In the Shadow of the Oval Office

In the Shadow of the Oval Office
Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Total Pages : 401
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781439156520
ISBN-13 : 1439156522
Rating : 4/5 (522 Downloads)

Book Synopsis In the Shadow of the Oval Office by : Ivo H. Daalder

Download or read book In the Shadow of the Oval Office written by Ivo H. Daalder and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2009-02-10 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most solemn obligation of any president is to safeguard the nation's security. But the president cannot do this alone. He needs help. In the past half century, presidents have relied on their national security advisers to provide that help. Who are these people, the powerful officials who operate in the shadow of the Oval Office, often out of public view and accountable only to the presidents who put them there? Some remain obscure even to this day. But quite a number have names that resonate far beyond the foreign policy elite: McGeorge Bundy, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice. Ivo Daalder and Mac Destler provide the first inside look at how presidents from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush have used their national security advisers to manage America's engagements with the outside world. They paint vivid portraits of the fourteen men and one woman who have occupied the coveted office in the West Wing, detailing their very different personalities, their relations with their presidents, and their policy successes and failures. It all started with Kennedy and Bundy, the brilliant young Harvard dean who became the nation's first modern national security adviser. While Bundy served Kennedy well, he had difficulty with his successor. Lyndon Johnson needed reassurance more than advice, and Bundy wasn't always willing to give him that. Thus the basic lesson -- the president sets the tone and his aides must respond to that reality. The man who learned the lesson best was someone who operated mainly in the shadows. Brent Scowcroft was the only adviser to serve two presidents, Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush. Learning from others' failures, he found the winning formula: gain the trust of colleagues, build a collaborative policy process, and stay close to the president. This formula became the gold standard -- all four national security advisers who came after him aspired to be "like Brent." The next president and national security adviser can learn not only from success, but also from failure. Rice stayed close to George W. Bush -- closer perhaps than any adviser before or since. But her closeness did not translate into running an effective policy process, as the disastrous decision to invade Iraq without a plan underscored. It would take years, and another national security aide, to persuade Bush that his Iraq policy was failing and to engineer a policy review that produced the "surge." The national security adviser has one tough job. There are ways to do it well and ways to do it badly. Daalder and Destler provide plenty of examples of both. This book is a fascinating look at the personalities and processes that shape policy and an indispensable guide to those who want to understand how to operate successfully in the shadow of the Oval Office.


In the Shadow of the Oval Office Related Books

In the Shadow of the Oval Office
Language: en
Pages: 401
Authors: Ivo H. Daalder
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2009-02-10 - Publisher: Simon and Schuster

GET EBOOK

The most solemn obligation of any president is to safeguard the nation's security. But the president cannot do this alone. He needs help. In the past half centu
Presidential Command
Language: en
Pages: 370
Authors: Peter W. Rodman
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-01-12 - Publisher: Vintage

GET EBOOK

An official in the Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and both Bush administrations, Peter W. Rodman draws on his firsthand knowledge of the Oval Office to explore the foreig
Jimmy Carter
Language: en
Pages: 173
Authors: Julian E. Zelizer
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-09-14 - Publisher: Macmillan

GET EBOOK

The maverick politician from Georgia who rode the post- Watergate wave into office but whose term was consumed by economic and international crises A peanut far
The Shadow President
Language: en
Pages: 314
Authors: Michael D'Antonio
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2018-08-28 - Publisher: Macmillan + ORM

GET EBOOK

"It presents an entirely damning portrait of Pence. You've seen his colors before, but not so vividly and in this detail." —Frank Bruni, The New York Times "P
We Were Eight Years in Power
Language: en
Pages: 402
Authors: Ta-Nehisi Coates
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-10-03 - Publisher: One World

GET EBOOK

In this “urgently relevant”* collection featuring the landmark essay “The Case for Reparations,” the National Book Award–winning author of Between the