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The Unbearable Closeness of Kalb and Kissinger Why did Marvin Kalb ask Henry Kissinger's help in finding a new publisher for his Kissinger book?

By Jack ShaferPosted Thursday, June 4, 2009, at 3:50 PM ET

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In 2004, Jack Shafer used the telcons to survey the Kissinger suck-ups in the press corps. In a second column, he tossed the Kissinger suck-up spotlight on James Reston of the New York Times.

Later that day, Kissinger and Random House President and CEO Robert Bernstein talked on the phone about the Kalbs' Kissinger book.

Kissinger: [I]t turned out that Norton, probably in order to protect me, wanted them to confess [sic] the Vietnam chapter to a point that they considered unreasonable. And also to disassociate me totally from the President. Which they correctly didn't want to do. ...
I have no interest in it one way or the other. Don't publish it to please me. But don't fail to publish it if it's got critical passages.

Kissinger, a prolific gossip, shared the Kalb story on May 15 during a conversation with journalist Theodore H. White, author of The Making of the President 1960 and its sequels.

Kissinger: There are two newsmen here in town who are doing a book on me, and their publisher [is] trying to keep my good will [and] asked them to delete any reference linking me to Nixon.
White: Oh, for Christ sake.
Kissinger: (Laughter) You know that's sweet, it's touching.
White: Yeah.
Kissinger: And also to list, to compress the chapter, they had a chapter of 80 pages on Vietnam, and they were asked to compress to 15 [pages] because that publisher didn't want to have me linked to Vietnam. You know, I am flattered, he [Norton] did it to protect me.

Again, it boggles the mind to imagine a publisher in 1973 would have desired less rather than more material about Vietnam in a Kissinger book. But there you are.

Kissinger proved to be an excellent go-between. In a July 23, 1973, conversation, when Kissinger asks, "How is your book going? Who is your publisher?" Kalb responded, "Fine. We are in discussions with Random House." Ultimately, the book was published by Little, Brown & Co.

I wanted to ask Kalb 1) if he really told Kissinger that he wanted to pull the book from Norton because it wanted to excise critical passages and 2) did he think it was appropriate to enlist the subject of his book in finding a publisher for it, but he did not respond to e-mail and phone queries seeking comment.

Kalb is currently the Edward R. Murrow professor of practice, emeritus, and senior fellow at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Kalb's Shorenstein Web page states that he "welcomes media inquires" about an array of subjects, including "accountability."

If Kalb gets back to me, I'll let you know what he says.

Addendum, 5:50 p.m.: Kalb sent me this e-mail in response to my question a couple of hours after the story went up.

If we believe Kalb, then we believe that Kissinger told the same lie to three people associated with Random House and to journalist Theodore H. White. Also, a telcon quoted above shows that Kalb told Kissinger on July 23, 1973, that he and his brother were talking to Random House about publishing the book.

Dear Mr. Shafer:
I have just moved from one office to another and only now found your e-mail. I am sorry for the delay and hope this is of value, however limited. I shall answer your questions.
1. Neither I nor my brother ever asked Kissinger for help getting a publisher. I cannot account for anything Kissinger said to others, obviously. He's a big boy and can speak for himself. Have you by the way attempted to talk to him about this issue? Imagine you have.
2. Morton Janklow (office in NYC) was our agent, and he too can be contacted, if you wish to go beyond the telcons, which again I assume you would. The only publisher we ever had for Kissinger was Little Brown.
3. What you say makes little sense. In 1973, we were still in the Vietnam War, which, as you know, didn't end till April 30, 1975. Why would a publisher want less, rather than more, information about Kissinger's role in Vietnam? Why would he want less, rather than more, information about Kissinger's ties to Nixon? I would imagine just the opposite is what a publisher would want, and that is what we provided to Little Brown. The book was the Book of the Month Club selection and a best seller.
Thanks for your interest in the book.
Regards,
Marvin Kalb

Telcons cited in this article:

Kissinger and Kalb, April 6, 1973
Kissinger and Kalb, May 13, 1973
Kissinger and Cerf, May 13, 1973
Kissinger and Kopfler, May 14, 1973
Kissinger and Kalb, May 14, 1973
Kissinger and Bernstein, May 14, 1973
Kissinger and White, May 15, 1973
Kissinger and Kalb, July 23, 1973

******

Thanks to ProQuest for access to the latest telcon collection. For a fuller appreciation of the Kalb-Kissinger bromance, see this sidebar that quotes from the telcons released in 2004. Disclosure: I gave Kalb's 2001 book, One Scandalous Story: Clinton, Lewinsky, & 13 Days That Tarnished American Journalism, a negative review in the Wall Street Journal. Follow me on Twitter or send e-mail at , or both. (E-mail may be quoted by name in "The Fray," Slate's readers' forum; in a future article; or elsewhere unless the writer stipulates otherwise. Permanent disclosure: Slate is owned by the Washington Post Co.)

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