Joe Hagan interviews and writes on Henry Kissinger for New York Magazine. More specifically, Kissinger take pains to clarify and explain his reputation and past actions. The interview also contains Kissinger’s views on the situation in Iraq and profiles his involvement with the current Bush administration.

You can see why this Iraq business so vexes Kissinger. He hardly needs another quagmire around his neck—especially after he played this one so carefully. When the neoconservatives began driving foreign policy after 9/11, the consummate realist hedged his bets and supported the decision to invade Iraq. There were caveats galore, of course: Kissinger said postwar reconstruction of Iraq would require U.N. involvement and international diplomacy and that he was opposed to occupying a Muslim nation in order to “reeducate the country.” He also said preemptive war as a doctrine was a bad idea, except in rare instances.