Clinton's Secret Wars: The Evolution of a Commander in Chief [Hardcover]

Richard Sale (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 2009

A popular yet polarizing force long after leaving office, Bill Clinton is still criticized by right-wingers as a president who was weak in his foreign policy. Veteran reporter Richard Sale takes us beneath partisan rhetoric and documents the learning curve of our nation’s 42nd President, showing his evolution as a strong leader on the world stage.

Using confidential sources in the administration itself, Sale reports on Clinton’s covert ops in such arenas as the Balkans and Middle East, revealing a leader who spearheaded the fight against Slobodan Milosevic, bombed Saddam Hussein, targeted Osama bin Laden, and prevented al-Qaeda from establishing a stronghold in the incendiary Balkans region. Ultimately, and revealingly, Clinton emerges at the end of his term in office as a tough-as-nails commander in chief in the same vein as Ronald Reagan. This “fly on the wall” look at a generation-defining leader provides an invaluable window into the presidency of Bill Clinton in the world arena.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sale (Traitors) offers a postmortem of Clinton's evolving foreign policy strategies, which reveals years of covert ops, almost wars and bombing campaigns, in a heavily researched chronicle. From initially posturing as a populist with little inclination to define a foreign policy, through clashes with Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia, Clinton developed into a tough player and replaced Anthony Lake and Warren Christopher (lightweights, in Sale's eyes) with Richard Holbrooke, Madeleine Albright and Peter Galbraith. Focusing the narrative on the key players and their internal rivalries and agendas, Sale keeps the pace relatively brisk through what could be a dry parsing of bureaucratic maneuverings. The book occasionally suffers from an excess of detail, and Sale's penchant to lionize or demonize personalities is overwrought and unnecessary (e.g., Galbraith is a humane man, with a real courtesy of heart). Still, the book provides insight into an administration that sought to wage war in a way that would do the least political damage while achieving the maximum effect, laying bare facets of Clinton's foreign policy that are largely underexamined, including early encounters with al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. (Oct.)
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Review

Advanced Praise for CLINTON’S SECRET WARS by Richard Sale:

"In a first-rate revisionist account that unravels the complicated international events of the Clinton era, Sale concludes that Clinton matured into a tough foreign policy President whose speeches connected with the public as effectively as those of Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Reagan. Enthusiastically recommended for readers who appreciate nonsensationalist works such as John Harris's The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House."—Library Journal

 

"Middle East Times intelligence correspondent Sale urges a much higher ranking for President Clinton as a commander in chief....The book’s most interesting and meticulously reported passages deal with Clinton’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering to topple Saddam Hussein, to kill bin Laden, to cajole NATO allies and to arm Croat ground forces against the Bosnian Serbs. Sale convincingly likens Clinton’s force of personality, love of subterfuge and shrewd understanding of public opinion to FDR, and he makes the case that the first truly post–Cold War administration confronted unique foreign-policy challenges. By the time of the war in Kosovo, which brought the loathsome Milosevic to heel, Sale depicts the president as surely more accustomed to wielding power on the world stage....

A sympathetic, well-reported appreciation of the 42nd president’s exercise of America’s hard and soft power."--Kirkus Reviews

"Focusing the narrative on the key players and their internal rivalries and agendas, Sale keeps the pace relatively brisk through what could be a dry parsing of bureaucratic maneuverings....the book provides insight into an administration that sought to “wage war in a way that would do the least political damage while achieving the maximum effect,” laying bare facets of Clinton's foreign policy that are largely underexamined, including early encounters with al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein."--Publishers Weekly

“I can say unequivocally that it is an insightful and erudite work on a little known aspect of the Clinton presidency.  The book had the benefit of excellent inside sources and presents clear accounts mostly unknown but needed by historians.”--Vince Cannistraro, former Chief of Counterterrorism Division, CIA

“Richard Sale has written a clear-eyed appraisal of the Clinton Administration's successive efforts to grapple with those new configurations as they appeared. Clinton's Secret Wars meticulously examines the first, often fumbling, steps toward the formulation of a coherent foreign policy by President Clinton and his advisors at a time when Americans were resistant to military entanglements. Over time, Clinton became an effective leader who, with the help of determined aides, learned to deftly overcome bureaucratic infighting, recalcitrant foreign leaders and the stubborn advocates of outmoded doctrines. The author's pointed account of Clinton's Balkan and Iraq policies and his careful description of the Administration's covert yet coordinated efforts to detect and dismantle emerging terror networks jogs our memory of that crucial period. Sale brings to light the underestimated achievements of an American president who came to understand the new contours of world power and persuasively articulated America's new role within them.”--Philip Stoddard, US Department of State (retired) and former executive director of The Middle East Institute

“Richard Sale’s long experience of reportage on Washington, the CIA, the American armed forces, and foreign intrigue have created a perfect background for this account of the steady growth of President Clinton as a master of the game of nations.  Sale’s polished prose style makes this book completely readable and a must for anyone who wants to understand the Clinton era.”--W. Patrick Lang, former head of Middle East Operations, DIA

"Clinton’s Secret Wars is a must read for diplomatic historians, presidential scholars, and students curious to know how foreign policy is really made….Richard Sale has written a tour de force in describing the inconsistencies of foreign policy and political will. Sale tells stories of personality clashes, ego rivalries, power trips, and that grey area where the need to be popular overrides the need to lead. It is a compelling story and a scary one. It is not for anyone with a weak political stomach. Sale makes an additional valuable contribution to the telling of this tale for anyone who followed the Clinton Administration and the internecine inter-agency battles of the 1990s…."--Judith S. Yaphe, Distinguished Research Fellow, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition edition (October 13, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031237366X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312373665
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,234,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for history or political buffs!, November 13, 2009

By 

Ed McCraw (Hartsdale, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clinton's Secret Wars: The Evolution of a Commander in Chief (Hardcover)

I gained so much insight about Clinton's foreign policy and that entire era . . . . though I think of myself as fairly well read, almost all of this was new to me and thus very humbling. I thought the book was awesome in detail and tone, and I loved the pace of the book . . . it would have been so easy to get bogged down, but it never did. There was just the right mix of history, intimate details of inner circle meetings and arguments, and descriptions of the main players that gave you a good sense of their strengths and weaknesses. I plan to recommend it to a number of people who I believe would find value in it!

4.0 out of 5 stars A interesting view of a fascinating time, September 15, 2010

By 

R. C Sheehy "deadsox" (Foxboro,MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Clinton's Secret Wars: The Evolution of a Commander in Chief (Hardcover)

Richard Sale takes a very interesting and often ignored period in American history. He provides us with an interesting perspective of how Bill Clinton evolved as a commander in chief. Sale does a good job of staying basically aloof by showing that Clinton was not prepared to be commander in chief when he started his term but that he quickly evolved to become a quite effective one.

Under his watch Clinton had to deal with Iraq, Bosnia, Serbia and global terrorism. Sale doesn't take a position on how right or wrong Clinton was, instead he provides almost an insiders perspective on what Clinton did and leaves it to the reader to decide if the actions were right or wrong. Sale does a good job of allowing both praise and criticism into his work Lastly, he does a good job of wrapping up what it all means.

This is a very good history of the Clinton administrations foreign policy and is not buried by rhetoric or having some ax to grind. I would strongly recommend this to anyone who is interested in having an un-biased view of American foreign policy between the end of the Cold War and the start of the War on Terror.

5 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Damage Control, January 20, 2010

By 

Thaddeus (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clinton's Secret Wars: The Evolution of a Commander in Chief (Hardcover)

The only thing positive I can say about the book is that the author is open in his prejudices and states up front that he is seeking to salvage Clinton's reputation in the field of foreign affairs, a mighty task being that he showed abject incompetence at every turn. The rest of the book is an exercise in moral and political absolutism. Clinton advisors are all good and frequently described as "brillant" while military people and any one to the right of Les Aspin are all descibed as cunning and/or obtuse. Sale's descriptioon of the Balkans crisis boldly demonstrates that he has no knowledge of the areas history and even faults Clinton for reading Kaplan's "Balkan Ghosts" a book which (quite accurately) describes as a hopless entanglement of ethnic hostilities.

Double standards abound also. While Sale metaphorically bounds the desk and yells at his subjects to wipe Milosevic and Serbia off the map he switches gears when dealing with Somalia and becomes an aposltle of diplomacy and realpolitik when dealing with such thugs as Aideed.

Yet even with Sale spinning the story in Clinton's favor it is still obvious that Clinton was baffled by foriegn affairs and had the opinions of the last person he spoke to. Sadly it becomes clear that Clintons dithering and moral incoherence set the stage for 9/11