I'm not entirely sure I get what this tells us. A degree of cynicism in politics is inevitable, for the players. And, Kissinger was undoubtedly playing. As was Mao, with other people. Interesting Edgar Snow was brought up, I read his long March piece as a child, it's pretty accessible. ("Red Star over China" 1937) Zhou EnLai was a survivor and a moderating force in the bad times. The national museum in Tienanmen squa…
The fascinating thing with Kissinger is that he's still alive, still wields political influence, and has been active for eighty years and was wielding his influence in essentially all major conflicts during that time. He just published another book and just celebrated his 100th birthday. He started out as a German Jewish refugee. Fought in WW II and became an American, ended up being part of the post WW II effort to…
He played both sides and helped sabotage the 68' peace talks by leaking information to Nixon, just to get a job within either administration. So great, he helped end a war he prolonged for years and was involved with the bombing of neighboring countries.