Nixon's Back Channel to Moscow

"Nixon's Back Channel to Moscow will become an instant classic. For all of the books that mention the back channels—Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger's most important foreign policy tools—this is the first to exhaustively mine the archives to explain their origin, how they were used, and to what end. Lucidly written and superbly researched, future works on Nixon foreign policy will have no choice but to consult this essential work. It is a must read to understand the era."—Luke Nichter, author of Richard Nixon and Europe: The Reshaping of the Postwar Atlantic World

"Drawing back the curtain of history, [Moss] repeatedly shines light on high-stakes conversations that participants cryptically alluded to only in other memoranda or in their memoirs."—Passport

"With engaging narrative and impeccable research, Moss has produced an important addition to Nixon historiography. Nixon's Back Channel to Moscow sheds further light on what once had been mysterious and shrouded in shadows. It is an indispensable book for students of the Nixon years and those interested in the cost-benefit of back channel contacts. This book could not be more timely."—Parameters

"Whereas many histories of the Nixon years describe the back channel, they do so in order to study issues such as Vietnam, arms control, or the Cold War more generally. Moss, by contrast, is interested in the back channel itself. By focusing on the institution, Moss is able to describe the advantages and liabilities that emerge from secret communications between leaders passed through a short string of intermediaries. This approach makes Back Channel to Moscow important for understanding significant modern political issues.

This book raises interesting questions about democratic process and governmental effectiveness that merit attention, especially in a world in which foreign policy has become hyper politicized."—H-Diplo

"Nixon's Back Channel to Moscow provides a dispassionate look at informal diplomacy in the era of detente, and a careful assessment of its successes and some of its pitfalls. Moss's matter of fact approach to President Nixon and Kissinger's policies is a refreshing contribution to a field that is still obsessed with judging them."—International Affairs

"Moss's in-depth historical study offers rich insights for enduring debates over the effectiveness of private diplomatic communication in international relations literature; while private communication that occurs out of general view is often considered as cheap talks, some scholarship has indicated that privately conveyed messages are not always cheap but could carry credible signals. Nixon's confidential diplomacy suggests how private communications function as an effective instrument for crisis management.

Moss's book must be widely read by diplomatic historians, international relations scholars, and practitioners. It would certainly provide abundant historical findings and implications for foreign affairs under a democratic government."—Political Science Quarterly

"In Nixon's Back Channel to Moscow, Richard A. Moss reconstructs, expertly and in detail, the most enduring of the Nixon-Kissinger back channels: the secret link to Moscow via Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin.

The author's impressive command of the relevant sources—American and Soviet—and his ability to identify the inconsistencies in how the two sides represented what actually happened between Kissinger and Dobrynin is a valuable addition to one of the best-documented episodes in Soviet-American relations

during the Cold War.

[This] is a fascinating read for those who wish to learn more about how Nixon and Kissinger secretly conducted American foreign policy during the early years of détente."—Journal of American History