The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: nuclear deal, United States, North Korea, State Department (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the end of President George W. Bush's first term, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice was prepared to leave politics and return to an academic post at Stanford University before she was drafted by Bush to be secretary of state. Two years later, polls showed American voters regarded her as the most powerful woman in the country. In this gripping and intelligent account, Washington Post correspondent Kessler chronicles those two years, drawing on his firsthand experiences traveling with Rice as well as an impressive array of documents and interviews. Kessler organizes the book by region, vividly dramatizing Rice's travels and negotiations overseas—the chapter including her visits to Khartoum and Darfur is a standout—while providing thoughtful analysis and historical background to put these vignettes in context. Kessler praises Rice for a number of successes, including her role in weakening a secret CIA prison system in Europe, but he also criticizes her failure to provide a coherent foreign policy vision and her weakness at implementation and follow-up. This balanced, detailed text offers invaluable insight into Rice's rise to power, though its exclusive focus on foreign policy may limit its appeal. (Sept.)
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From Booklist

With her long relationship with the Bush family (having served in the previous Bush administration) and ideological sympathy with the current President Bush, Rice has gained a position as trusted confidante. Washington Post diplomatic correspondent Kessler, who has traveled extensively with Secretary of State Rice, explores her career, personality, and relationship with Bush and other members of his administration. Drawing on interviews with Rice, he presents a portrait of a steely and forceful woman, capable of great charm, with the savvy to stand up to powerful political figures at home and abroad. Although Kessler examines her background for clues to her outlook on race, the book is predominantly focused on Rice's triumphs and foibles in foreign relations. He examines the policies she supported as national security advisor that later came back to haunt her as secretary of state. He offers details of Rice's involvement in tense negotiations with North Korea and Iran regarding nuclear weapons, efforts to encourage greater democracy—particularly for women—in the Middle East, and negotiations of a truce between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. She had agreed to take the position on the condition that the Bush administration would work toward creating a Palestinian state, a process that she undermined while she served as national security advisor and one that would continue to elude her. Finally, he explores her management style, lack of a coherent foreign policy vision, and desperate efforts to save Bush's foreign policy legacy and her own. Bush, Vanessa

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (September 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031236380X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312363802
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #496,669 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A GREAT READ - AND AN IMPORTANT BOOK, September 15, 2007

By	DC Gal (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

I got this book because I heard the author on NPR and then read a feature about the book on Slate Magazine, showing how Rice used a PR machine to transform her image. But even then, the book was an unexpected experience. It works on so many levels -- it is a biography, it is a foreign policy primer and it is also a journalistic memoir. I don't follow the ins and outs of foreign policy, and yet Kessler writes in such a fluid and easy to understand manner that I never felt lost as Rice flies around the globe. Kessler is balanced but tough in his assessment of the Secretary of State, and he covers all of the top foreign policy issues. This book helped me understand Condoleezza Rice -- and also what has happened to America's standing in the world, and why.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Seat at the Diplomatic Table, September 16, 2007

By	Steven Hirsch "Steve Hirsch" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Kessler's thesis is two-fold: (1) Rice has spent her years as Secretary of State saddled with the impossible task of trying to undo the damage that she did in Bush's first term as a National Security Advisor who fell under the sway of the administration's neoconservative ideologues. (2) Despite keeping up the most frenetic travel schedule of any Secretary of State since Kissinger, Rice's performance has been a series of missed opportunities attributable to a lack of any coherent strategic vision. As a reporter "on the plane" with Rice, Kessler is able to give you a detailed and psychologically nuanced look at Rice and the other players, foreign and domestic. It is a finely observed rendition of a disaster in the making, made all the more poignant by the fact that Rice herself is portrayed as a brilliant, talented, strong, energetic, attractive, and even charismatic person who might have played a constructive role in the world had she attached herself to a more competent mentor. As a reporter, Kessler stops short of articulating what he thinks an appropriate foreign-policy agenda might have looked like and tends to judge Rice's performance in relation to the goals that the she and the Administration set for themselves. But the book's agnosticism is part of its attraction, as it gets you thinking about your own foreign-policy values and commitments. What would a good response to the Hezbollah-Israeli war have looked like? What role should democracy and human rights play in foreign policy--and does an excessive focus on those values make a country end up looking hypocritical as idealism comes into contact with reality and inevitably becomes compromised? When is refusing to negotiate directly with a dangerous outlaw state like North Korea a useful tool, and when does it become an impediment to achieving important goals, like nuclear nonproliferation? Kessler's book doesn't answer these questions, but raises them in such an intriguing way as to ensure that it will still be attracting readers long after Rice has left the public stage--whenever that may be.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars, October 29, 2007

By	Bill Ivester (Princeton) - See all my reviews

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I'd say it's essential reading for anyone who follows current events on any level. The writing is both direct and engaging and the author provides background and context in each chapter without overcomplicating. I really felt like a Washington insider with access to fascinating accounts of behind-the-scenes negotiations. Kessler's treatment of Rice is even-handed; he highlights her dedication, drive, poise and intelligence but also holds her accountable for failed outcomes and missteps. Reading the New York Times is a whole new experience now - I have a much deeper understanding of the issues and people in the news. Highly recommended!