Few are aware of the stunning fact that, when Henry Kissinger served as the United States’ national security adviser between 1969 and 1975 and secretary of state between 1973 and 1977, he secretly had his phone calls transcribed and, later, taped. He began two years before President Richard Nixon installed his own secret recording system and continued for three years after Nixon’s system was dismantled. Wells has performed a major service in editing the 20,000 pages of Kissinger’s transcripts—