Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>The Kissinger Tapes is a collection of transcripts of Henry Kissinger’s phone conversations that he secretly recorded when he was national security adviser and secretary of state in the Nixon administration. They were selected from over 15,000 transcripts and illuminated with commentaries prefacing each transcript and introductions to each chapter. They show Kissinger’s roles in events and policies and shed light on his personality and character. They cover the Vietnam War, including the secret bombing of Cambodia and the invasions of Laos and Cambodia; the massacre in East Pakistan by the Pakistani government; the India–Pakistan war; Chile; the Middle East, including relations with Israel, the crisis over the Palestinian threat in Jordan, the Yom Kippur War, and U.S. peace initiatives; the Greek coup in Cyprus; Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus; Nixon’s rapprochement with China; U.S. relations with the Soviet Union; North Korea’s shootdown of a U.S. spy plane; Israel’s downing of a Libyan civilian airliner; the killings of American diplomats in Sudan; and Japanese textile negotiations. They cover the Nixon administration’s secret wiretaps of officials and journalists, other Watergate abuses of power, and the false-reporting system for the secret Cambodia bombing. They discuss Kissinger’s meeting with antiwar activists who allegedly plotted to kidnap him, his confirmation hearings to become secretary of state, the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s spying operation against him, leaks, the Pentagon Papers, and his threats to resign. And they cover his relations with Nixon, colleagues, journalists, foreign officials, former U.S. officials, congresspeople, and Hollywood.</jats:p>