From the former secretary of defense, a strikingly candid, vividly
written account of his experience serving Presidents George W. Bush and
Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Before
Robert M. Gates received a call from the White House in 2006, he thought
he'd left Washington politics behind: after working for six presidents
in both the CIA and the National Security Council, he was happy in his
role as president of Texas A&M University. But when he was asked to
help a nation mired in two wars and to aid the troops doing the
fighting, he answered what he felt was the call of duty. Now, in this
unsparing memoir, meticulously fair in its assessments, he takes us
behind the scenes of his nearly five years as a secretary at war: the
battles with Congress, the two presidents he served, the military
itself, and the vast Pentagon bureaucracy; his efforts to help Bush turn
the tide in Iraq; his role as a guiding, and often dissenting, voice
for Obama; the ardent devotion to and love for American soldiers—his
"heroes"—he developed on the job.
In relating his personal
journey as secretary, Gates draws us into the innermost sanctums of
government and military power during the height of the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars, illuminating iconic figures, vital negotiations, and
critical situations in revealing, intimate detail. Offering unvarnished
appraisals of Dick Cheney, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Presidents
Bush and Obama among other key players, Gates exposes the full spectrum
of behind-closed-doors politicking within both the Bush and Obama
administrations.
He discusses the great controversies of his
tenure—surges in both Iraq and Afghanistan, how to deal with Iran and
Syria, "Don't Ask Don't Tell," Guantánamo Bay, WikiLeaks—as they played
out behind the television cameras. He brings to life the Situation Room
during the Bin Laden raid. And, searingly, he shows how congressional
debate and action or inaction on everything from equipment budgeting to
troop withdrawals was often motivated, to his increasing despair and
anger, more by party politics and media impact than by members' desires
to protect our soldiers and ensure their success.
However
embroiled he became in the trials of Washington, Gates makes clear that
his heart was always in the most important theater of his tenure as
secretary: the front lines. We journey with him to both war zones as he
meets with active-duty troops and their commanders, awed by their
courage, and also witness him greet coffin after flag-draped coffin
returned to U.S. soil, heartbreakingly aware that he signed every
deployment order. In frank and poignant vignettes, Gates conveys the
human cost of war, and his admiration for those brave enough to
undertake it when necessary.
Duty tells a powerful and deeply
personal story that allows us an unprecedented look at two
administrations and the wars that have defined them.
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