SKU: 49170840940

In the Shadow of the Oval Office: Profiles of the National Security Advisers and the Presidents They Served--From JFK to George W. Bush

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In the Shadow of the Oval Office: Profiles of the National Security Advisers and the Presidents They Served--From JFK to George W. BushThe most solemn obligation of any president is to safeguard the nation's security. But the president cannot do this alone. He needs help. In the past half century, presidents have relied on their national security advisers to provide that help. Who are these people, the powerful officials who operate in the shadow of the Oval Office, often out of public view and accountable only to the presidents who put them there? Some remain obscure even to this

The most solemn obligation of any president is to safeguard the nation's security. But the president cannot do this alone. He needs help. In the past half century, presidents have relied on their national security advisers to provide that help.

Who are these people, the powerful officials who operate in the shadow of the Oval Office, often out of public view and accountable only to the presidents who put them there? Some remain obscure even to this day. But quite a number have names that resonate far beyond the foreign policy elite: McGeorge Bundy, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice.

Ivo Daalder and Mac Destler provide the first inside look at how presidents from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush have used their national security advisers to manage America's engagements with the outside world. They paint vivid portraits of the fourteen men and one woman who have occupied the coveted office in the West Wing, detailing their very different personalities, their relations with their presidents, and their policy successes and failures.

It all started with Kennedy and Bundy, the brilliant young Harvard dean who became the nation's first modern national security adviser. While Bundy served Kennedy well, he had difficulty with his successor. Lyndon Johnson needed reassurance more than advice, and Bundy wasn't always willing to give him that. Thus the basic lesson -- the president sets the tone and his aides must respond to that reality.

The man who learned the lesson best was someone who operated mainly in the shadows. Brent Scowcroft was the only adviser to serve two presidents, Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush. Learning from others' failures, he found the winning formula: gain the trust of colleagues, build a collaborative policy process, and stay close to the president. This formula became the gold standard -- all four national security advisers who came after him aspired to be "like Brent."

The next president and national security adviser can learn not only from success, but also from failure. Rice stayed close to George W. Bush -- closer perhaps than any adviser before or since. But her closeness did not translate into running an effective policy process, as the disastrous decision to invade Iraq without a plan underscored. It would take years, and another national security aide, to persuade Bush that his Iraq policy was failing and to engineer a policy review that produced the "surge."

The national security adviser has one tough job. There are ways to do it well and ways to do it badly. Daalder and Destler provide plenty of examples of both. This book is a fascinating look at the personalities and processes that shape policy and an indispensable guide to those who want to understand how to operate successfully in the shadow of the Oval Office.



Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 02/05/2011
ISBN: 9781416553205
Pages: 400
Weight: 1.29lbs
Size: 9.02h x 5.98w x 0.89d

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SKU: 49170840940

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Ivy
Los Angeles, US
★★★★★ 3
Not so good
Format: Paperback
Wordy and not very useful.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2023
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Katie
Los Angeles, US
★★★★★ 2
Book arrived damaged and ripped
Format: Paperback, Format: Paperback
Book arrived on time but unfortunately it was damaged and ripped with a sticky residue in the back cover. Not worth buying new if the book comes in poor condition.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2023
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Monique'
Charlottesville, US
★★★★★ 5
BD
Format: Paperback
Needed this book for school. It came on time and was great!
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Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2025
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Christopher Warnock
Whiting, US
★★★★★ 5
Value of Alternative Viewpoints
Format: Hardcover
I was pleased to see the new complete translation of Picatrix by Dan Attrell and David Porreca released in the Magic in History Series of Penn State Press. Picatrix is central to European astrological magic that it deserves an academic treatment. In addition, the willingness of Penn State Press to release a complete translation of Picatrix shows how things have changed in the past decade and the yeoman work done by mages such as Austin Coppock, Alexander Cummins and Cliff Low to delve deeply into astrological magic. As the translators point out at page 2 this version of Picatrix is, "specifically intended for students and scholars of the history of science and magic" In addition to the complete text of the Latin Picatrix in English translation the translators provide useful historical accounts of the pre-history of Picatrix and of the Latin text, Picatrix's exposition of the path of the sage, the use of the terminology nigromancia for astrological magic and the cosmology of Picatrix. Most interesting is a statistical breakdown of the types of magic in Picatrix. Finally, the translators elucidate their view of the importance of psychoactive drugs in ritual, though the translators insist at page 28 that they do not, "wish to suggest that all magic in the Picatrix can be explained away as drug addled delusion…" Coming as it does from an academic perspective, focused on history and social science the Attrell and Porreca translation provides a valuable orientation and background for the contemporary practitioner of astrological magic. No single translation can do justice to a work as complex as Picatrix and anyone who is serious about astrological magic or interested in Picatrix should certainly get a copy of the Attrell and Porreca translation as well as the Greer and Warnock Picatrix and the forthcoming Arabic Picatrix translation.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2019
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Joshua
Belleville, US
★★★★★ 5
Really cool book.
Format: Hardcover, Format: Hardcover
I admire people who can do this kind of work. There’s a typo on p290.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2025

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