When Kissinger made the “sudden discovery of a scheduling conflict,” the library invited Hitchens in his place, he says. “I ate Henry Kissinger’s dinner,” Hitchens jokes.

Again this time, “I chased him out of town,” Hitchens says.

Kramer disputed that Hitchens played a role in Kissinger’s cancellation of the Harvard Book Store appearance, and said that after talking with the Kissinger publicists, he accepted their explanation of a scheduling conflict.

Guest said that Hitchens’ planned presence did not have anything to do with the cancellation. She said Kissinger had done question and answer sessions in New York and Chicago and that they “went fantastically.”

But Hitchens wasn’t the only one planning to question Kissinger. Amnesty International, the activist group, was in the process of planning a demonstration.

Joshua Rubenstein, northeast regional director for Amnesty, explained that the group was not going to be protesting Kissinger’s appearance, but were demonstrating to raise the issue of his evasion of the European and South American summons. They planned to picket with signs and to handout a flier with suggested questions for audience members.

Despite the initial controversy, the planned demonstrations and ultimately the cancellation, Kramer has no regrets. “This is exactly what a bookstore should do—and controversy is important,” Kramer said. And as he later mentioned, “its great publicity.”

—Staff writer David H. Gellis can be reached at gellis@fas.harvard.edu.