Customer Reviews

The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy

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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.

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.

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!

No one denies that Condi Rice is a talented and hard-working diplomat, but Kessler's excellent book chronicles a series of missed diplomatic opportunities during her tenure, inviting one to consider how effective Rice has been as Secretary of State during Bush's second term. Rice initially built a strong and brilliant team under deputy secretary Robert Zoellick, and some of the success stories Kessler describes took place while Zoellick was at the helm.

Rice had a public profile and was popular with the public during her time on the NSC, but once she ascended to role of Secretary of State, she sought systematically to raise her public profile, and to do so largely through a series of media splashes accompanied by high fashion statements. Rice focused heavily on image. Perhaps the most salient example of a woman in power who used fashion to great effect is Margaret Thatcher, who was a relentless implementer; Kessler demonstrates that once Rice launched initiatives, her execution and implementation were weak, and apparently style trumped substance. Rice does dress the part, carries it off well, and clearly enjoys being a leading fashionista. Dean Acheson also dressed extremely well, but this was probably secondary to his diplomatic skill, and in any case his sartorial statements were not on prominent media display during his trips abroad, although I imagine had he appeared for dinner in Saudi Arabia, as Rice did, wearing flowing white silk with gold pinstripes threaded through the fabric, that would have changed quickly. But if the most innovative fashion statement conservatives can muster is the adoption the solid-color necktie look pioneered by James Baker, then we should welcome Rice's attempts to raise the bar.

While Rice is known to be extremely bright, she appears to compensate for a lack of strategic intellectual firepower with a highly developed sense of performance. Splendid performances can go a long way in diplomacy, it seems, but Rice's tenure has been marked by unlucky breaks and wrong-footed initiatives which Kessler does an outstanding job of covering, while simultaneously guiding us through some of the major foreign policy challenges of the last few years with skill and brevity. The book's title, however, suggests that a more detailed examination of the Rice-Bush relationship would be on offer, with insight into how she became so influential with Bush. Here the book falls short, but is nonetheless an essential read for anyone seeking to understand Rice's leadership, or lack of it, during a few turbulent years. Interestingly, as she was provost of a highly complex university and managed a stable of world-class talent, she seems to have brought no managerial skill at all to the running of the Department of State, neglecting to tap the vast resources available there and demonstrating her tacit acceptance of the Bush style of a closed inner circle that doesn't look beyond its own resources or mental models.

Rice brings to the table an outstanding set of personal and intellectual qualities, but if Kessler's book is accurate, she may not have the chops to take on a future leadership role in electoral politics. One can only wish her well in the remaining months of her term, but Kessler provides little comfort that major breakthroughs are to be expected, particularly in the mid-east, where Rice has declared her intent to bring peace and stability, and realize the President's stated goal of fostering a Palestinian state. Even now, her role in managing other issues, such as those presented by Iran, seems less than significant.

Never much one for politics, I began reading this book only because my father was reading it and had vehemently recommended it to me. However, upon picking it up and reading just a few short pages, I was hooked. The book provides a riveting portrait of one of the most important women, no, one of the most important people in our country. Rice was once believed to have had a substantial chance of becoming the first female president, but lost that chance through foolish political choices. This book shows Rice's weaknesses and her strengths, and portrays her admirable if not greatly successful attempts to fix her mistakes. The insider point of view Kessler offers as a journalist who followed Rice closely provides a wonderful personal touch to the examination of her character, and, in some ways, despite her controversial choices, one cannot help but admire her core of steel and her keen intelligence and sarcastic wit.

Kessler immediately draws you in with his vivid portrait of Rice, her tenure in the Bush administration, and the implications of her actions on our future. I'm not a foreign policy maven but I couldn't put it down...Kessler's writing is always engaging, thoughtful, and clear. He creates a fascinating portrait of Rice and how she maneuvers among personalities and powermongers around the world. As she changes from realpolitiker to Bush acolyte, Kessler evenhandedly presents both her flaws and her successes. This is a must read...her actions affect us all!

I picked up this book because I had always found Rice to be a bit opaque and wanted to know more about her thought processes. Plus I wanted something that would examine her record impartially, not a partisan screed or defense. After reading Kessler's profile, I have a much deeper understanding of this person who is called "the most powerful woman in the world". Rice turns out to be a complicated character, a mixture of steely reserve and learned cluelessness, and I found myself absorbed in the author's descriptions of her exploits over the last few years, as well as the many juicy up-close and personal tidbits about her personality. Like her or not, this is a major figure in recent American history, and Kessler's impartial examination is a worthy look at someone of Rice's political stature.

This book was written between July 2004 and October 2006, and published in 2007. As a biography of Dr Rice it is incomplete but as a view of her contribution to the George W Bush administration's foreign policy during this period it is invaluable.

During President George W Bush's first term, Dr Rice was his National Security Advisor. During his second term, she was Secretary of State. Her first appointment, according to this book, resulted in many of the challenges that Dr Rice tried to deal with during her second appointment. Many of those challenges seem to the author to be the result of the lack of any coherent strategic vision. While I largely agree with this assessment, it is difficult to see how Dr Rice could have been more effective in her role given the Bush administration's approach to foreign policy.

Of course, hindsight provides a wonderful perspective and it is easy to be critical of how -and by whom - some of these events were handled. It may be true that `The world only works if the world's only superpower is bound by rules like everyone else' but establishing what those rules are and how they should be applied really requires more effective dialogue between states.

It is interesting to read this book now, after the Bush era. Will the Obama era see a more effective foreign policy dialogue? And what will constitute effective contemporary foreign policy for the USA? Many of the conflicts discussed in this book have not been satisfactorily resolved, and the relationship between the USA and some of the newly powerful world nations are still evolving.

Like coverage of the term `We the People', issues and responses continue to evolve.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

I'm not sure what's up with Kessler (the author) but the book appears to be comprised of every negative the author could dig up. I do like the fact that the book doesn't spend that much time in Condi's background, that's been well documented in other books.

However, even when the author speaks to some of Rice's closest friends in San Francisco, he documents primarily only negative pieces of conversation. So, I just don't enjoy a book that is all negatives all the time.

On a side note, if the other facts in the book are as incorrect as the Rumsfeld interview documented on page 173, then the book is trash. On that page the author recounts a question asked of Secretary Rumsfeld while he is being interviewed by Scott Hennen of WDAY in South Dakota. WDAY is a radio station in Fargo, North Dakota, Scott Hennen is one of their talk radio hosts. It would appear the author should spend less time flying around on the Secretary of State's plane; and a little more time in his own country, perhaps exploring flyover country so that he can distinguish North from South.