Vulcans are... fascinating
I've been reading The Rise of the Vulcans, by James Mann. It tracks the rise of President Bush's war cabinet: Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, Powell and Armitage.
I'm only about one-third of the way through right now, but it's totally engrossing. Mann did far more than just track who had what job when. Through extensive interviews with everyone from the principles themselves to figures in their past, such as former UN ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, Mann delves into the intellectual influences of the folk who have set in motion some of the most radical foreign policies changes in a generation.
The book is full of facsinating tidbits.
Like, did you know that, when South Vietnam finally fell to the Communists, Richard Armitage swam to the Philippines, towing the remnants of the South Vietnamese navy by a rope clenched in his teeth?
Or how about how Donald Rumsfeld ripped out the livers of Kissinger's staff with his bare hands, before throwing Kissinger himself out of a third-storey window and cackling over his broken body.
Okay, maybe I'm stretching things a bit. But Armitage did play a major role in helping dozens of ships -- and about 20,000 people -- flee Vietnam. And Rumsfeld did have a hand in a major administration reshuffle that effectively sidelined Kissinger and marked the decline of detente as the focus of U.S. policy towards the Soviets.
Here are some other interesting things gleaned from the book:
--Rumsfeld was CEO of the company that invented NutraSweet. He was named by Forbes as one of the 10 toughest CEOs.
--Reagan had wanted to pick Gerald Ford as his running mate in 1980, and was in extensive negotiations that would have basically made Ford a co-president, with control over choice of national security adviser and the State Department.
--At the last minute, talks broke down behind the scenes at the Republican convention, and Reagan scrambled to find a suitable v.p. pick. A Reagan adviser had Bush Sr.'s phone number, so they called him and he accepted. Later, the adviser, who was a friend of Rumsfeld, kicked himself for not picking Rumsfeld. So Rumsfeld could have been veep and very possibly president later.
--In the mid-70s, Wolfowitz was asked to work on a think-piece paper about the Soviet threat to the Middle East. He wrote that the Middle East was threatened as much by an increasingly powerful Iraq as by Soviet dominance. He wrote about the possibility that Iraq would attack Kuwait or Saudi Arabia, 15 years before it actually happened.
--Wolfowitz worked for Washington state Senator Henry Jackson, who was the pillar of old-school hawkish Democrats. As Carter pursued an increasingly soft stance towards the Soviets, many in the Jackson camp, including Wolfowitz, defected to the Republicans as Reagan crafted a more aggressive approach.
--Armitage volunteered for Vietnam three times, and when he volunteered the fourth time, the Navy told him, "We think you're falling behind your contemporaries." Armitage was outraged that they would think that, by participating in a war, he wasn't developing the proper skills. He promptly resigned.
If I had to boil it down, I'd say here are my three main takeaways:
1. Rumsfeld is exceedingly crafty. I mean exceedingly.
2. Armitage is a class-A bad-ass.
3. Wolfowitz is smart.
I'm only about one-third of the way through right now, but it's totally engrossing. Mann did far more than just track who had what job when. Through extensive interviews with everyone from the principles themselves to figures in their past, such as former UN ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, Mann delves into the intellectual influences of the folk who have set in motion some of the most radical foreign policies changes in a generation.
The book is full of facsinating tidbits.
Like, did you know that, when South Vietnam finally fell to the Communists, Richard Armitage swam to the Philippines, towing the remnants of the South Vietnamese navy by a rope clenched in his teeth?
Or how about how Donald Rumsfeld ripped out the livers of Kissinger's staff with his bare hands, before throwing Kissinger himself out of a third-storey window and cackling over his broken body.
Okay, maybe I'm stretching things a bit. But Armitage did play a major role in helping dozens of ships -- and about 20,000 people -- flee Vietnam. And Rumsfeld did have a hand in a major administration reshuffle that effectively sidelined Kissinger and marked the decline of detente as the focus of U.S. policy towards the Soviets.
Here are some other interesting things gleaned from the book:
--Rumsfeld was CEO of the company that invented NutraSweet. He was named by Forbes as one of the 10 toughest CEOs.
--Reagan had wanted to pick Gerald Ford as his running mate in 1980, and was in extensive negotiations that would have basically made Ford a co-president, with control over choice of national security adviser and the State Department.
--At the last minute, talks broke down behind the scenes at the Republican convention, and Reagan scrambled to find a suitable v.p. pick. A Reagan adviser had Bush Sr.'s phone number, so they called him and he accepted. Later, the adviser, who was a friend of Rumsfeld, kicked himself for not picking Rumsfeld. So Rumsfeld could have been veep and very possibly president later.
--In the mid-70s, Wolfowitz was asked to work on a think-piece paper about the Soviet threat to the Middle East. He wrote that the Middle East was threatened as much by an increasingly powerful Iraq as by Soviet dominance. He wrote about the possibility that Iraq would attack Kuwait or Saudi Arabia, 15 years before it actually happened.
--Wolfowitz worked for Washington state Senator Henry Jackson, who was the pillar of old-school hawkish Democrats. As Carter pursued an increasingly soft stance towards the Soviets, many in the Jackson camp, including Wolfowitz, defected to the Republicans as Reagan crafted a more aggressive approach.
--Armitage volunteered for Vietnam three times, and when he volunteered the fourth time, the Navy told him, "We think you're falling behind your contemporaries." Armitage was outraged that they would think that, by participating in a war, he wasn't developing the proper skills. He promptly resigned.
If I had to boil it down, I'd say here are my three main takeaways:
1. Rumsfeld is exceedingly crafty. I mean exceedingly.
2. Armitage is a class-A bad-ass.
3. Wolfowitz is smart.
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