Executive Branch Books - Page 7

In Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration

David Iglesias

Amazon Price: $15.83 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 79 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Professionals & Academics -> Lawyers & Judges
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> State & Local -> New Mexico

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Bush administration's drive to politicize the Justice Department reached a new low with the wrongful firing of seven U.S. Attorneys in late 2006. Their action has ignited public outrage on a scale that far surpassed the reaction to any of the Bush administration's other political debacles. David Iglesias was one of those federal prosecutors, and now he tells his story.

Iglesias has long served in the Navy as part of the JAG corps. One of his earliest cases, about an assaulted Marine in Guantanamo Bay, became the basis for the movie A Few Good Men. When Bush chose him to become the U.S. Attorney for New Mexico, it was a dream come true. He was a core member of Karl Rove's idealized Republican Party of the future -- handsome, Hispanic, evangelical, and a military veteran. The dream came to an abrupt end when Senator Pete Domenici improperly called Iglesias, wanting him to indict high-level Democrats before the 2006 elections. When Iglesias refused, the line went dead. Iglesias was fired just weeks later. First, he was devastated. Then, he was angry. Now, he is speaking out.

Iglesias recounts his interactions with Bush, Rove, Alberto Gonzales, and other key players as he takes readers into his time at the Justice Department to reveal what top Republican officials said and did, and how they subverted justice.

Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower

Zbigniew Brzezinski

Amazon Price: $5.39 List Price: $26.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Basic Books Amazon Marketplace: 132 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1945 - Present
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 55 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

From the most highly respected analyst of foreign policy writing today, a story of wasted opportunity and squandered prestige: a critique of the last three U.S. presidents' foreign policy.

America's most distinguished commentator on foreign policy, former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, offers a reasoned but unsparing assessment of the last three presidential administrations' foreign policy. Though spanning less than two decades, these administrations cover a vitally important turning point in world history: the period in which the United States, having emerged from the Cold War with unprecedented power and prestige, managed to squander both in a remarkably short time. This is a tale of decline: from the competent but conventional thinking of the first Bush administration, to the well-intentioned self-indulgence of the Clinton administration, to the mortgaging of America's future by the "suicidal statecraft" of the second Bush administration. Brzezinski concludes with a chapter on how America can regain its lost prestige. This scholarly yet highly opinionated book is sure to be both controversial and influential.

What Do We Do Now?: A Workbook for the President-elect

Stephen Hess

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Brookings Institution Press Amazon Marketplace: 31 new & used starting at $7.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> U.S.
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General AAS

Editorial Review:

The period from Election Day to Inauguration Day in America seems impossibly short. Newly elected U.S. presidents have less than eleven weeks to construct a new government composed of supporters and strangers, hailing from all parts of the nation. This unique and daunting process always involves at least some mistakes in hiring, perhaps, or in policy priorities, or organizational design. Early blunders can carry serious consequences well into a president s term; minimizing them from the outset is critical. In What Do We Do Now? Stephen Hess draws from his long experience as a White House staffer and presidential adviser to show what can be done to make presidential transitions go smoothly. Here is a workbook to guide future chief executives, decision by decision, through the minefield of transition. You ll have to start at the beginning, settling on a management style and knowing how to "arrange all the boxes." Something as seemingly mundane as parceling office space can be consequential hence the inclusion of a proposed White House organizational chart and floor plans of the West Wing. What qualities are needed for each job, and where are the best candidates for those positions most likely to be found? How can you construct a cabinet that looks like America ? What Do We Do Now? is your indispensable guide through the thicket of these decisions. There are small decisions, too. You ll have to pick a desk photos of the choices are included. Which presidential portraits should hang in the Oval Office? Which ones have previous presidents chosen? And when it comes time to write an inaugural address, what should be the content, theme, and tone? It s all here in the presidential transition workbook don t leave for Washington without it. This concise volume is sure to be a valuable resource for the president and team of advisers as they attempt to herd cats into an effective government. What Do We Do Now? is also a delightful read for anyone interested in exactly how one goes about being the president of the United States.

Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch's Assault on America's Fundamental Rights

Molly Ivins, Lou Dubose

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Random House Trade Paperbacks Amazon Marketplace: 50 new & used starting at $5.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Current Events -> Civil Rights & Liberties
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> U.S.
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this, her final and perhaps greatest book, Molly Ivins launches a counterattack on the executive branch’s shredding of our cherished Bill of Rights. From illegal wiretaps and the unlawful imprisonment of American citizens to the creeping influence of religious extremism on our national agenda and the erosion of the checks and balances that prevent a president from seizing unitary powers, Ivins and her longtime collaborator, Lou Dubose, describe the attacks on America’s vital constitutional guarantees. With devastating humor and keen eyes for deceit and hypocrisy, they show how severe these incursions have become, and they ask us all to take an active role in protecting the Bill of Rights.

Praise for Bill of Wrongs:

“Should make anyone laugh, cheer and roar with rage.”
–New Orleans Times-Picayune

“[Molly Ivins is] wonderfully direct about the costs of our lost civil liberties. . . . Ivins’ voice–in all its drawling, acerbic, storytelling, fearless glory–is stilled now. . . . But her message lives on. And every thoughtful American ought to be listening.”
–The Buffalo News

“With her characteristic acerbic humor, Ivins and colleague Dubose dissect the myriad attacks the Bush administration has made on the Bill of Rights and how ordinary citizens have fought back.”
–Booklist

“Ivins’ own description of the book is spot-on: ‘a hopeful and gladsome romp through some serious terrain.”
–The New York Observer

“A truly compelling read . . . filled with devastating humor and razor-sharp commentary.”
–Austinist

The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld: A Prosecution by Book

Center for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner

Amazon Price: $12.45 List Price: $23.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: New Press Amazon Marketplace: 37 new & used starting at $11.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Military -> Iraq War
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Current Events -> Conspiracy Theories
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The evidence that the Bush administration is guilty of war crimes, presented in the form of a court case brought by one of the premier civil rights organizations in the United States.

"He won't be tried in the United States. He can't be tried by an international tribunal. So Donald Rumsfeld will have to be prosecuted by book."—from The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld

The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld lays out the evidence that high-level officials of the Bush administration ordered, authorized, implemented, and permitted war crimes, in particular the crimes of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

Using primary source documents ranging from Rumsfeld's "techniques chart" and Iraqi plaintiffs' statements to the testimony of whistleblowers and key pieces of reportage, the book sets forth evidence of a torture program that took place throughout the world: in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantánamo, secret CIA prisons, and other places unknown.

The accused are accorded a defense drawn from their memos and public statements. Readers are allowed to judge whether the Bush administration has engaged in torture and whom among the administration to hold responsible.

Reminiscent of Christopher Hitchens's bestselling The Trial of Henry Kissinger, The Trial of Donald Rumsfeld constitutes one of the only attempts to hold high-ranking Bush administration officials criminally responsible for their actions.

Includes excerpts from:
• testimony from Abu Ghraib victims and the Tipton Three
• the interrogation log from Mohammed al Qahtani's detainment at Guantánamo
• the Gonzales, Yoo, and Bybee memos
• the U.S. Army's Fay/Jones Report on the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib
• the August 2004 Final Report of the Independent Panel to Review Department of Defense Detention Operations
• testimony from the former head of Abu Ghraib, Janis Karpinski
• and analyses by Peter Weiss, Wolfgang Kaleck, Vincent Warren, and others

Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power

Fred Kaplan

Amazon Price: $17.13 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Wiley Amazon Marketplace: 101 new & used starting at $1.40

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century
Subjects -> History -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Public Policy

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 78 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

To a Daydream Bush and his Homecoming Voters 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I served my country for nine years before creaky knees put me out of the Navy and into a writer's seat. Whether behind a desk, behind enemy lines--or just the back of the bread line--Americans watch the 2000 Bush Administration with growing dismay.

Even as Iraq somewhat stabilizes, the Taliban resurges in Afghanistan, while a Second Cold War brews with Russia. For every Libya that seems to bow before the Bush Doctrine, America faces a defiant North Korea.

Enter Columnist Fred Kaplan. He asks nothing--not how this happened, or why--because he has an answer.

I don't often read magazines, but I find Kaplan articles intelligent enough. His style strikes me as straight and clear, if also a bit graceless. In *Daydream Believers: How A Few Grand Ideas Wrecked America Power*, Kaplan comes out swinging:

"Nearly all of America's blunders in war and peace these past few years stem from a single, grand misconception: that the world changed after September 11, when in fact it didn't."

With that hook, Kaplan argues that American leadership hung up on four major fallacies:

--The illusion of "shock and awe" victories in Afghanistan and Iraq--
--The inflexible righteousness of President Bush--
--The preoccupation with the ideal of missile defense.
--The ignorance and myth of Bush foreign policy.

Daydream Believers isn't just a light-weight alternative to State of Denial, or any these other massive tomes on the controversies of Bush Doctrine. For Mr. Kaplan concentrates on hereditary policy--on the recurrent theories and strategies assembled during the Cold War, then road-tested during the 1990's before driving off into that Bush sunset.

The book generally does not recreate conversations and meetings. Nor does it detail interviews and events during historical moments. Nevertheless, Kaplan cites and condenses a large number of sources for it slim size. He builds his book mainly from second or third hand information: from previous studies such as *Rise of the Vulcans* and Bob Woodward's "Bush at War" series, as well as television interviews and internet transcripts. He also cites declassified documents from a variety of archives, on the internet and elsewhere. Finally, a few personal interviews round out the foundation. It's not as credible as the extensive original research in many of its big brothers, but Daydream Believers does the job here.

Sometimes in a hurried and disjointed manner. Going over Kaplan's old columns, I recognize statements from *Daydream Believers*. For example, I found similar remarks about North Korean policy in the May 2004 article "Rolling Blunder"--the section "Sunshine and moral clarity" is repeated almost verbatim in the book. Overall, it seems he built *Daydream* by combining and expanding various articles. This isn't necessarily bad--it probably saved some time and energy--but it does limit the flow and the scope. Certain chapters delve much more into history than others--most notably missile defense--and the use of examples to support his topics tend to be uneven.

In the chapter, "Chasing Silver Bullets", Kaplan takes us back to the 1950's, and methodically works his way up to 2004. It's a showcase of Kaplan's expertise--he previously published a book on nuclear war strategy--as well as a relevant exploration of where these Grand Ideas come from. The rest of the book, unfortunately, does not offer this depth of exploration. Kaplan does dip back into the 20th Century from time to time, when exploring North Korean policy in Chapter 2, or the general philosophy of the Bush Doctrine in Chapter 4, but these sections lack the same sense of specific history and chronological connections found in "Silver Bullets".

Kaplan may have been keen on rushing this book out in time for the troop surge--I received the proof for review in August 2007--or he wanted to focus like a laser on certain issues. Whatever the reason, these stylistic issues aren't deal breakers. Though one could always argue that his choices hamper credibility, another might appreciate Kaplan's brevity and overall accessibility.

For me, certain omissions keep Daydream Believers from being all it could be.

The image of a black-hooded prisoner hooked to electrical wires has been burned into my conscious, if not many Americans. Thus the policies of "enemy combatant" and extraordinary rendition--combined with the rampant prisoner abuse scandals--must stand among the essential fallacies of the Bush Doctrine. Few subjects illustrate the weakening of American power more--or appear less in the text.

I can think of a few subjects, though. The obvious politicization of intelligence also deserves its own chapter. Having served under both Clinton and Bush, in the combat nerve center of a warship, I know from experience the roles that intelligence can play... as well as the disparity between interpretations. The leap to conclusions, from the impotence of Iraq to an imminent apocalypse, surely counts as one of those Grand Ideas which wrecked our power.

Finally, grand ideas are not limited to Cabinet meetings. I'm particularly interested in the John Wayne attitude of the White House, and the general air of a bad eighties action movie which permeates its activities. Our culture is plainly an influence on our decisions, and I have thought for years that voters, tax payers, and elected leader alike made the mistake of applying Tom Clancy novels to the real world.

As a Cliff Notes to the foibles of American power under Bush, readers could do worse than Daydream Believers, but I feel the content doesn't measure up to the breadth and depth of Kaplan's thesis. In future editions, the author should look at:

--include a chapter on prisoner abuse and the attitude which made it permissible under a democracy.
--include a chapter on the historic fallacies and problems of intelligence interpretation by the White House.
--and explore some of the pop culture fallacies which enabled America to initially support their wayward president.

Editorial Review:

America's power is in decline, its allies alienated, its soldiers trapped in a war that even generals regard as unwinnable. What has happened these past few years is well known. Why it happened continues to puzzle. Celebrated Slate columnist Fred Kaplan explains the grave misconceptions that enabled George W. Bush and his aides to get so far off track, and traces the genesis and evolution of these ideas from the era of Nixon through Reagan to the present day.

The Presidential Book of Lists: From Most to Least, Elected to Rejected, Worst to Cursed-Fascinating Facts About Our Chief Executives

Ian Randal Strock

Amazon Price: $9.60 List Price: $12.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Villard Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $4.23

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Puzzles & Games -> Trivia
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Fascinating look at presidential trivia 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The Presidential Book of Lists hearkens back to a time when many publishers released trivia books in the form of factual lists. The book presents information about the United States presidents in a variety of lists, allowing the reader to appreciate the role of the chief executive of the country in a new light. One section of the book is devoted to the "average" president, in which the author lays out those traits that presidents have mostly had in common over the 200+ years of the USA. Trivia buffs and people interested in politics and history will return to this book time and again to learn something new.

Great Stuff! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

There are lots of interesting facts presented here. I really enjoyed it. I've always been interested in presidential trivia and thought I knew quite a bit about the subject. All I can say is wow, Strock knows his stuff.

From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War

Robert M. Gates

Amazon Price: $12.41 List Price: $17.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Simon & Schuster Amazon Marketplace: 22 new & used starting at $4.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Historical -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

View from the inside 4 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

The CIA is probably the one institution that the US President controls the most; or so this book argues. Robert M. Gates spent over two decades working at the CIA, and is one of the few career officials who came in near the bottom and rose all the way to the top. This book is his memoir, and recollection of how the CIA served 5 consecutive presidents in the Cold War. Starting with Richard Nixon, and ending with the first George Bush, Gates shows how each president used, and sometimes abused, the CIA to further their policies with regard to the USSR and communist parties around the world.

The major points one gets from this book are as follows. First, Carter was no wimp with regard to the USSR. Second, the most dangerous years of the Cold War did not end with Vietnam; they included some years in the 1980's. Third, the CIA consistently disregards the laws of the US. Fourth, the CIA often gets suckered into doing thing at the whim of the president that it later regrets. Last, the first George Bush was probably one of the best diplomats the US has seen in recent times. Over all, this was a very good book and I am glad I read it.

Editorial Review:

Gates, director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1991 to 1993, began in an entry level position and rose to the top. His insider's account of the Cold War, CIA operations and the unraveling of the Soviet Union is sprinkled with revelations including the fact that 1983 was the most dangerous year in U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations and that both the CIA and KGB sponsored countless "black operations" designed to embarrass and discredit the other side. Gates also reveals that he secretly met with KGB foreign operations chief Vladimir Kryuchkov on two separate occasions and how the CIA often acted in contempt of Congress. While none of this may come as a huge surprise, it never fails to shock when it's laid out in black and white by someone who was on the inside.

McCain's Promise: Aboard the Straight Talk Express with John McCain and a Whole Bunch of Actual Reporters, Thinking About Hope

David Foster Wallace

Amazon Price: $9.99 List Price: $9.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Back Bay Books Amazon Marketplace: 54 new & used starting at $4.74

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Essays -> General
Subjects -> Literature & Fiction -> Essays -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Elections

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Important to know the context of this book was 2000, not 2008 4 out of 5 stars.
30 of 32 people found this review helpful.

Given DFW's recent tragic death (and the election timing of this re-release), I'd imagine alot of folks may now discover this book. What Wallace wanted current readers understand about the context, he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview from June 2008. Here's the excerpt:

"The essay quite specifically concerns a couple weeks in February, 2000, and the situation of both McCain [and] national politics in those couple weeks. It is heavily context-dependent. And that context now seems a long, long, long time ago. McCain himself has obviously changed; his flipperoos and weaselings on Roe v. Wade, campaign finance, the toxicity of lobbyists, Iraq timetables, etc. are just some of what make him a less interesting, more depressing political figure now--for me, at least. It's all understandable, of course--he's the GOP nominee now, not an insurgent maverick. Understandable, but depressing. As part of the essay talks about, there's an enormous difference between running an insurgent Hail-Mary-type longshot campaign and being a viable candidate (it was right around New Hampshire in 2000 that McCain began to change from the former to the latter), and there are some deep, really rather troubling questions about whether serious honor and candor and principle remain possible for someone who wants to really maybe win. I wouldn't take back anything that got said in that essay, but I'd want a reader to keep the time and context very much in mind on every page."

Editorial Review:

Is John McCain "For Real?"


That's the question David Foster Wallace set out to explore when he first climbed aboard Senator McCain's campaign caravan in February 2000. It was a moment when Mccain was increasingly perceived as a harbinger of change, the anticandidate whose goal was "to inspire young Americans to devote themselves to causes greater than their own self-interest." And many young Americans were beginning to take notice.


To get at "something riveting and unspinnable and true" about John Mccain, Wallace finds he must pierce the smoke screen of spin doctors and media manipulators. And he succeeds-in a characteristically potent blast of journalistic brio that not only captures the lunatic rough-and-tumble of a presidential campaign but also delivers a compelling inquiry into John McCain himself: the senator, the POW, the campaign finance reformer, the candidate, the man.

Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power

David Rothkopf

Amazon Price: $14.01 List Price: $17.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: PublicAffairs Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $2.95

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Military -> Weapons & Warfare -> General AAS
Subjects -> History -> World -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Global Crisis Management 3 out of 5 stars.
16 of 25 people found this review helpful.

David J Rothkopf has written a valuable book about a government agency that one hears very little about in the daily news. "Running the World" is an insider's account of the inner workings of the National Security Council (created by the National Security Act of 1947). The National Security Council is an executive body within the White House that includes cabinet level officials involved in diplomacy and defense. Rothkopf's account is about the key players that were responsible for the successes and failures of the National Security Council's management of America's foreign policy since the end of World War II.

Rothkopf's insider credentials are impressive: he is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he was under-secretary of commerce during the Clinton Administration, he served as managing director of Kissinger and Associates, he also served as Chairman and CEO of Intellibridge, and he is currently visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

There is an interesting section in this book called "Two Degrees of Henry Kissinger," which shows that the 13 national security advisors (NSAs) that followed Kissinger have either worked with him, for him, or worked with or for one of the members of his staff.

After Nixon was elected President, Kissinger was appointed NSA. Kissinger not only assembled one of the most talented teams in the history of the NSC (Lawrence Eagleberger, Anthony Lake, Alexander Haig, Brent Scowcroft, and Robert MacFarlane), he also took control, either directly or indirectly, of all the interagency policy groups. Kissinger was Nixon's entire inner circle in matters of foreign policy.

When the Watergate scandel broke, Nixon became distracted and virtually left Kissinger to his own devices. As a result, Kissinger may have been the most powerful non-elected official in American history and certainly every NSA since has operated in his shadow.

The title of this book "Running the World" is more than a little pretentious. As has been noted by other reviewers, it is an account of the old boys network written by an old boy and tends toward self-importance. A more accurate and humble title would have been the one I chose for this review: "Global Crisis Management." The NSC does not run the world. The NSC, which consists of the senior cabinet members and White House staff members, is more than likely trying to control crises as they occur than trying to direct the course of events. And as Rothkopf makes clear, the response to a given crisis depends very much on the personalities of the members who are in the president's favor at the given moment.

Rothkopf is very critical of the current Bush Administration's track record. He argues that they have lost sight of the liberal internationalist values set forth by Truman at the end of World War II when the council was founded. At the time, the US enjoyed a position of power that was not unlike its position after 9/11. The Truman Adminsistration established international institutions that deferred America's power to the good of international system. The Bush Administration, under the sway of Cheney, Rumsfeld, and other neoconservatives, decided to reassert American national interest through the use of military force, the consequences of which we are still suffering today.

Critics of this book have called Rothkopf an apologist for the Clinton administration. Far from it, Rothkopf has enumerated the foreign policy disasters that occured during Clinton's watch: namely, the failures in Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti, and Rwanda. The picture that Rothkopf paints of the NSC is not one that runs the world but rather one that tries to maintain the status quo in the face of an ever-changing world.

Editorial Review:

Running the World is an unprecedented look behind the scenes at the "most powerful committee in the history of the world"-the men and women closest to the president of the United States who make America's decisions affecting war and peace, who are the architects of everything from covert operations to market bailouts to combating terrorism. This is the National Security Council, and its importance has never been clearer.

Drawing from 130 exclusive interviews with many of the best-known and the most-significant figures to have played a central role in shaping America's national security and foreign policies, David Rothkopf depicts with an eye for both personal detail and historical implications the real events from which today's headlines and Tom Clancy novels are drawn.