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From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider's Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War Paperback – May 7, 1997
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length608 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSimon & Schuster
- Publication dateMay 7, 1997
- Dimensions6.5 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-100684834979
- ISBN-13978-0684834979
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Product details
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster (May 7, 1997)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 608 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0684834979
- ISBN-13 : 978-0684834979
- Item Weight : 1.7 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,837,906 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6,432 in Russian History (Books)
- #11,709 in History & Theory of Politics
- #72,769 in Military History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

ROBERT M. GATES is the author of Duty, and A Passion for Leadership. He served as secretary of defense under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He was an officer in the United States Air Force and worked for the CIA before being appointed director of the agency. A member of the National Security Council staff in four administrations, he served eight presidents of both political parties. He was president of Texas A&M University from 2002 to 2006, is currently chancellor of the College of William & Mary, was national president of the Boy Scouts of America from 2014 to 2016, and has served on several corporate boards of directors. In 2018 he became chairman of Eisenhower Fellowships. He lives in Washington state.
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Customers find the book informative and excellent on post modern foreign policy in America. They also describe the book as well-written, thoughtful, and a magnificent public servant and historian. Readers also say the storyline is fascinating.
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Customers find the book's subject matter informative, outstanding, and good. They also say it's a good book on issues inside the government and the senior people involved. Readers also mention that it'll test your knowledge of an important era of US history.
"...Gates writting is an easy read, but full of personal perspectives and information that shares a differn't glimse into the world of politics and the..." Read more
"Absolutely fascinating! Mr. Gates is an excellent writer and is able to make complicated information easy to follow...." Read more
"...It is also a very interesting study of the need for diverse opinions for the president to make hard decisions...." Read more
"Loved this book. Very interesting and many parts were even compelling...." Read more
Customers find the book well written and even handed.
"...Gates writting is an easy read, but full of personal perspectives and information that shares a differn't glimse into the world of politics and the..." Read more
"Absolutely fascinating! Mr. Gates is an excellent writer and is able to make complicated information easy to follow...." Read more
"...Here Gates presents a skeletal and easily read outline of the drama as it unfolded loaded with personal anecdotes...." Read more
"...It was a very good read for me." Read more
Customers find the book thoughtful, honest, and enlightening. They also say the author is a magnificent public servant and historian. Customers also mention that the book betrays a depth, humility, and honesty at the same time.
"...but the verdict of time I think will find this to be an accurate and dispassionate account of the final years of the Cold War and the role CIA played." Read more
"Bob Gates is a magnificent public servant and historian...." Read more
"...Great summary of the Cold War years from a unique, and largely unbiased perspective (if you ignore Gates' own hubris)...." Read more
"This is a great book. Gates betrays a depth, humility and honesty at the same time as providing key details about the Cold War. Highly recommended." Read more
Customers find the storyline fascinating, credible, and authentic. They also describe the book as brave.
"...It is a formidably complex tale that well deserves and will get voluminous treatment by historians and political scientists...." Read more
"Mr. Gates provides fully detailed explanations of significant events that occurred during the Cold War and provides insights and perspectives only..." Read more
"Stories everyone should read. Help one really understand how difficult the world political stage is. Emphasis is on foreign affairs...." Read more
"...Robert Gates tells a fascinating story. He is the fly on the wall." Read more
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This is a book I enjoyed so completely that I hated to reach the end of it. It will be on my personal "re-read" list. No wonder Mr. Gates was selected to become Secretary of Defense in our nation's hour of need.
On page 47 Gates contends that detente under Nixon and Kissinger was successful, although liberals and conservatives agree (for different reasons) that detente was a failure. I would say this is faulty analysis. Viewed through the prism of history, detente was a failure, Reagan's policy of military and political strength to win the Cold War was much more successful.
On page 110 Gates contends that Carter wasn't as weak on defense as his critics contend, then details all the decisions that led to the critics making that conclusion, mostly Carter's decisions on weapons systems like the B-1. I would say that Carter's main foreign opponents during his administration, the Iranians and the Soviets also believed that Carter was weak on defense and acted accordingly by taking the embassy in Tehran and invading Afghanistan. Here is a fundamental flaw that Gates and the rest of the Washington establishment seem to not get about leadership. It isn't about weapons systems and money, it's about backing up your words with steel when necessary. This may be a reflection of Gates service as an analyst, he was never a trigger puller, so he doesn't understand leadership, only management. He was an intelligence officer in the Air Force, but I don't really think that briefing ICBM crews in North Dakota or wherever makes you qualified as a trigger puller or head spook.
On page 190 Gates blamed his faulty analysis concerning Andropov in 1982 and the future (or lack thereof) of the Soviet Union on Andropov's short reign. But Andropov himself persuaded Brezhnev in 1981 to not invade Poland during the Solidarity movement, signaling an end to the Brezhnev doctrine which set up the conditions for the fall of the Soviet Union. Chief among those conditions being the Soviets lost their enthusiasm to intervene militarily in other states affairs after Afghanistan.
On page 208 Gates complains that the operators in in the early eighties weren't ethnically diverse enough. But he fails to mention that CIA recruited from the military officer ranks in high numbers, he himself was recruited this way. And the combat arms MOS's especially the special operations folks weren't too diverse either, even nowadays. And the special operations ranks are prime targets for CIA recruitment. This reveals another naive assumption that he doesn't explain well and once again shows a lack of realistic reasoning prevalent in the Washington establishment and the among the CIA academics.
On page 293 Gates complains about the friction between CIA 'career professionals' and Casey. Apparently Casey and other 'right wingers' were skeptical about what the CIA analysts were putting out. Since the CIA seems to miss out on forecasting most of the main events of the latter half of the twentieth century most of the American population seems to share this skepticism. And of course there is the Iran Contra scandal which Gates spends a huge amount of time lamenting in the book. It's interesting that he talks so much about it in hindsight, nowadays the former Obama administration gives up $400 million to Iran for hostages and no one bats an eye.
On page 323 Gates sneeringly says "Finally, at least in Reagan's mind, the impression of American political and military weakness had been erased..." Gates takes down the Reagan administration at every opportunity in this novel and reveals the disdain the Washington establishment and he had for Reagan.
On 379 Gate complains that the operators complained that someone from the analytical side is taking over as Deputy Director of Central Intelligence. How did he expect them to act? How would any operator act if someone told them that a non-operator was taking control?
Don't get me wrong, the book is a good education on why the CIA gets so much wrong. Use it for that.
In particular, his portrayal of the role of Gorbachev's political reforms without corresponding reforms of the centralized command economy as accelerating the implosion of the Soviet Union has the sure touch of persuasion. Further, his account of the mastery of the first President Bush's non-provocative policy response to the Soviet collapse commands respect and approval.
This book deserves wide reading and study.
George Coburn








