by Bob Woodward
First published 2010
Bob Woodward exposes the bitter conflicts within Barack Obama's administration as the president wrestled with America's longest war. Drawing from classified documents, internal memos, and extensive interviews with Obama himself, Woodward reveals how the young commander in chief clashed with his generals over Afghanistan strategy. The book centers on Obama's 2009 decision about troop levels, when military leaders requested 40,000 additional soldiers while the president desperately sought alternatives. Vice President Biden frantically opposed expansion, sending urgent handwritten memos to prevent another Vietnam. Defense Secretary Gates and General Petraeus pushed back against Obama's timeline for withdrawal. Behind closed doors, officials debated whether victory was even possible, with Petraeus privately acknowledging this fight would consume generations. Meanwhile, Obama worried most about nuclear terrorism on American soil, as secret exercises revealed the government's alarming unpreparedness. Woodward documents a White House consumed by infighting and fundamental disagreements about military strategy, showing how policy gets made when civilian leaders and generals cannot agree on basic objectives.
Genres: history, political-science, politics, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, military-history, american-history
Vibes: emotional, fast-paced, thought-provoking
Tropes: civilian-military-conflict, political-infighting
Setting: Afghanistan, United States, Vietnam
Period: 2009
441 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster