By His Own Rules : The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld [Hardcover]

Bradley Graham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 22, 2009

Once considered among the best and brightest of his generation, Donald Rumsfeld was exceptionally prepared by successful careers in politics and business to assume the Pentagon’s top job in 2001. Yet six years later, he left office as the most controversial Defense Secretary since Robert McNamara, widely criticized for his management of the Iraq war and for his difficult relationships with Congress, administration colleagues, and military officers. Was he really the arrogant, errant, over-controlling Pentagon leader frequently portrayed—or as his supporters contend, a brilliant, hard-charging visionary caught in a whirl of polarized Washington politics, dysfunctional federal bureaucracy, and bad luck?

Bradley Graham, a longtime Washington Post reporter who closely covered Rumsfeld’s challenging tenure at the Pentagon, offers an insightful biography of a complex personality. In the tradition of Karen DeYoung’s Soldier and Bart Gellman’s Angler, By His Own Rules is a layered and revealing portrait of a man whose impact on U.S. national security affairs will long outlive him.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Thomas E. Ricks, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and author of The Gamble and Fiasco
"Donald Rumsfeld is one of the most interesting and troubling figures of the Bush era, and Bradley Graham is the perfect writer to explore his reign at the Pentagon. Graham, a veteran military reporter, is scrupulously fair in weighing Rumsfeld's strengths and weaknesses. This is likely to be the definitive book on Rumsfeld, one that historians will turn to a century from now."

LA Times
“Among the handful of books likely to stand above mere topicality…What's particularly remarkable about the qualities Graham brings to this project is the extraordinary fair-mindedness with which he approaches his subject. He does not stint on analysis, but Rumsfeld's considerable virtues—flawless integrity and an unshakable lifelong commitment to civil rights, for example—are treated right alongside his overweening flaws: arrogance, a bullying intellect, tireless self-promotion. The result is an engrossing biography; its thorough, capacious reporting leaves those value judgments not absolutely required by the weight of evidence to the reader. There's a sturdy, old-fashioned quality to Graham's approach to his subject and this material, and the match works brilliantly. This is, in other words, a major—and highly important—American political biography.”

The Washington Post
“In this meticulously researched and compelling book, veteran Washington Post reporter Bradley Graham acknowledges these contributors to the national-security travails of the Bush years, but he highlights another as well: the secretary of defense's unwavering commitment to military transformation, his vision of a leaner, more lethal Department of Defense.”

Politico
“Donald Rumsfeld has been excoriated by both Democrats and Republicans for his handling of the Iraq war. This biography reveals a more nuanced picture than the conventional wisdom would suggest.”

Jamie Fly, executive director of The Foreign Policy Initiative
“Washington Post reporter Bradley Graham chronicles the full span of Rumsfeld’s remarkable career in a surprisingly balanced and fair new biography….Graham does an excellent job of tracing the man’s meteoric rise in Washington, relaying insights from friends and associates about the famed Rumsfeld management style, which some call one of his biggest faults. —

Tom Mahnken, ForeignPolicy.com
“Journalists have produced many caricatures of Donald Rumsfeld, but no portraits. Until now, that is. Bradley Graham's By His Own Rules (PublicAffairs) offers a nuanced portrayal of the former defense secretary that is likely to serve as the definitive work for years to come.”

Bob Woodward, author of The War Within, State of Denial, Plan of Attack, and Bush at War
“The first real, genuine, and mature biography of Rumsfeld—told with balance, empathy, and a toughness that Rumsfeld should appreciate. If anyone doubts that personality impacts and infects policy, read this excellent book. It is both fair-minded and blistering.”

About the Author

Bradley Graham has spent more than twenty-five years at The Washington Post in various reporting and editing assignments focused on military and foreign affairs. The author of Hit to Kill: The New Battle Over Shielding America From Missile Attack, he lives in Washington, D.C.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 832 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs (June 22, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586484214
• ISBN-13: 978-1586484217
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #896,326 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Man of Mystery, August 26, 2009

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Retired Reader (New Mexico) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: By His Own Rules : The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld (Hardcover)

Donald Rumsfeld is a complicated and enigmatic man whose six year tenure as Secretary of Defense (SecDef) under President George W Bush was enormously controversial. This book is a rather bold attempt to provide a 'definitive' biography of a man who has remained a mystery even to his closest associates. Graham has chosen to craft his biography around an extensive compilation of direct quotes from the utterances and writings of Rumsfeld or those who were closely associated with him. He has organized this book in a straight chronology of Rumsfeld's own words, or those of his associates, organized by subjects within each time period. Yet in the end he has utterly failed to really define and explain the man who for six years was one of the most powerful men within the U.S. National Security Establishment. Perhaps the problem is that in a misplaced effort at objectivity, Graham has studiously avoided any real analysis of Rumsfeld's statements even to the extent not providing any in depth context. Apparently for the same reason Graham avoids any analysis of persons or experiences that have influenced Rumsfeld's intellectual development. Finally Graham made no effort to investigate Rumsfeld's long and close relationship with Vice President Cheney or indeed explore his relationship with any of the other senior officials who served with him in the George W. Bush administration. As a result, the reader is left with an 800 plus page book of the sayings of Secretary Rumsfeld that fails to give any real feel for this remarkable and controversial man.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Everything You Didn't Want to Know About Rummy and Then Some, September 12, 2009

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J. Michael (Lonely on Staten Island) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: By His Own Rules : The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld (Hardcover)

Author overwhelms reader with too much details and little context. No description of Rumsfeld's relationships with Bush, Powell, Rice, military chiefs etc. Every bit of detail author could obtain on Rumsfeld from interviews, unpublished memos, and newspaper articles are provided but with no supporting context given. Typical of a newspaper writer attempting to write a historical biography.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still fascinated by Rumsfeld., September 20, 2010

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Hugh Claffey (Co. Kildare Ireland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: By His Own Rules: The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld (Paperback)

This, surely, must be the definitive account of Rumsfeld's second tenure at the Dept of Defence. I think his fascination is a combination of his iconoclasm and his articulateness. He also appears to be very astute at political infighting.
The story is familiar and doesn't need me to recount it. In general I think the account is fair. The author notes that Rumsfeld twice offered to resign in the wake of the Abu Ghraib affair, and while apparently an honourable course the author also notes that some felt this was a tactical pre-emption of President Bush. The author doesn't come to a judgement on this.
The text goes through 700 pages and leaves you literally feeling the weight of the Pentagon administration. I was struck by the rate at which four star generals came and went; the number of commanders in Iraqi, the steady stream of retirees and so forth. I thought this must be a bit of a problem in terms of continuity. There is sympathy for Rumsfelds efforts a modernizing the fighting machine and making efficiencies, thought the pushback that his levels of interference - in particular with deployments prior to the invasion of Iraq were very nearly disastrous.
I was amused at the description of `snowflakes' - one page memos from Rumsfeld - distributed to all levels of the organisation outlining his thoughts, specific and general, on the ways to change the organisation.
One major area of weakness, I feel, in the book is the description of the circumstances which lead to prisoner abuse. This took place in Army run prisions in Cuba, Iraq and elsewhere. The author buys into an argument that `certain practices' were authorised for use only in Cuba, and only for a very short period before being rescinded. The fact that these practices were used in other locations and for longer periods, seems to be a mystery to the Secretary of Defense at the time. I am not convinced.
Otherwise the book is a fascinating view of Rumsfeld's challenge, and as a description of real life falls on neither side of praise or blame. There are curious views, in particular, that Rumsfeld viewed the insurgency in Iraq as a sideshow, and that he withdrew from decisions about it, even as it intensified.