The charge that Kissinger is a war criminal and baby killer, which used to follow him like a shadow, has vanished during this revival. On the contrary, Vietnam is being treated as a Kissinger achievement. Kaplan, for example, defends Kissinger from the charge that he and Nixon withdrew troops too slowly during the early '70s, leading to 20,000 unnecessary American deaths. Kaplan counters that Kissinger and Nixon were genuinely motivated by the admirable goal of protecting America's global interests. They wanted to show the rest of the world that the United States would not simply fold and abandon its allies. They knew that the deliberate withdrawal was wildly unpopular but pursued it because they believed it was right. "It is also likely that prolonging the war for the reasons they did, Kissinger and Nixon demonstrated more real character than do many of our present leaders," writes Kaplan.

And a recent Washington Post op-ed commended William Shawcross, the leading critic of Kissinger's Cambodia policy, for his "second thoughts" about his coverage of Vietnam and Cambodia. Shawcross acknowledged in 1995 (though the Post writer had just heard about it) that the Cambodian and Vietnamese Communists were much worse than he had believed. Kissinger has taken Shawcross' reconsideration as a vindication of his policies.