Trump and his generals : the cost of chaos / Peter Bergen.
Material type:
TextPublisher: New York : Random House Large Print, [2019]Edition: First large print editionDescription: 620 pages (large print) ; 24 cmContent type: - text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9780593171561
- 059317156X
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Large Print Book
|
Main Library | Large Print NonFiction | 355.0097 B495 | Available | 33111009573870 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
From one of America's preeminent national security journalists, an explosive, news-breaking account of the Trump Administration's reckless handling of American national security, foregrounding the generals--Jim Mattis, HR McMaster and John Kelly--who tried and failed to maintain adult supervision.
Halfway through the first year of the Trump administration, the "axis of adults" on the team had reason to feel fairly sanguine. Feral ideologue Mike Flynn had blown up on the launch pad as National Security Advisor, and by the end of the summer, Steve Bannon, the intellectual architect of a hardcore "America First" populist nationalism that called for a retreat into isolation, was out as well. Jim Mattis was secure at the helm of Defense, and his fellow generals HR McMaster and John Kelly were steadying presences too, who well knew the value of America's network of global defense alliances. Aiding and abetting them were two other strong "globalists"--a swear word to the Bannonite wing-- Gary Cohn and Rex Tillerson. Trump would always be Trump, but the grown-ups on board seemed willing and able to keep the crazy at bay.
By the middle of 2019, however, these dreams had been utterly dashed. McMaster, Kelly, Mattis, Cohn, and Tillerson were all gone, done in one after the other by the relentless storm of chaos, and taking with them in the minds of many any reasonable hope for a mature and considered national security policy, one that knew what a real emergency was when it saw it.
Commander in Chaos is New York Times -bestselling author Peter Bergen's jaw-dropping intimate account of life inside that storm, foregrounding the experiences of the four generals whose relationships with Trump have done so much to define his presidency--McMaster, Kelly, Mattis and Flynn. From Iraq and Afghanistan to Syria and Iran, from Russia and China to North Korea and Islamist terrorism, Commander in Chaos is a brilliant reckoning with an American ship of state navigating a roiling sea of acute threats without a well-functioning rudder. Bergen is both an intrepid and exquisitely well-sourced journalist and a very wise head himself on national security issues, and the combination of intense human drama and trenchant big-picture analysis results in a gripping read that offers tremendous clarity on the complex landscape of America's geopolitical place in the world. Clarity, unfortunately, is not the same thing as reassurance.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
From one of America's preeminent national security journalists, an explosive, news-breaking account of Donald Trump's collision with the American national security establishment, and with the world. It is a simple fact that no president in American history brought less foreign policy experience to the White House than Donald J. Trump. The real estate developer from Queens promised to bring his brash, zero-sum swagger to bear to cut through America's most complex national security issues, and he did. If the cost of his "America First" agenda was bulldozing the edifice of foreign alliances that had been carefully tended by every president from Truman to Obama, then so be it. It was clear from the first that Trump's inclinations were radically more blunt force than his predecessors'. When briefed by the Pentagon on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, he exclaimed, "The next time Iran sends its boats into the Strait: blow them out of the water! Let's get Mad Dog on this." When told that the capital of South Korea, Seoul, was so close to the North Korean border that millions of people would likely die in the first hours of any all-out war, Trump had a bold response, "They have to move." The officials in the Oval Office weren't sure if he was joking. He raised his voice. "They have to move!" Very quickly, it became clear to a number of people at the highest levels of government that their gravest mission was to protect America from Donald Trump. Trump and His Generals is Peter Bergen's riveting account of what happened when the unstoppable force of President Trump met the immovable object of America's national security establishment--the CIA, the State Department, and, above all, the Pentagon. If there is a real "deep state" in DC, it is not the FBI so much as the national security community, with its deep-rooted culture and hierarchy. The men Trump selected for his key national security positions, Jim Mattis, John Kelly, and H. R. McMaster, were products of that culture: Trump wanted generals, and he got them. Three years later, they would be gone, and the guardrails were off. From Iraq and Afghanistan to Syria and Iran, from Russia and China to North Korea and Islamist terrorism, Trump and His Generals is a brilliant reckoning with an American ship of state navigating a roiling sea of threats without a well-functioning rudder. Lucid and gripping, it brings urgently needed clarity to issues that affect the fate of us all. But clarity, unfortunately, is not the same thing as reassurance.