By His Own Rules : The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld | Date: 28 April 2011, 07:01
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By His Own Rules : The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld
By Bradley Graham
* Publisher: PublicAffairs
* Number Of Pages: 832
* Publication Date: 2009-06-22
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 1586484214
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9781586484217
Product Description:
A penetrating political biography of the controversial Defense Secretary, by a longtime military affairs correspondent for the Washington Post.
Once considered among the best and brightest of his generation, Donald Rumsfeld was exceptionally prepared to assume the Pentagon's top job in 2001. Yet six years later, he left office as the most controversial Defense Secretary since Robert McNamara, widely criticized for his management of the Iraq war and for his difficult relationships with Congress, administration colleagues, and military officers. Was he really the arrogant, errant, over-controlling Pentagon leader frequently portrayed--or as his supporters contend, a brilliant, hard-charging visionary caught in a whirl of polarized Washington politics, dysfunctional federal bureaucracy, and bad luck?
Bradley Graham, who closely covered Rumsfeld's challenging tenure at the Pentagon, offers an insightful biography of a complex and immensely influential personality. What emerges is a layered and revealing portrait of a man whose impact on U.S. national security affairs will long out-live him.
Summary: Everything You Didn't Want to Know About Rummy and Then Some
Rating: 2
Author overwhelms reader with too much details and little context. No description of Rumsfeld's relationships with Bush, Powell, Rice, military chiefs etc. Every bit of detail author could obtain on Rumsfeld from interviews, unpublished memos, and newspaper articles are provided but with no supporting context given. Typical of a newspaper writer attempting to write a historical biography.
Summary: A Man of Mystery
Rating: 3
Donald Rumsfeld is a complicated and enigmatic man whose six year tenure as Secretary of Defense (SecDef) under President George W Bush was enormously controversial. This book is a rather bold attempt to provide a 'definitive' biography of a man who has remained a mystery even to his closest associates. Graham has chosen to craft his biography around an extensive compilation of direct quotes from the utterances and writings of Rumsfeld or those who were closely associated with him. He has organized this book in a straight chronology of Rumsfeld's own words, or those of his associates, organized by subjects within each time period. Yet in the end he has utterly failed to really define and explain the man who for six years was one of the most powerful men within the U.S. National Security Establishment. Perhaps the problem is that in a misplaced effort at objectivity, Graham has studiously avoided any real analysis of Rumsfeld's statements even to the extent not providing any in depth context. Apparently for the same reason Graham avoids any analysis of persons or experiences that have influenced Rumsfeld's intellectual development. Finally Graham made no effort to investigate Rumsfeld's long and close relationship with Vice President Cheney or indeed explore his relationship with any of the other senior officials who served with him in the George W. Bush administration. As a result, the reader is left with an 800 plus page book of the sayings of Secretary Rumsfeld that fails to give any real feel for this remarkable and controversial man.
Summary: Superb!
Rating: 5
This is a remarkable book about a not so remarkable man. Fox News people should read the book to get a true picture of fair and balanced.
I dislike Mr Rumsfeld intensely and this book did not change my mind, but it is thorough, fair, excellently written and well researched. Rumsfeld is certainly given credit where it is due and properly called to task for his foibles and blunders.
Rumsfeld comes off in the book (and in most accounts I have read) as a Jekyll and Hyde figure, impossible to get a firm grip on. He was ambitious, arrogant, seemingly smart but loyal to power and himself (butt kisser)..and certainly not someone to turn your back on. A master of selective engagement and cutting and running. First and foremost a "Me first" guy, which in the Iraq cost countless thousands of lives and America's reputation.
True to form, Rumsfeld would not discuss Iraq with the author (although he was interviewed on various occasions for the book.
Love or hate him, this book is remarkably well written and in Don's word "Calls a spade a spade".. Just wish Rumsfeld had been dealt out the political game by Nixon way back when. A lot of brave young men would be alive today.
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