He charged that Kissinger “has repeatedly sought to suppress the publication of books he believes will be unfriendly to him.” He also accuses Kissinger of consistently evading critics.

The forum, Lamphier argued, would allow Kissinger to promulgate his version of history unquestioned.

Lamphier declined to comment further for this article.

Frank Kramer, who as owner of the book store had the final say on Kissinger’s appearance, wrote a statement of his own contending that safeguards had been built in to ensure that there would be balance to Kissinger’s presentation.

In an interview Kramer cited as evidence of the book store’s attempts to balance Kissinger’s appearance the impartiality of moderator David Gergen—a Kennedy School professor and former presidential advisor in four administrations—and the scheduling of Christopher Hitchens, a prominent Kissinger critic, for an event two nights later, as evidence.

Kramer also trusted the critical Cambridge audience to do its part. “Why would Henry Kissinger come to Cambridge to speak? He would not have believed that he would get an uncritical audience,” Kramer says.

But Kissinger might have begun to expect the audience to do too good a job, critics said. In fact, Hitchens takes credit for scaring Kissinger off.