When Personalities Make History

By Walter Isaacson, Managing Editor

For a year Monica Lewinsky has been a mystery at the center of a storm: we seemed to know far too much about her and yet very little about what she felt and thought personally.

One of the few journalists who actually talked to her occasionally was our Washington bureau chief, Michael Duffy. Last February, just a month after the scandal broke, the two had a drink together, secretly, at a steak house in Washington. The conversation was off the record, but Michael was struck by how well-spoken and friendly she was--and also how unprepared she seemed for the nightmare unfolding.

Last week she finally agreed to talk to him on the record, the only print interview she has given. They met for more than two hours Friday at the Manhattan penthouse of her mother Marcia Lewis and stepfather Peter Strauss. It followed a few days of negotiations with independent counsel Kenneth Starr's office, because her immunity agreement requires her to get permission before talking to the press. The chief restriction placed on her was that she was not supposed to talk about the prosecutor's treatment of her, which is the subject of an investigation. Duffy says, "The good thing about Monica is that she answers nearly every question. But that's her problem too."

Most people have conflicting emotions about this whole affair: it makes them feel tawdry and they yearn for it to go away, yet they realize the importance of the crisis and have been intrigued by the personalities. The same is true here at TIME. We feel it's interesting and historically important to report on a week that gave us what, in some ways, was the first real look at the actual person behind the famous face. But we can also hope this will be the final chapter in a tale that has been agonizing as well as riveting for more than a year.

My relationship with Henry Kissinger is not as tantalizing as America's with Monica, but it's worth noting in light of this week's excerpt of his new book. He called me a few months ago, which was a bit unexpected since he'd quit speaking to me in 1992, when I wrote a biography of him. "Well, Walter," he said, in his distinctive rumble, "even the Thirty Years' War had to end at some point." (He did allow that his loyal wife was more partial to the Hundred Years' War.)

Among other things, he wanted me to read the third volume of his memoirs. TIME had published excerpts of the previous two, and he offered us the chance to do so again. I actually liked his book more than he had mine, especially the character sketches of Richard Nixon--which he felt he could do fully only after Nixon's death--and Gerald Ford.

Henry Luce wanted TIME to convey the history of our times through the fascinating characters who make it. The very different personalities and foibles of Nixon, Ford, Clinton and Lewinsky (as well as the insightful look at George W. Bush by Jay Carney and John Dickerson) are all part of that mix this week.

Walter Isaacson, Managing Editor