ABSTRACT
Henry Kissinger believed that, in creating a design for world order, realism was more compassionate than romanticism. The great paradox of Kissinger’s conception of détente is in his relative tolerance vis-a-vis the Soviet Union, still the fountainhead of communism, and his combativeness toward local communist movements in peripheral areas. The key to this riddle is to be found in Kissinger’s primary commitment to stability. In the central relationships between the superpowers, there can be no decisive change in the power balance short of nuclear war. The opening to China was probably Kissinger’s most uncontaminated triumph in his tenure as a statesman. It was also his greatest diplomatic adventure. Once he perceived the depth of the rift between China and the Soviet Union, he became convinced that rapprochement with China might make the Soviet Union more receptive to a genuine detente.
