> Secretly Recorded Phone Conversations Shed Light on Kissinger’s Foreign > Policies, Strategies, Personality and Efforts to Deceive Colleagues and > Journalists > > Transcripts Detail Nixon White House Abuses, Wiretapping and Watergate > > A new book by historian Tom Wells features hundreds of secretly recorded > conversations between Henry Kissinger and other key political figures that > the former secretary of state tried to hide and that were recovered and > declassified thanks to a legal battle waged by the National Security > Archive. > > Published this month by Oxford University Press, *The Kissinger Tapes: > Inside His Secretly Recorded Phone Conversations*, is an edited selection > of Kissinger’s telephone conversation transcripts—known as “telcons”—from > his tenure as national security advisor and secretary of state during the > Nixon years, 1969 to mid-1974. > > Among the key themes that emerge from the telcons: > > ** Kissinger and Nixon’s complete disregard and indifference to human > rights and human suffering: The book includes numerous conversations, > particularly between Kissinger and Nixon, on human rights abuses committed > with U.S. support. > > ** Kissinger was a pathological liar and veteran manipulator: In his > introduction, Wells cites a top Kissinger aide, Helmut Sonnenfeldt, as > stating that “Henry does not lie because it is in his interest. He lies > because it is in his nature.” > > ** Kissinger spent considerable time attempting to influence the press: *The > Kissinger Tapes* record numerous conversations with the leading > journalists of Kissinger’s era—CBS reporter Marvin Kalb, *Time* magazine’s > Hugh Sidey, columnist Rowland Evans, and ABC News celebrity Barbara Walters. > > ** More than any other collection of documents, his recorded conversations > with leading journalists reveal how the top tier of the U.S. media related > to those in power. > > Kissinger falsely designated the government-created telcons as his > “private papers” and took them when he left office in late 1976. A 2001 > legal complaint by the National Security Archive eventually forced the > State Department to approach Kissinger and negotiate the return of the > papers. Led by Kissinger project director Bill Burr, the Archive then filed > FOIA petitions for the release of the records, resulting in the > declassification of over 15,000 pages of Kissinger transcripts in August > 2004. > > “Henry Kissinger’s phone transcripts touch on every important issue of his > day and provide a panoramic view of his tenure in power,” notes Wells, who > sifted through thousands of pages of transcripts to compile the book. “They > shed new light on the many controversies of Kissinger’s era while throwing > his personality and character into sharp relief,” Wells added. “Kissinger > never intended for his phone transcripts to be public, and it was only due > to the prolonged legal efforts of the National Security Archive that he was > forced to relinquish them.” > > > https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/chile-cold-war-henry-kissinger-indonesia-southern-cone-vietnam/2026-03-19/kissinger >
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