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Rise Of The Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet

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The Vulcans is the name the 6 key figures of the Bush Administration foreign policy have chosen for themselves: an allusion to Vulcan, the crippled armaments maker of the Gods, who defended heaven.

This is a really excellent work of contemporary history. Journalism, I think someone said, is history's first pass. Well as a first pass, this book is meticulously researched and fairly argued. It is also very well written and tells a gripping story.

It makes the seemingly incomprehensible and incoherent aspects of the Bush foreign policy (at least to a European) entirely credible and logical. Nor is it unsympathetic to the shapers of that policy: Powell/Armitage at the State Department, Rumsfeld/ Wolfowitz at Defence, Rice and Cheney in the White House. It links their personal biographies and life experiences to the policy choices they have made: their desire to see America in the post Vietnam era strong and unencumbered again.

Armitage in particular comes across as quite a compelling guy. The dedicated Navy man and hard-living covert warrior from Vietnam, who dedicates his family life to adopting and helping Vietnamese refugees, his career is nearly destroyed by Ross Perot and Iran/Contra and he rises again through his friendship with Powell. A man who believes more than anything that America should not abandon its allies.

I haven't enjoyed a book about contemporary American policy as much since Fred Kaplan's The Wizards of Armageddon about Bernard Brodie, Albert Wohlstetter, Herman Kahn and the dawn of the atomic age.

Skip all the other political potboilers this season and spend the time with this book. The student of American politics, American history and the curious observer of American foreign policy will find much here to digest and ponder.

Whoever wins the presidency the future of American foreign policy will be shaped by these men (and 1 woman) and their actions and understanding how they got us to where we are will be vitally important.

James Mann's Rise of the Vulcans is a fascinating group history of six of the major players in the Bush administration's foreign policy: Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, and Richard Armitage. Going to the back of the book, I see that Mann had first-hand input into his research from all of the above except Cheney and Rumsfeld, and the quality of the result is extremely high. It is a sympathetic yet objective portrayal that gives no hint of its author's political views. It points out arguments and evidence in support of Vulcans' views, as well as contradictions within them, such as Rice's published claim (in Foreign Affairs) that Iraq was no threat (p. 259) and the Bush administration's position on North Korea (p. 346). It also points out conflicts between Vulcans' predictions and reality, such as Wolfowitz's prediction that America's allies from the Gulf War would all fall in line if the U.S. attacked Iraq alone (p. 237). Mann also points out the clashes within the group, mainly between Powell/Armitage and the rest--with Powell going as far as to refer to them as "right-wing nuts" (p. 260, referring mainly to Cheney and Wolfowitz).

The book is filled with fascinating details, such as Wolfowitz's prescient speech about a new Pearl Harbor, given as a commencement address at West Point in 2001 (p. 291), Bush's giving his OK to Pakistan's becoming a dictatorship (p. 300), the government's plan in the annual Nuclear Posture Review to use small nuclear devices to combat terrorism (p. 314)--which would seem to me to create more and bigger problems than it would solve, and Bush's nickname "Pootie Poot" for Vladimir Putin (p. 288).

The book was published in 2004 and is quite up-to-date, only missing some minor recently uncovered details such as Rumsfeld's calling for an attack on Iraq on September 11, 2001.

Every so often as I read this book, I would stop and gaze thoughtfully at the cover. You can see what it looks like here, with the six principal characters of the book drawn in a political cartoon style. That's not what I was looking at after awhile, though. I kept fixing my gaze on the picture hanging on the wall behind Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Cheney, Colin Powell, and Condoleeza Rice. Since the six are sitting in some official looking Washington, D.C. type conference room, I assume the portrait on the wall must be a depiction of the American president. But which one? If you look closely, you will see the man in the picture has no face. Is it George W. Bush, the current chief executive? Or is it one of the other presidents-Nixon, Ford, or Bush the Elder-which several of these people worked for at various times in their lengthy public service careers? Perhaps the leader without a face is a subtle jab on the part of the author, a jab directed squarely at the men who sit in the Oval Office. After all, the six people examined in this book wield enormous power over American foreign policy, and have for nearly thirty years. Perhaps the president is merely a faceless, transient apparition when compared to such powerful personalities.

"Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet" is a history of America's new foreign policy as formulated by the above named individuals. James Mann emphasizes from the start that presidents play a small role in his book. Presidents come and go, but the six individuals in the book have played roles both major and minor in nearly every administration dating back to Nixon. Donald Rumsfeld worked for the Nixon White House as a staff advisor and in the Ford administration as Secretary of Defense. Paul Wolfowitz was a major policy wonk in Middle East and Asian affairs at the Pentagon. Richard Armitage and Colin Powell served their country in the Vietnam conflict before assuming greater and greater responsibilities in America's defense bureaucracies. Richard Cheney, the current vice-president, worked closely with Rumsfeld before his own stint as Bush the Elder's Defense Secretary. Condoleeza Rice became the current president's National Security Advisor after a career that carried her from Stanford University through several Pentagon assignments. If there's a recognizable theme in these short descriptions, it's no mistake. As Mann points out, all of these people rose to prominence through the Pentagon.

The Vulcans (as these figures came to be known when Bush the Younger ran for president) worked together for years-though often at odds with one another on certain issues-to reformulate American foreign policy. In the 1960s and 1970s, Mann argues, the United States subscribed to Henry Kissinger's realpolitik as a means of dealing with the Soviet Union and other enemies. The foreign policy wonks believed that power, and the exercise of power, defined relationships between countries. America's disastrous experience in Vietnam convinced Kissinger and men like him that the United States had lost power and thus could not deal with enemies on an equal footing. The result was détente, or the idea that negotiation and compromise with America's foes was the prudent path in dealing with foreign powers. The Vulcans, first through Wolfowitz and eventually through others, rejected these ideas. They believed that America was a great country, a strong nation of boundless energy that could use its military power to cow any opposition. If the United States developed new weapons systems and spent vast sums on defense, no other country could ever hope to defeat-let alone match-our supremacy. The collapse of the Soviet Union only served to underscore this mode of thought.

American might isn't the whole story, according to Mann. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and the rest believed that the United States should, and could, use its military might to bring about democratic change in the world. The belief that an invasion of Iraq could not only overthrow a dictator and install a democratic government, but also serve as a means of changing the entire Middle East, was a belief articulated by the Vulcans long ago. Moreover, the Vulcans believe that we should conduct these types of operations unilaterally, as alliances tend to weaken American resolve. Not all of the six necessarily support these views. Colin Powell, for example, shares many of the core values of the other five figures, but believes that following these ideas to their logical conclusion will result in quagmires similar to Vietnam because such beliefs lead to open-ended conflicts with no exit strategies. Mann says that Powell's opposition to many of the Vulcan policies have led to significant discord within the Bush White House.

The problems with such an aggressive foreign policy should be clear. Only an out of touch bureaucrat would think that a top down democracy, installed at the point of a bayonet, could succeed anywhere in the world. What happens if the Iraqis vote a tyrant into office in the forthcoming elections? Hey, that's democracy in action, isn't it? Something tells me that wouldn't satisfy the American government. I guess it is democracy as long as it is a certain type of democracy rubber stamped by Washington. At the same time, the left offers no adequate solutions to foreign policy, either. Turn over all our power to the United Nations and coalitions? No way. Taking that path will only lead to further quagmires. Mann's book offers no significant alternatives to the Vulcan worldview, but it does offer a fascinating read on a topic more relevant as the election nears. "Rise of the Vulcans" is an immensely readable book that's hard to put down, a mix of history, biography, and journalism that will entertain even as it informs.

Buy this book! I know that you will enjoy it. I believe this to be the most comprehensive book about the Bush cabinet now in print. Reading this book will help you to understand the philosophy of the current administrations views of their foreign policy and where they originated from. Mr. Mann has done a remarkable job bringing each of the individuals in to focus and rounding out their history. He has done so clearly and concisely. That was important to me due to the number of individuals in this book that are brought out in detail. The manner in which he writes about each of the Vulcans avoids confusion that may have resulted if this work had been handled in another fashion, such as bringing all of the members out at the same time at the beginning of the book, for example. Instead, he introduces each member and gives their history that helps to avoid that confusion.

I was impressed by the amount of research that went into the book. Mr. Mann clearly knows what he is writing about. He is comfortable enough with the material to make his book highly enjoyable to read. His thesis is clearly and objectively written and avoids a politicized view. In a market filled with political points of view ranging from the "Bush is God" to the "Bush is Satan," it was a joy and a pleasure to find, read, and to be stimulated by this very insightful book. Hats off to James Mann to a great book. If you want a book that explains the Bush theories and goals of their foreign policy this is the book for you. I also enjoyed Bob Woodwards books Bush At War and Plan of Attack. James Manns' book Rise of the Vulcans goes into far more detail while at the same time being a great read.

I have had the opportunity during my years at the Pentagon and the National War College to get to know five of the six people highlighted in this book. Mann describes each quite accurately, in my judgment. My only real objection is that Mann depicts Colin Powell and Richard Armitage as men without vision or the ability to think and act strategically. On this point, I would strongly disagree. Anyone interested the American defense policy should read this book.

This is a fascinating book, with a stylistic nod to The Best and the Brightest and The Wise Men, the two best known "group biographies," and also to the lesser known and more recent First Great Triumph by Warren Zimmermann. Also connecting the three is their focus on periods of vigorous foreign policy. Mann's work fits the mold and easily holds its own against these others.

Mann's subjects are the Vulcans, Bush's team of foreign policy advisors who coalesced around his campaign for president in 1998-2000, who have shaped the administration's policies, notably regarding Iraq, but who also have vast experience--often together in groups of two--dating back to the Nixon and Ford administrations. The six are Donald Rumsfeld; Dick Cheney; Paul Wolfowitz; Colin Powell; Richard Armitage; and Condoleezza Rice. Their interactions and professional pairings over the years are fascinating.

Most of the book is bureaucratic history (so those looking for something else, beware), following these six through decades of government service as they make policy to suit the times, be it the aftermath of Vietnam, the Carter malaise, the fall of the Soviet Union, the post-Cold War world of the 1990s, or the war on terrorism. Dominating their thinking in each period, Mann argues, is a focus on, probably an obsession with, America's military power--how to increase it, how to keep it, how to use it.

Mann tells the story ably and mostly objectively. Given current events, this is a charged topic, and Mann navigates the waters well, without descending into polemic. He even manages to avoid the whole "neoconservative" trap, using the label only for Wolfowitz who alone of the six deserves it and reminding us that most of the "neocons" supported McCain in 2000. However, Mann uses "conservative" too loosely and doesn't bother to define it. He applies it to both Cheney and Wolfowitz (who at various times is both "con" and "neocon"), two very different political animals. As evidence of Armitage's moderate-to-liberal credentials, Mann cites the deputy secretary of state's adoption of Vietnamese children, as though conservatives don't adopt poor foreigners. Once or twice, he seems to buy into the idea that Cheney was, at least for a time, running the current administration. But these are small tics in an otherwise impressively fair book.

The last part of the book, on current events, loses the tight focus and intricate biographical weaving of earlier sections. Rather than highlighting the connections among ideas, people, and their effects on action and policy, Mann's discussion of the Iraq War is a mere rehash of events most readers of this book will know well. But if Mann falls short in this regard (and maybe there's simply not enough information yet for a full treatment), he gives us a solid account of the Vulcans' backgrounds and beliefs, and we can surmise for ourselves their imprint on present and future policy.

This is a very interesting book- one that is still very important in trying to understand the mind set and ideology of the current misadministration.
As a group biography and a beginner's primer on the evolution of America's foreign policy since the Nixon administration, Mann's book is excellent. He discusses the "real" politic approach of Kissinger, the Carter doctrine, the Reagan doctrine, what became known as the Powell doctrine, and the Bush/Rice doctrine of preemptive strikes. Along the way, he lucidly portrays the roles that each of the Vulcans played in that development.
It should be obvious from reading the reviews below that Mann tries very hard to be fair and objective. Some people seem to believe him as being overly fair to Democrats and some to the current gang of miscreants. I guess you can tell on which side of that divide I fall. Several comments about his history come to mind.
One of the best points that Mann makes about the weakness of the Democrats is that they don't seem to develope people who are both politicians and experts on foreign affairs (with the exception of Al Gore). There is no one like a Rumsfeld or a Cheney or a Bush 1. By that I mean there are no Demos who develope long term relationship with the intelligence, the defense and the foreign affairs communities. Thus the Demos always seem relatively weak in these areas. It should be obvious that the Republicans have beaten the electorate over the head with this fact. That needs to change. The chants of "peace now!" are simply not enough to constitue a foreign policy. The Demos need to articulate an alternative foreign policy vision.
On a different topic, I am somewhat troubled by the way Mann has picked and chosen his sources. He leaves out entirely from his account any reference to the sort of incident that Richard Clarke talked about in his book, "Against All Enemies", where he related how on Sept. 12th or 13th, Rumsfeld was already trying to link the 9-11 attacks to Iraq in spite of expert opinion to the contrary. I think Mann has downplayed considerably the enmity that the Vulcans felt toward Iraq and their blindness to any argument against an attempt to overthrow Hussien.
Part of why this omission bothers me is that Mann's history is no better grounded in verifiable sources then Clarke's. If you read Mann's notes, they are full of references to unnamed sources. This is an unavoidable issue in the writing of current histories. The author inevitably get used by players who are trying to manipulate public presentation of their actions. But you do end up wondering why authors end up ignoring some sources and not others. Why didn't Mann interview Clarke for this book?
In decisions like that one, the author's interests and ideological foibles are revealed.
I think in Mann's case, he tries too hard to be fair. And that makes him blind in some ways to just how misguided the Vulcans have been. And to how much they misguided the American people.
Mann also does not include the extent to which it was obvious that the King George and his royal bullies were manipulating the data in the windup to the war. Anyone who actually read more then the front page of the newspaper at the time noted that on the same days that everyone trumpeted Powell's or Rumsfeld's presentation of the WMD data, in the back pages there were articles about long time experts in the Mideast intelligence community talking off record about the ambiguity and unreliability of that same data. None of this is discussed in Mann's book.
I do think that this book brings out what is the central problem in American foreign policy which is to what extent military power should be relied upon as the means we use to enforce our policies. The Vulcans feel that we can basically dictate to the world the way things are going to be. I would argue that the insurgency in Iraq proves otherwise. Mann's book, in spite of its weaknesses helps to clarify the issues in that debate. For that reason, all of us should consider reading it.

While reading this book, I have been tempted to write a review midstream on several occasions. Having finished it last weekend, I was glad I waited. "Rise of the Vulcans" provides and essential background on those who currently affect our foreign policy. For me it complemented Suskind's "Price of Loyalty". The key players are followed throught their government careers as well as some reference to their civil careers when the Republicans are out of power. (Rumsfeld as a CEO would be "an acquired taste" in my world.) Mann also discusses the key influences on this group from academic to political figures. Winston Churchill has been a strong influence, however I had the feeling that the influence never went beyond "The Gathering Storm". He is cited for having been a Tory, yet he began his career in the Liberal Party and was a strong proponent of income redistribution via taxes.

One of the things I observed in this is that once the cold war ended, this group was no longer in their area of expertise. They are intelligent, but perfectly capable of presenting speculation as the absolute truth.

The last few chapters went very quickly for me. Here the group is required to adapt to the new era, and it isn't clear to me that they have done that well. I could not read the conclusions as being an endorsement of this group.

George W. Bush is a minor character in all of this, however I did find his juvenile habit of "cutesy-poo" nicknames disturbing here. One could speculate how this group's hero, Winston Churchill (a well know master of insult), might have reacted to an equivalent of "Pootie Poot" which he has given Vladimir Putin.

The title of this book could have been The Gangs All Here. The author details out how the major players in the Bush administration foreign policy arm primarily come from the same conservative and some would save aggressive, illogical family. This group has been together, at least in the service of a Republican administration, since the Nixon - Ford administrations and are poster children for consistency in thought. The author does a wonderful job in detailing out who the members of the Bush Team are, at least in regards to defense and foreign policy. I was actually surprised at how lively and interesting the book was. I was a bit concerned that the book would be 50% dull biographies of this guy or that guy's college and early work life. Not much of that blandness was to be found. Instead I really had a hard time putting the book down. It is just an engaging and easy to read book.

So does the author really help the reader to understand the players involved? Definitely so in my opinion. There are no touchy feely psychoanalysis sections, but just a great detailed history of what these people have done in the service of the country and how they have acted and thought in the past. I like to think that if this book would have been written before 2000, that I could have read it and been able to predict some of the moves team Bush have made, because the author does such a good job in detailing out the key players. Sure the book covers a lot of the Iraq debate, but there is a wealth of information on the China incident in 2000 and a lot of back ground on the ABM treaty. You almost wonder if it bothers public officials to have books that are this well written detail out all the moves they have made, I would think it makes it a bit more difficult to shade past mistakes.

If you are looking to get a good understanding of the Bush administration and want to read a book that skips the partisan and over done rants of the anti Bush crowd then this is a book for you. I could not detect much, if any bias in the reporting. It sure seamed to me that the reporting was straight on and as fair as possible. The author doles out as much praise as he does condemnation, and it is all backed up with detailed analysis. Overall this is just a wonderful book. My only criticism, and a very slight one at that, was that I felt the author did not do himself justice in the conclusion and tried to hurry it along. That point aside this is a must read to understand Bush 2.

This is the history of Bush's war cabinet, from Rice to Powell to Wolfowitz among others. But more then that it is a history of American political life from the 1960s to present and the development of the policies of various administrations. This is the wide ranging history of think tanks and policy wonks, of lobbying groups and obscure professors, of old ideas and new revolutionary concepts, and of a small breed of like minded individuals sometimes in power, sometimes out, who came to the pinnacle of their abilities under George W. Bush. These men and women of diverse backgrounds and from diverse places in the political landscape combined academic ideas and military sills along with policy know how to craft a revolutionary new American doctrine. This book also presents biographical sketches that provide a refreshing insight into people like the oft-maligned Cheney, who this book shows came from a solid middle class background, whereas many assume we was born into wealth.

This is a wonderful read that takes the reader on a fast paced accessible tour of Washington politics. It would be helpful to go into this read with at least a perfunctory knowledge of who people like Jean Kirkpatrick, Henry Kissinger and Richard Pearl are. It would also be helpful to have at least a quintessential understanding of the various larger foreign policy issues of the Nixon, Carter and Reagan administrations, all of which were formative for the `vulcans'. Nevertheless this book serves as both a primer and a textbook on these amazing characters, both a biography and a political book, this is a must read and a book you will not find easy to put down.

Seth J. Frantzman