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Title: Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet by Jim Mann, James Mann ISBN: 0-670-03299-9 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 08 March, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A refreshing new read
Comment: This is the history of Bush's war cabinet, from Rice to Powell to Wolfowitz among others. But more then that it is a history of American political life from the 1960s to present and the development of the policies of various administrations. This is the wide ranging history of think tanks and policy wonks, of lobbying groups and obscure professors, of old ideas and new revolutionary concepts, and of a small breed of like minded individuals sometimes in power, sometimes out, who came to the pinnacle of their abilities under George W. Bush. These men and women of diverse backgrounds and from diverse places in the political landscape combined academic ideas and military sills along with policy know how to craft a revolutionary new American doctrine. This book also presents biographical sketches that provide a refreshing insight into people like the oft-maligned Cheney, who this book shows came from a solid middle class background, whereas many assume we was born into wealth.
This is a wonderful read that takes the reader on a fast paced accessible tour of Washington politics. It would be helpful to go into this read with at least a perfunctory knowledge of who people like Jean Kirkpatrick, Henry Kissinger and Richard Pearl are. It would also be helpful to have at least a quintessential understanding of the various larger foreign policy issues of the Nixon, Carter and Reagan administrations, all of which were formative for the 'vulcans'. Nevertheless this book serves as both a primer and a textbook on these amazing characters, both a biography and a political book, this is a must read and a book you will not find easy to put down.
Seth J. Frantzman
Rating: 5
Summary: Superb insight into the shaping of American policy
Comment: The Vulcans is the name the 6 key figures of the Bush Administration foreign policy have chosen for themselves: an allusion to Vulcan, the crippled armaments maker of the Gods, who defended heaven.
This is a really excellent work of contemporary history. Journalism, I think someone said, is history's first pass. Well as a first pass, this book is meticulously researched and fairly argued. It is also very well written and tells a gripping story.
It makes the seemingly incomprehensible and incoherent aspects of the Bush foreign policy (at least to a European) entirely credible and logical. Nor is it unsympathetic to the shapers of that policy: Powell/Armitage at the State Department, Rumsfeld/ Wolfowitz at Defence, Rice and Cheney in the White House. It links their personal biographies and life experiences to the policy choices they have made: their desire to see America in the post Vietnam era strong and unencumbered again.
Armitage in particular comes across as quite a compelling guy. The dedicated Navy man and hard-living covert warrior from Vietnam, who dedicates his family life to adopting and helping Vietnamese refugees, his career is nearly destroyed by Ross Perot and Iran/Contra and he rises again through his friendship with Powell. A man who believes more than anything that America should not abandon its allies.
I haven't enjoyed a book about contemporary American policy as much since Fred Kaplan's The Wizards of Armageddon about Bernard Brodie, Albert Wohlstetter, Herman Kahn and the dawn of the atomic age.
Skip all the other political potboilers this season and spend the time with this book. The student of American politics, American history and the curious observer of American foreign policy will find much here to digest and ponder.
Whoever wins the presidency the future of American foreign policy will be shaped by these men (and 1 woman) and their actions and understanding how they got us to where we are will be vitally important.
Rating: 4
Summary: timely and generally accurate
Comment: I have had the opportunity during my years at the Pentagon and the National War College to get to know five of the six people highlighted in this book. Mann describes each quite accurately, in my judgment. My only real objection is that Mann depicts Colin Powell and Richard Armitage as men without vision or the ability to think and act strategically. On this point, I would strongly disagree. Anyone interested the American defense policy should read this book.
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Title: Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror by Richard A. Clarke ISBN: 0743260244 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 22 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill by Ron Suskind ISBN: 0743255453 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 13 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush by Kevin Phillips ISBN: 0670032646 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll ISBN: 1594200076 Publisher: The Penguin Press Pub. Date: 23 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership by Zbigniew K. Brzezinski ISBN: 0465008003 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 02 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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