"Sidelights"
Seymour M. Hersh first gained prominence as an investigative reporter in November, 1969, when he broke the story of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. Initially refused by several publishers, the series was eventually picked up by the independent Dispatch News Service and earned Hersh a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting as well as several other prestigious awards. With these credentials, which were bolstered by his two critically acclaimed books on the massacre and its cover-up, Hersh was able to land a full-time reporting job at the New York Times. According to Washington Post contributor Richard Lee, he soon became their "ace investigative reporter ..., virtually a world unto himself at the paper, breaking important stories about the CIA's domestic intelligence activities, the secret bombing of North Vietnam, and Kissinger's wiretapping of his closest aides at the State Department."
In 1977, Summit Books editor Jim Silberman approached Hersh about doing a whole book on Henry Kissinger, but, convinced that the story was "old" news, Hersh initially declined. Silberman persisted, finally convincing Hersh that an outsider's viewpoint was needed to balance the "official" memoirs that were then appearing in such abundance. Shortly thereafter, Hersh left the Times--which did not then grant leaves of absence--and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the project, traveling all over the world to interview those who had worked with Kissinger in his role as national security advisor. The result was The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House, a massive book almost four years in the making that made headlines for its controversial portrayal of a power-hungry Kissinger.
Originally conceived as a study of Kissinger, the book soon shifted focus to include Richard Nixon. "It started out as the foreign policy of Kissinger," Hersh told Lee. "It became Kissinger and Nixon. It started out, let's get a look at the policy, and gradually developed," Hersh explained. Suspecting that the duplicity uncovered in the Watergate scandal was also a factor in foreign affairs, Hersh set out "to prove that Kissinger and Nixon were two peas in a pod, and the pod was in the sewer," according to Village Voice reviewer Eliot Fremont-Smith. In his interview with Lee, Hersh described his goal this way: "This is a book about how people and personalities shape policy incredibly more than you think. Personalities, prejudices, and people .... It says some very, very important decisions are made for reasons that stagger the imagination."
Working from information he collected during almost a thousand interviews, from archives made available under the Freedom of Information Act, and from both Kissinger's and Nixon's memoirs, Hersh compiles a long list of sins. One of the most damaging allegations is that Kissinger worked both sides of the street in the 1968 campaign. In this way, Kissinger was able to ingratiate himself with both parties, thus assuring himself an appointment regardless of who won.
Such double dealing was a way of life for Kissinger, according to Hersh, who argues that the foreign policy that emerged under...