“I've always acted alone. Americans like that immensely.”

Interview with Oriana Fallaci (November 1972), as quoted in &quot;Oriana Fallaci and the Art of the Interview&quot; in Vanity Fair (December 2006) http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2006/12/hitchens200612; Kissinger, as quoted in &quot;Special Section: Chagrined Cowboy&quot; in TIME magazine (8 October 1979) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,916877,00.html called this &quot;without doubt the single most disastrous conversation I ever had with any member of the press&quot; and claimed that he had probably been misquoted or quoted out of context, but Fallaci later produced the tapes of the interview. <br class="br">1970s <br class="br">Context: I&#x27;ve always acted alone. Americans like that immensely.<br>Americans like the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding ahead alone on his horse, the cowboy who rides all alone into the town, the village, with his horse and nothing else. Maybe even without a pistol, since he doesn&#x27;t shoot. He acts, that&#x27;s all, by being in the right place at the right time. In short, a Western. … This amazing, romantic character suits me precisely because to be alone has always been part of my style or, if you like, my technique.