I finally finished The Rise of the Vulcans by James Mann. It is probably the best non-fiction book I have read since Generation Kill.
I've been raving about this book since I started it a couple weeks ago, but it really is essential reading for anyone interested in learning about what makes key people in the Bush administration tick.
As mentioned before, the book covers the histories of Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, and Richard Armitage.
But Mann does far more than just recap headlines or newspaper profiles of these people. He conducted more than 100 interviews, including several with the subjects themselves. He studied old policy papers and speeches. He even read Gerald Ford's memoirs, so we don't have to.
Mann is even-handed in his treatment. This is neither a hagiography nor a vilification. In his final remarks assessing the Iraq War, Mann points out, fairly in my view, that while the optimistic scenario -- that Iraq would transition smoothly to post-Saddam civil society -- obviously didn't come to pass, neither did the naysayers' dire predictions that the war would result in tens of thousands of U.S. combat deaths and spark a region-wide conflagration.
What about the players themselves? In recent posts I've probably come across as excessively appreciative of this team's talents, but Mann doesn't gloss over shortcomings such as Rumsfeld's infamous abrasiveness or Cheney's inclination towards super-secrecy.
Here's my two bits on each of them:
Cheny: sharp, subdued and canny, but too secretive
Powell: smart, committed to U.S. military, incorrectly cast as a "dove" in the administration but lacked grand vision for post-Cold War foreign policy
Rumsfeld: ambitious, extremely crafty, brilliant in some ways but often off-putting
Rice: smart, multi-talented, ambitious, she impresses nearly everyone and is very close to Bush
Armitage: street-smart, a real fighter and bad-ass, a pragmatist, extremely tight with Powell
Wolfowitz: brilliant, sincere, in many ways the most fascinating character in the book
Some other interesting things the book touches on is the neocon split with the Kissinger school of diplomacy that seeks above all to maintain the balance of power and status quo. The neocons believe that moral ideals -- freedom, democracy, etc -- should be a cornerstone of foreign policy. Of course that is mitigated by practical concerns all the time, but in the end these people believe in the abolute rightness of what they are doing.
Also of interest was how the neocon movement was actually originally a Democrat movement headed by Washington state senator Henry Jackson. As the Dems associated themselves more with the anti-Vietnam left, it increasingly isolated those who believed that America needed to be strong militarily and active in world affairs. Some of these figures -- Wolfowitz and former UN ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick -- ended up switching to the Republican party under Reagan.
One reason the book is so enjoyable is that it is driven by personalities. We learn not only about grand ideas, but about the people who created them and tried to implement them. When you learn that Rumsfeld headed the company that created NutraSweet, that Condi Rice is an accomplished pianist, that Richard Armitage and his wife adopted six kids and were foster parents for 40 others, it humanizes the subjects and makes them more real and less a part of some rarefied plane of exisistence that many larger-than-life figures seem to inhabit.
Well, what are you waiting for? Go read it.
I've been raving about this book since I started it a couple weeks ago, but it really is essential reading for anyone interested in learning about what makes key people in the Bush administration tick.
As mentioned before, the book covers the histories of Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Condoleezza Rice, and Richard Armitage.
But Mann does far more than just recap headlines or newspaper profiles of these people. He conducted more than 100 interviews, including several with the subjects themselves. He studied old policy papers and speeches. He even read Gerald Ford's memoirs, so we don't have to.
Mann is even-handed in his treatment. This is neither a hagiography nor a vilification. In his final remarks assessing the Iraq War, Mann points out, fairly in my view, that while the optimistic scenario -- that Iraq would transition smoothly to post-Saddam civil society -- obviously didn't come to pass, neither did the naysayers' dire predictions that the war would result in tens of thousands of U.S. combat deaths and spark a region-wide conflagration.
What about the players themselves? In recent posts I've probably come across as excessively appreciative of this team's talents, but Mann doesn't gloss over shortcomings such as Rumsfeld's infamous abrasiveness or Cheney's inclination towards super-secrecy.
Here's my two bits on each of them:
Cheny: sharp, subdued and canny, but too secretive
Powell: smart, committed to U.S. military, incorrectly cast as a "dove" in the administration but lacked grand vision for post-Cold War foreign policy
Rumsfeld: ambitious, extremely crafty, brilliant in some ways but often off-putting
Rice: smart, multi-talented, ambitious, she impresses nearly everyone and is very close to Bush
Armitage: street-smart, a real fighter and bad-ass, a pragmatist, extremely tight with Powell
Wolfowitz: brilliant, sincere, in many ways the most fascinating character in the book
Some other interesting things the book touches on is the neocon split with the Kissinger school of diplomacy that seeks above all to maintain the balance of power and status quo. The neocons believe that moral ideals -- freedom, democracy, etc -- should be a cornerstone of foreign policy. Of course that is mitigated by practical concerns all the time, but in the end these people believe in the abolute rightness of what they are doing.
Also of interest was how the neocon movement was actually originally a Democrat movement headed by Washington state senator Henry Jackson. As the Dems associated themselves more with the anti-Vietnam left, it increasingly isolated those who believed that America needed to be strong militarily and active in world affairs. Some of these figures -- Wolfowitz and former UN ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick -- ended up switching to the Republican party under Reagan.
One reason the book is so enjoyable is that it is driven by personalities. We learn not only about grand ideas, but about the people who created them and tried to implement them. When you learn that Rumsfeld headed the company that created NutraSweet, that Condi Rice is an accomplished pianist, that Richard Armitage and his wife adopted six kids and were foster parents for 40 others, it humanizes the subjects and makes them more real and less a part of some rarefied plane of exisistence that many larger-than-life figures seem to inhabit.
Well, what are you waiting for? Go read it.
<< Home