| ID | 133226 |
| Title Proper | Serving or self-serving |
| Other Title Information | a review essay of Robert Gates's memoir |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Jervis, Robert |
| Publication | 2014. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | WHEN RAYMOND MOLEY PUBLISHED AFTER SEVEN YEARS IN 1939, commentators questioned whether it was appropriate for a close presidential adviser to recount his story while the administration was still in office. This may be a bad practice, but one we are now accustomed to. These memoirs are welcomed not only by scholars and the interested public, but also by opponents of the administration, because while they will be discounted if they are favorable, if critical, they are likely to carry significant weight. So Democrats saw former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill's story as clear-sighted and doing his democratic duty of informing the public that George W. Bush and his colleagues were preoccupied by Iraq even before the attacks of 11 September 2001 at the expense of dealing with many other pressing problems.1 The partisan tables are turned with the publication of Robert Gates's Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War.2 Although not entirely uncritical of Bush or unadmiring of Barack Obama, it does cast a harsher light on the latter's administration, if not upon Obama personally. But so much has been written about both administrations, and especially the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that take up most of Gates's account, that there are few substantive surprises. It is hardly news that Bush often made belligerent statements that interfered with diplomacy, that there was a great deal of friction between the Obama White House and the State and Defense Departments, or that the one thing that unified the departments and the President's staff was that they found Congress partisan, meddlesome, and infuriating. |
| `In' analytical Note | Political Science Quarterly Vol.129, No.2; Sum.2014: p.319-332 |
| Journal Source | Political Science Quarterly Vol.129, No.2; Sum.2014: p.319-332 |
| Key Words | Afghanistan ; Iraq ; Belligerent Statements ; United States ; Democracy ; Diplomacy ; War ; Great Deal ; Democratic Duty |