Many authors have written what they believe happened - or what should have happened - in Vietnam, but Henry Kissinger was there, at the center of events, participating in the decision-making process, from the extensive and exhaustive negotiations with the North Vietnamese delegation, to the final disengagement of America from the war. For the first time, Kissinger gives us a thorough, insider's view of the Vietnam War.

In this book, Kissinger writes with deep and accurate knowledge of the subject and carefully substantiates his statements by quoting his memoranda to President Nixon, as well as Nixon's responses. He refers to the tragedy in Cambodia, the parallel negotiations with the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, the disagreements between the Ford and Nixon administrations, the course of all the negotiations in which he himself was involved, the turmoil and protests within the United States, the daily military and diplomatic reality as it reached the White House. Some unseen aspects of some of the world's most important personalities are also revealed, such as Johnson, Nixon, De Gaulle, Ho Chi Minh, Brezhnev, who were trapped in a war that forever changed international relations. It is a historical record by a highly placed political figure; a book that serves as a useful tool for reconstructing events.