The War Within takes readers deep inside the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence agencies and the U.S. military headquarters in Iraq. Based on extensive interviews with participants, contemporaneous notes and secret documents, the book traces the internal debates, tensions and critical turning points in the Iraq War during an extraordinary two-year period.
From: CBS:
In his latest inside-the-White-House book, legendary reporter Bob Woodward reveals strategies governing the war in Iraq coming directly from President Bush and his inner circle. Scott Pelley reports.
The New York Times, Michiko Kakutani, September 7, 2008:
“…A damning conclusion about the presidency of George W. Bush. … It’s a picture of an administration riven by internal conflicts…an administration in which the advice of experts was frequently ignored or dismissed, traditional policy-making channels were routinely circumvented, policy often took a backseat to electoral politics, accountability was repeatedly evaded, and few advisers dared speak truth to power. …” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/books/07book.html?ref=arts
The Nation, Robert Dreyfuss, September 9, 2008:
“…like reading raw transcripts of documents and interviews from a sensational murder trial: you know what happens, and you know who the victim and the perpetrator are. But to read their actual words is chilling. It’s the In Cold Blood of national security journalism.” http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/357371
Politico, Mike Allen, September 8, 2008:
“…shows how the cross-currents of domestic politics and a deteriorating war buffeted a tiring president before his surge of troops at the start of 2007…” http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13234.html
“INSURGENTS AND TERRORISTS RETAIN THE RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES TO SUSTAIN AND EVEN INCREASE CURRENT LEVEL OF VIOLENCE THROUGH THE NEXT YEAR.” This was the secret Pentagon assessment sent to the White House in May 2006. The forecast of a more violent 2007 in Iraq contradicted the repeated optimistic statements of President Bush, including one, two days earlier, when he said we were at a “turning point” that history would mark as the time “the forces of terror began their long retreat.”
State of Denial examines how the Bush administration avoided telling the truth about Iraq to the public, to Congress, and often to themselves. Two days after the May report, the Pentagon told Congress, in a report required by law, that the “appeal and motivation for continued violent action will begin to wane in early 2007.”
In this detailed inside story of a war-torn White House, Bob Woodward reveals how Andy Card, with the indirect support of other high officials, tried for 18 months to get Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld replaced. The president and Vice President Cheney refused. At the beginning of Bush’s second term, Stephen Hadley, who replaced Condoleezza Rice as national security adviser, gave the administration a “D minus” on implementing its policies. A SECRET report to the new Secretary of State Rice from her counselor stated that, nearly two years after the invasion, Iraq was a “failed state.”
Woodward reveals that the secretary of defense himself believes that the system of coordination among departments and agencies is broken, and in a SECRET May 1, 2006, memo, Rumsfeld stated, “the current system of government makes competence next to impossible.”
State of Denial answers the core questions: What happened after the invasion of Iraq? Why? How does Bush make decisions and manage a war that he chose to define his presidency? And is there an achievable plan for victory?
Reviews:
“[S]erious, densely, even exhaustively, reported, and a real contribution to history…This is a primer on how the executive branch of the United States works, or rather doesn’t work, in the early years of the 21st century.” -Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal
“State of Denial feels all the more outraged for its measured, nonpartisan tones and relentless reporting. It is nothing less than a watershed…In crisis after crisis, the government simply failed to operate the way it was designed to. Memos failed to circulate or arrived after they became irrelevant. Briefings conveyed only the news that listeners wanted to hear. Controversial information was rarely presented to the president, who rarely asked for it. New proposals were quashed, and policy was stymied by terrible infighting, or worse, indifference.” -Ted Widmer, The Washington Post Book World
“[Enriches] the reader’s understanding of the inner workings of this administration at this critical moment.” -Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“State of Denial is a dogged piece of reporting, rich in anecdote, telling detail, fascinating snippets of conversation and troubling stories heretofore untold. -Tim Rutten, Los Angeles Times
"State of Denial is brimming with vivid details about White House meetings, critical phone calls, intelligence reports, and military affairs…impressively detailed and eye-opening.” -Chuck Leddy, The Boston Globe
In Washington , D.C. , where little stays secret for long, the identity of Deep Throat — the mysterious source who helped Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein break open the Watergate scandal in 1972 — remained hidden for 33 years. Now, Woodward tells the story of his long, complex relationship with W. Mark Felt, the enigmatic former No. 2 man in the Federal Bureau of Investigation who helped end the presidency of Richard Nixon.
Plan of Attack is the definitive account of how and why President George W. Bush, his war council, and allies launched a preemptive attack to topple Saddam Hussein and occupy Iraq .
Bush at War is the behind-the-scenes story of how President George W. Bush and his top national security advisers, after the initial shock of the September 11 attacks, led the nation to war. Based on interviews with more than a hundred sources and four hours of exclusive interviews with the president, Bush at War reveals Bush’s sweeping, almost grandiose, vision for remaking the world. “I’m not a textbook player, I’m a gut player,” the president said.
In eight Tuesdays each year, Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan convenes a small committee to set the short-term interest rate that can move through the American and world economies like an electric jolt. As much as any, the committee’s actions determine the economic well-being of every American.
Twenty-five years ago, after Richard Nixon resigned the presidency, Gerald Ford promised a return to normalcy. “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over,” President Ford declared. But it was not. The Watergate scandal, and the remedies against future abuses of power, would have an enduring impact on presidents and the country.
Based on a massive body of original reporting and documentation and on hundreds of interviews with firsthand sources, The Choice is the behind-the-scenes story of President Bill Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole over two years. It is the personal and political story of how the nation’s two top leaders prepared themselves to square off for the 1996 presidential election.
Working behind the scenes for the 18 months following Bill’s election, Bob Woodward has discovered how the Clinton White House really works. In The Agenda, he offers one of the most intimate portraits of a sitting president ever published, taking us not only to the highest level meetings, the hard-fought debates, and most difficult decisions but also to the very heart of this presidency — and of this man.
During the first two years of the George H. W. Bush administration, the United States military and its leaders dominated the world’s attention to a degree not seen since the Vietnam War. Bob Woodward tells the behind-the-scenes story of how President Bush and his military high command made their decisions.
“Everyone always says more than they’re supposed to,” Central Intelligence Agency Director William J. Casey told Bob Woodward in one of their major interviews for this book. Using hundreds of inside sources and secret documents, Woodward has pieced together an unparalleled account of the CIA, its Director, and the United States government.
John Belushi was found dead of a drug overdose March 5, 1982, in a seedy hotel bungalow off Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Belushi’s death was the beginning of a trail that led Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward on an investigation that examines the dark side of American show business.
In Washington on most Friday afternoons, nine men gather together in a private room to decide some of the nation’s most important disputes. This weekly conference of the Justices of the United States Supreme Court is probably the most important regular meeting in the country — and the most secret.
The Final Days is a portrait of what went on behind the scenes during the gravest crisis in the history of the American presidency. In an enthralling narrative that flashes from one private discussion to the next, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein chronicle the previously unknown events leading to the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. This is a story you have not read in the newspapers.
In the most devastating political detective story of the century, two Washington Post reporters, whose brilliant, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation smashed the Watergate scandal wide open, tell the behind-the-scenes drama the way it really happened.
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- Bob Woodward Details A White House Divided
