Author: Joe Hyams Publisher: Berkley ISBN: 9780425134665 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 276
Book Description
This dramatic account of George Bush's life during 1941-1944, when he flew a fighter-bomber in the Pacific Theater of WW II, also tells the story of the old-fashioned courtship between the young naval officer and his one, true love, Barbara Pierce. Photographs.
Author: Terry H. Anderson Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199831882 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 312
Book Description
From journalistic accounts like Fiasco and Imperial Life in the Emerald City to insider memoirs like Jawbreaker and Three Cups of Tea, the books about America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could fill a library. But each explores a narrow slice of a whole: two wars launched by a single president as part of a single foreign policy. Now noted historian Terry Anderson examines them together, in a single comprehensive overview. Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, President George W. Bush told advisor Karl Rove, "I am here for a reason, and this is how we're going to be judged." Anderson provides this judgment in this sweeping, authoritative account of Bush's War on Terror and his twin interventions. He begins with historical surveys of Iraq and Afghanistan-known respectively as "the improbable country" and "the graveyard of empires," and he examines US policies toward those and other nations in the Middle East from the 1970s to 2000. Then Anderson focuses on the Bush Administration, carrying us through such events as the terrorist's attacks of 9/11, the invasion of Afghanistan and the siege of Tora Bora, the "Axis of Evil" speech, the invasion of Iraq and capture of Baghdad, and the eruption of insurgency in Iraq. He ranges from RPGs slamming into Abrams tanks to cabinet meetings, vividly portraying both soldiers in the field and such policymakers as Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice. Anderson describes the counter-insurgency strategy embodied by the "surge" in Iraq, and the simultaneous revival of the Taliban. He concludes with an assessment of the prosecution of the wars in the first years of Barack Obama's presidency. Carefully researched and briskly narrated, Bush's Wars provides the single-volume balanced history that we have waited for. This new paperback edition takes the story through the first Obama term, covering our exit from Iraq and the ongoing drawdown in Afghanistan.
Author: Bob Woodward Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1471104699 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 483
Book Description
With his unmatched investigative skill, Bob Woodward tells the behind-the-scenes story of how President George W. Bush and his top national security advisers led the nation to war. Extensive quotations from the secret deliberations of the National Security Council and firsthand revelations of the private thoughts, concerns and fears of the president and his war cabinet, make BUSH AT WAR an unprecedented chronicle of a modern presidency in a time of grave crisis. Based on interviews with more than a hundred sources and four hours of exclusive interviews with the president, BUSH AT WAR reveals Bush's sweeping, almost grandiose vision for remaking the world. Woodward's virtual wiretap into the White House Situation Room reveals a stunning group portrait of an untested president and his advisers, three of whom might themselves have made it to the presidency. In BUSH AT WAR, Bob Woodward once again delivers a reporting tour de force.
Author: Stephen F. Knott Publisher: University Press of Kansas ISBN: 0700620222 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 256
Book Description
George W. Bush has been branded the worst president in history and forced to endure accusations that he abused his power while presiding over a "lawless" administration. Stephen Knott, however, contends that Bush has been treated unfairly, especially by presidential historians and the media. He argues that from the beginning scholars abandoned any pretense at objectivity in their critiques and seemed unwilling to place Bush's actions into a broader historical context. In this provocative book, Knott offers a measured critique of the professoriate for its misuse of scholarship for partisan political purposes, a defense of the Hamiltonian perspective on the extent and use of executive power, and a rehabilitation of Bush's reputation from a national security viewpoint. He argues that Bush's conduct as chief executive was rooted in a tradition extending as far back as George Washington-not an "imperial presidency" but rather an activist one that energetically executed its constitutional prerogatives. Given that one of the main indictments of Bush focuses on his alleged abuse of presidential war power, Knott takes on academic critics like Sean Wilentz and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and journalists like Charlie Savage to argue instead that Bush conducted the War on Terror in a manner faithful to the Framers' intent-that in situations involving national security he rightly assumed powers that neither Congress nor the courts can properly restrain. Knott further challenges Bush's detractors for having applied a relatively recent, revisionist understanding of the Constitution in arguing that Bush's actions were out of bounds. Ultimately, Knott makes a worthy case that, while Bush was not necessarily a great president, his national security policies were in keeping with the practices of America's most revered presidents and, for that reason alone, he deserves a second look by those who have condemned him to the ash heap of history. All readers interested in the presidency and in American history writ large will find Rush to Judgment a deftly argued, perhaps deeply unsettling, yet balanced account of the Bush presidency-and a clarion call for a reexamination of how scholars determine presidential greatness and failure.
Author: Michael Haas Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA ISBN: 0313365008 Category : Law Languages : en Pages : 408
Book Description
Eminent jurists, professional legal organizations, and human rights monitors in this country and around the world have declared that President George W. Bush may be prosecuted as a war criminal when he leaves office for his overt and systematic violations of such international law as the Geneva and Hague Conventions and such US law as the War Crimes Act, the Anti-Torture Act, and federal assault laws. George W. Bush, War Criminal? identifies and documents 269 specific war crimes under US and international law for which President Bush, senior officials and staff in his administration, and military officers under his command are liable to be prosecuted. Haas divides the 269 war crimes of the Bush administration into four classes: 6 war crimes committed in launching a war of aggression; 36 war crimes committed in the conduct of war; 175 war crimes committed in the treatment of prisoners; and 52 war crimes committed in postwar occupations. For each of the 269 war crimes of the Bush administration, Professor Haas gives chapter and verse in precise but non-technical language, including the specific acts deemed to be war crimes, the names of the officials deemed to be war criminals, and the exact language of the international or domestic laws violated by those officials. The author proceeds to consider the various US, international, and foreign tribunals in which the war crimes of Bush administration defendants may be tried under applicable bodies of law. He evaluates the real-world practicability of bringing cases against Bush and Bush officials in each of the possible venues. Finally, he weighs the legal, political, and humanitarian pros and cons of actually bringing Bush and Bush officials to trial for war crimes.
Author: Robert Draper Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 0525561064 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 497
Book Description
“Essential . . . one for the ages . . . a must read for all who care about presidential power.” —The Washington Post “Authoritative . . . The most comprehensive account yet of that smoldering wreck of foreign policy, one that haunts us today.” —LA Times One of BookPage's Best Books of 2020 To Start a War paints a vivid and indelible picture of a decision-making process that was fatally compromised by a combination of post-9/11 fear and paranoia, rank naïveté, craven groupthink, and a set of actors with idées fixes who gamed the process relentlessly. Everything was believed; nothing was true. Robert Draper’s fair-mindedness and deep understanding of the principal actors suffuse his account, as does a storytelling genius that is close to sorcery. There are no cheap shots here, which makes the ultimate conclusion all the more damning. In the spirit of Barbara W. Tuchman’s The Guns of August and Marc Bloch’s Strange Defeat, To Start A War will stand as the definitive account of a collective scurrying for evidence that would prove to be not just dubious but entirely false—evidence that was then used to justify a verdict that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and a flood tide of chaos in the Middle East that shows no signs of ebbing.
Author: Jean Edward Smith Publisher: Henry Holt and Company ISBN: 1466862300 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 367
Book Description
George Bush's War by Jean Edward Smith chronicles the complete history of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Smith takes the reader from the politics of Desert Shield to the military action of Desert Storm. "Expressing constant misgivings about presidential warmaking, [Smith] provides a virtual day-by-day chronicle of the decisions of 1990 that led to war ... Highly recommended.” —Library Journal
Author: James Moore Publisher: John Wiley & Sons ISBN: 0471675121 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 402
Book Description
A news-breaking exposé of the Bush administration's rush to war, from the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Bush's Brain In this exclusive behind-the-scenes account, veteran journalist James Moore reveals how the overthrow of Saddam Hussein was a key goal of the Bush administration from the very beginning-and a critical component of the president's reelection strategy. Drawing on high-level sources inside the administration and the military, Moore weaves together a multifaceted narrative that probes the political underpinnings of the administration's push for an Iraq war, exposes efforts during the war (and after) to manipulate perceptions of U.S. military success, and contrasts it all to the ultimate price paid by soldiers duped into believing they were fighting for a just cause, not for political gain. Moore takes us inside strategy meetings at the White House and the Pentagon, revealing the political calculus behind critical military decisions. He examines the administration's unprecedented efforts to control an d withhold information, including in-depth discussions with Joseph C. Wilson, husband of Valerie Plame, the CIA operative allegedly exposed by Karl Rove. Moore also gives us an uncensored view of combat in Iraq, reporting opinions of a senior Air Force source and troops on the ground; he shows how the war's first American casualty actually died, and reveals what really happened to Jessica Lynch's unit. Finally, Moore uncovers what might be in store if Bush wins reelection: the use of Iraq as a forward base in the fight against terrorism, and where the war may go next. Publishing at the height of the presidential election season next spring, Bush's War for Reelection is sure to be one of the most talked about books of the year.
Author: Jean Edward Smith
Author: Joe Hyams
Author: Terry H. Anderson
Author: Bob Woodward
Author: Stephen F. Knott
Author: Michael Haas
Author: Robert Draper
Author: Jean Edward Smith
Author: Jeffrey Record
Author: James Moore