War - have long been cited as an enduring legacy. Despite the scandal of Watergate, Nixon and Henry Kissinger have maintained their reputations as skilful, wise practitioners of global realpolitik. Those assumptions are reassessed in this account of the Nixon-Kissinger record, which strutinizes not only their policy planning, negotiating techniques, press relations, and political and diplomatic activities, but also short- and long-term gains and losses. Bundy presents an analysis of the modus operandi of Nixon and Kissinger, describing the real dangers of Nixon's manipulative, often deceitful habits and of Kissinger's indifference to the democratic process.

William Bundy has a lifetime of experience in the foreign policy arena; not only did he hold positions in the Defense and State Departments and the CIA throughout the 1950s and 1960s (which led to his becoming one of the protagonists of David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest), he was also the editor of Foreign Affairs magazine for 12 years. So when he turns his attention to the foreign-policy record of the Nixon administration, you can be sure that he speaks from an informed perspective.

A Tangled Web is a detailed history that covers the multiple intricacies of Richard Nixon's dealings with other countries. While recognizing that a discussion of Nixon's foreign policy is inevitably a discussion about Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, he believes that Kissinger's influence has been overestimated. Although Kissinger frequently carried the ball, Bundy's contention is that it was the president who was calling the plays. To extend the metaphor, Bundy takes a hard look at just how much yardage the Nixon team was able to gain on each play. His ultimate judgment--that Nixon's penchant for secrecy and deception led to a dissolution of trust that ultimately weakened America's position as much, if not more, than it strengthened it--is not precisely revelatory, although it has rarely been articulated with such detail. --Ron Hogan