Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest <Embed>
  • List Price: $17.00
  • Save: $3.20 (19%)
Free Shipping for Prime Members | Fast, FREE Shipping with Amazon Prime
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Confront and Conceal: Oba... has been added to your Cart
+ $3.99 shipping
Used: Good | Details
Sold by big_river_books
Condition: Used: Good
Comment: The cover has some normal wear. The text has no notes or markings. We ship daily Monday - Friday!
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 2 images

Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power Paperback – April 23, 2013

by
David E. Sanger (Author)
› Visit Amazon's David E. Sanger Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
David E. Sanger (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 87 customer reviews
See all 7 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$12.99
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
—
$15.00 $0.32
Paperback
"Please retry"
$13.80
$8.12 $5.69
Audible, Unabridged
"Please retry"
$0.00
Free with your Audible trial
Audio CD, Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry"
—
$26.35 $9.86
Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Discover what to read next through the Amazon Book Review. Learn more.
$13.80 Free Shipping for Prime Members | Fast, FREE Shipping with Amazon Prime In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
click to open popover

Frequently Bought Together

  • Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power
  • +
  • Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Total price: $26.94
Buy the selected items together

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. American Foreign Policy: The Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century (Fifth Edition)
    Bruce W. Jentleson
    4.0 out of 5 stars 20
    Paperback
    $96.42 Prime
  2. Cybersecurity and Cyberwar: What Everyone Needs to Know®
    P.W. Singer
    4.3 out of 5 stars 127
    Paperback
    $13.14 Prime
  3. Return to Cold War
    Robert Legvold
    4.6 out of 5 stars 11
    Paperback
    $15.30 Prime
  4. Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe
    Graham Allison
    4.5 out of 5 stars 40
    Paperback
    $11.70 Prime
  5. On China
    Henry Kissinger
    4.5 out of 5 stars 281
    Paperback
    $15.29 Prime
  6. War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars
    Richard N. Haass
    3.7 out of 5 stars 47
    Paperback
    $16.00 Prime
Next

Editorial Reviews

Review

Read more

About the Author

Read more
See all Editorial Reviews
NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE
See the world with fresh eyes
through these editor's picks from Kindle. See more

Product Details

  • Paperback: 512 pages
  • Publisher: Broadway Books; Updated edition (April 23, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0307718034
  • ISBN-13: 978-0307718037
  • Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1.1 x 8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #158,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsWelcome to the Wars of the 21st Century
By Herbert L Calhoun on June 7, 2012
Format: Hardcover
Piggybacking on GW Bush's earlier forays into cyber warfare, President Obama, in lieu of having to launch (or having to prevent Israel from launching) a full-scaled air attack, elected to launch instead, a joint cyber attack with Israel on the centrifuges at Iran's Natanz nuclear plant. In retrospect, it can be seen that Obama's motive for pulling Israel into a highly secret cyber project was designed primarily to dissuade our closest Middle East Ally, from launching its own unilateral (but what would have probably been a highly destabilizing) military attack against Iran's nuclear facilities. This well-written book goes into such scary detail about the whole enterprise, that like John McCain in his recent call for a Special Prosecutor to investigate the matter, I too wondered how a New York Times Reporter could get access to so many intricate details of such a closely held national security secret?

Here is a rough summary of the most interesting part of the book in my view: the author's description of how a Bush initiated project called "Olympic Games," unfolded and got played out under Obama's direction:

Following up on previous efforts to surreptitiously install faulty parts into Iran's German made computer systems and power supplies, General James Cartwright, of the U.S. strategic command, convinced President GW Bush that launching a cyber penetration effort could be at least as effective as the stratagem of trying to introduce faulty parts. Bush bought into Cartwright's idea, which outlined a way of gaining access to the Natanz plant's industrial computer controls by the innocent introduction via a thumb drive of a small bit of "sleeper" code called a "beacon.Read more ›
14 Comments 97 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
4.0 out of 5 starsGet it and think for yourself
By Park Ave on June 10, 2012
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This book and a few related articles have riled political Washington for the past week. Sanger obviously had very high access, has sourced his open facts very well and wrote an excellent book. Here's a great inside look at the past three years of diplomacy, covert action and internal Administration deliberations.

I won't give another summary here; others already have. I will echo another reviewer's irritation at Sanger's introduction of Obama as "typical dovish Democrat" and transition to "Hawk." Sanger needed to tell a story here; like many in the Washington press corps, he is shocked (SHOCKED!) to find the President would act like either a "Hawk" or a politician. Sanger has difficulty moving away from that bit of conventional wisdom, an understandable problem given his own position as a New York Times reporter.

The only other point the book seems to lack is a deeper discussion of the legal and geo-political ramifications of nation-states' use of cyberwarfare in peacetime. Sanger brings up the point of nations using military-designed computer programs to weaken or spy upon other nations. Is this an act of war? Where is that line to be drawn? Sanger asks the question but doesn't search very far for his own position, nor does he look to any other outside voices on the subject.

So, we have an extended news article here, focusing on several challenges to the United States around the world and how this Administration has met them, for good or ill. Sanger doesn't take much of a position of his own, but this won't stop reviewers, talking heads, the left-wing blogosphere or right-wing shriek radio from spinning this book to their own ends. I believe this book is worth the money to read and decide for yourself.
15 Comments 56 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
4.0 out of 5 starsConfronting the Obama Doctrine
By H. P. on June 12, 2012
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Confront and Conceal is, in many ways, the sequel to The Inheritance. The Inheritance was about the foreign policy challenges Obama inherited from Bush. In Confront and Conceal, Sanger examines how Obama has faced those changes and attempts to pin down an "Obama Doctrine." In Inheritance, Sanger presented America's foreign policy challenges as almost siloed. Here, he makes clear that our continued presence in Afghanistan is largely driven by our strategic interests in Pakistan, and those strategic interests are amplified by our interest in not leaving Pakistan with the alternative of China as their major ally and benefactor. And the money to pay for it all comes from the same place. Everything is linked.

Confront and Conceal is organized into five parts, covering: Afghanistan & Pakistan, Iran, drones & cyber warfare, the Arab Spring, and China & North Korea. The section on Afghanistan & Pakistan is the longest by a fair margin, taking up almost one third of the book. China & North Korea, by comparison, is given short shrift. In my mind, it's hard to argue that the Arab Spring deserves twice the space as China & North Korea.

A renewed exuberance for the Afghan war (reflecting Obama's campaign rhetoric) soon faded under sober inspection. Transforming Afghanistan into a modern nation was not and never had been feasible. There is simply no way to replace the development aid and military spending that accounted for the vast majority of Afghanistan's GDP. So our focus shifted to warily watching Pakistan and (rightly) putting our pursuit of al-Qaeda first, even if it means jeopardizing our relationship with Pakistan, as the mission to kill Osama bin Laden did.Read more ›
4 Comments 43 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA balanced look at Obama's yrs in office

Very informative regarding Obamas yrs in office. A balanced look at his administration and his decision making. Obama will become a great president as the years go on.

Published 2 months ago by charles bauer
4.0 out of 5 starsGood read about power of US Presidency

Well written (so far) with important and interesting information not available in regular media.

Published 2 months ago by OrgPros
4.0 out of 5 starsthis was a blemish on an otherwise good book with rich detail in...

In light of recent Wikileaks revelations, the author was either in the dark about the covert agenda by the French to topple the Ghadafi regime in order to neutralize the threat to... Read more

Published 3 months ago by Faisal Abdullahi
3.0 out of 5 starsGood read

This book brings a lot of new question with it while, possibly answering some old ones. All-in-all it is worth the time spent.

Published 6 months ago by Black
4.0 out of 5 starsObama's other side.

This book reveals a little know side of how Obama operates. Many of his ardent supporters would be dismayed if they knew about it.

Published 8 months ago by cas
3.0 out of 5 starsInteresting book, not bad, but too much political bias throughout the...

This was a very interesting book and I enjoyed it. Unfortunately it probably disclosed some things that will turn around and bite us in the rear, and we will undoubtedly lose some... Read more

Published 14 months ago by Joezenith
4.0 out of 5 starsShould be required reading for anyone who has an opinion about...

An excellent read which fills in the ongoing story behind the daily news casts & newspaper headlines. Read more

Published 21 months ago by W. Williamson
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Up-to-date review of the complexities of the Middle East and other problem areas.

Published 22 months ago by Santiago
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

as described

Published 22 months ago by Stephen C. Barnhart
3.0 out of 5 starsAuthor has a blind spot --- still worth reading with that in mind

I am pretty near the end of this book -- Part V, "China and North Korea." I bought the audio version from Audible.com. Mr. Read more

Published 23 months ago by Steve

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway
This item: Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power
Set up a giveaway

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

Pages with Related Products. See and discover other items: executive security, control engineering, control theory