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“Context and causation” crucial to understanding Nixon-Kissinger years, says Niall Ferguson

In a lecture entitled Grand Strategy of Detente, Professor Ferguson warned that “you can’t make judgements, particularly moral judgements, about a foreign policy strategy if you do not take account of the circumstances of the context.”

Appearing before a packed auditorium in central London on Tuesday evening, the Harvard historian talked about Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s policy being crucial to America’s victory in the Cold War.

Niall Ferguson is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2010-11. His biography of Kissinger is due to be published by Penguin in 2012.