No U.S. secretary of state ever achieved such celebrity while in office as Henry

Kissinger; immersed in the philosophy of Kant and the diplomacy of Metternich,

he was hailed as one of the most important strategic thinkers America has ever

produced. Yet no former secretary of state has been more vehemently criticized,

most notably for sins of omission and commission in countries such as Bangladesh,

Cambodia, Chile, and East Timor. Renowned historian NIALL FERGUSON, now

completing the second of his two-volume biography of Kissinger, talks to journalist

EVAN OSNOS about his subject’s complicated legacy and, casting a hard eye at

current crises around the world, considers what Kissinger might have made of our

current foreign policy landscape.