Years of Upheaval

In Years of Upheaval,Henry Kissinger recalls the turbulent years of the second administration of Richard Nixon, which began in January 1973. Two momentous events and their consequences dominate this account: the Watergate scandal, and the 1973 October war in the Middle East.

The book opens at the Western White House in August 1973, when Dr. Kissinger is told by the president during a poolside conversation that he is to become Secretary of State. The memories that follow are a rich compendium of his experiences in the months before and after the appointment: including an eerie trip to Hanoi shortly after the Vietnam cease-fire; efforts to settle the war in Cambodia; the tempestuous Year of Europe; two Nixon-Brezhnev summits and the controversy over détente.

Dr. Kissinger's dramatic, day-by-day account of how the Middle East war was transformed into the beginning of peacemaking shapes the climactic chapters of the book, in counterpoint to the worsening crisis at home, which culminated with Nixon's resignation. His frank portrait of Nixon's last days in the White House is perhaps the most perceptive to date.