Chances of a Lifetime: A Memoir [Hardcover]

Warren Christopher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2001

AN ENGAGING INSIDER'S ACCOUNT OF SOME OF THE MOST FASCINATING DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL EPISODES IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN HISTORY, FROM THE HIGHLY RESPECTED FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE WHO REMAINS A DEMOCRATIC ELDER STATESMAN.

Warren Christopher is that rarest of Washington personalities: a wise and witty public servant once described by the "Washington Post" as "the antithesis of the glitz-hungry, self-aggrandizing, corner-cutting political figures who dominate Washington today." In this memoir, the man whose sage counsel and sometimes parodied discretion brought him to the right hand of mayors, governors, and presidents, shares his personal recollections and impressions of leaders and events that shaped the second half of the twentieth century.

Writing in tightly crafted, often self-effacing prose, Christopher chronicles how he left the privacy of life at a premier law firm to heed calls to public service from Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas, Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley, and California governor Edmund "Pat" Brown -- as well as presidents Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. Throughout his career, Christopher faced diverse challenges: he advised a president on whether to dispatch federal troops to quell civil disturbances; led negotiations to free American hostages in Iran; investigated a major city's police force gone awry; and helped cope with Yitzhak Rabin's assassination.

From "Starting from Scranton" and "The Johnson Treatment" to "Middle East: Antipodes" and "Yesterday a War, Today a Country," each chapter is a compelling story on its own. Together, they offer the first clear picture of the impact of this quiet North Dakotan on modernAmerican history.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

There are no earthshaking surprises in this memoir by Warren Christopher, the first secretary of state in the Clinton administration. No revelations, for example, about what Syrian strongman Hafez Assad really said to him behind closed doors. Yet it is an engaging account of how a boy born in rural South Dakota came to occupy the corridors of power in Washington, D.C. Before rising to secretary of state in 1993, Christopher served at high levels under Presidents Johnson and Carter. Along the way, he earned a reputation for buttoned-down decorum. Clinton once called him "the only man ever to eat presidential M&M's on Air Force One with a knife and fork." Christopher doesn't reveal much about his personal life on the pages, but he does impart lessons learned from a life in public office: "Silence, once associated with discretion, begets confidence as well as confidences. I learned that people also tend to read wisdom from silence--even when silence means only that you know nothing about what they are talking about."

Christopher was involved in many important events during his career, from race riots in the 1960s (when he was a Department of Justice official) to the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 and1980 (when he did his first stint at State). About this latter episode, he writes: "Never before nor since has any foreign policy problem engaged me so intensively for so long. One of the most interesting sections of Chances of a Lifetime describes the extraordinary security measures Christopher learned to live with when he became secretary of state. He couldn't visit a friend's house without it undergoing a sweep several hours beforehand. Dinner at a restaurant involved reserving an extra table for a pair of agents who would do nothing but drink iced tea and watch for trouble. For a morning jog in Israel, "agents arranged for me to run at sunrise inside a deserted soccer stadium." Christopher came under intense scrutiny, too. He relates, for instance, the minor flap over choosing to edit a speech in which he referred to American Chinese relations as a "cooperation" rather than a "partnership."

Regrettably, the book does not include much discussion of Christopher's role in Democratic politics since leaving the Clinton administration; among other things, he led Al Gore's effort to challenge the Florida vote count in 2000. Yet Chances of a Lifetime is full of crisp and straightforward prose about an important public figure; it's required reading for foreign-policy aficionados, and anybody else interested in Washington's ladder of success. --John J. Miller

From Publishers Weekly

Christopher, former secretary of state under President Clinton and a veteran Washington insider, has led an interesting life, yet his account of that life is not consistently so. The diplomatic skills of probity and discretion, which Christopher wields so well in the public arena, are not necessarily assets in memoir writing. Christopher offers cursory descriptions of his early years and early mentors such as William O. Douglas, giving over the lion's share of the boook to his years as secretary of state. He offers detailed accounts of the many international crises and negotiations during his watchAthe Israeli-Palestinian peace accords of 1993, efforts to bring peace among the warring states of the former Yugoslavia, Clinton's decision to fully normalize relations with VietnamAand explains well the complex nature of these episodes. Yet many details are missing. There is little discussion, for instance, of policy disputes within the Clinton administration or of the policy-making process. Also, with certain exceptions such as Boris Yeltsin and Slobodan Milosevic, Christopher merely sketches the personalities of the leaders he encounters. Discretion prevails, and we are left with an informative yet dry history. Only occasionally does Christopher let his guard down so that we might get a glimpse of who he really isAas when he expresses, with great humor, his discomfort at being publicly bear-hugged by the ever exuberant Clinton. This is certainly a work of value, but there is more r?sum? than revelation here. Illus. (Feb.) Forecast: Christopher becomes the latest Clinton insider to give the public a look behind the scenesAbut Christopher's circumspection will keep this from appealing beyond the ranks of foreign-policy wonks, despite his recent very public appearances as one of the point men in Al Gore's quest for the presidency.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1ST edition (February 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684830248
• ISBN-13: 978-0684830247
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,009,347 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More Politicians Should be Like "Chris", February 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Chances of a Lifetime: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Warren Christopher gives his personal history the most cursory of treatments before plunging into exposition of his interactions with some of modern history's greater figures. At first I found this self-effacement irritating--I wanted to understand what would propel someone to work so tirelessly for his nation, under such trying circumstances as the widespread civil unrest of the late '60s and the hostage crisis at the end of Carter's term in office. Then I realized that Christopher's approach to his memoirs reflects his approach to public service: it's not about _him_, not at all. It becomes very clear as the book progresses that Christopher's modesty, discretion and unrelenting focus on the task at hand have made him the epitome of the gentleman statesman and a model to which other politicians should aspire. Sure, other ex-Cabinet members might write juicier memoirs. But they very likely are not be as widely-respected, or as consistently in demand over decades of American political life, as Christopher. "Chances of a Lifetime" is a worthwhile read for that lesson alone.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid, Positive and Truthful, October 9, 2002

By 

John G. Hilliard (Toronto Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chances of a Lifetime: A Memoir (Hardcover)

If you are looking for a kiss and tell book full of gossip or new and exciting state secrets this is not the book for you. The author may be the last true nice guy in politics and his book echo's his character. The book spends about 30% of its time on his boyhood, working with the LBJ administration and working on different riots in he country. To be honest, this was not what I really was interested in. The rest of the book deals with his work in the Carter and Clinton administrations, which I felt was the most interesting sections of the book.

Christopher spends a good deal of time on his involvement in the Iran hostage crisis in 1979 and 1980 and on the Middle East peace process during his Clinton years. Both areas are well written and interesting, he brings a sense of a true gentleman to his writing - always taking the civil high road in his descriptions. I also found the sections on the personal security given to the Secretary of State and how he travels around the world new and interesting. Overall the author does a good job in this memoir; it is well written and understated. You understand why the author is so well respected; he goes out of his way not to include snide little comments and back- handed attacks that fill so many memoirs.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent memoir, November 20, 2005

By 

Michael Green "mrclay2000" (OKLAHOMA CITY, OK United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Chances of a Lifetime: A Memoir (Hardcover)

Christopher's book is highly readable. . .until he reached the point in his tale of becoming Secretary of State I found it difficult to put down. Chris was instrumental in handling and reporting (and in the aftermath dealing) with many of the urban riots in 1960s after the assassinations of King & RFK, and the urban riots surrounding the political conventions in Chicago. As undersecretary of state under Carter he was the key U.S. player in the Iranian hostage release, warmly adding how a restaurant applauded him at dinner shortly after coming home from those negotiations. Once he reaches Sec of State status in his book, the tale is less engaging but still informative, giving us a sharp and clear inside look at Chris' view of his job, and the policies and outlook of the U.S. government he represented for four years.