The strategist : Brent Scowcroft and the call of national security

Description

For more than thirty years, Brent Scowcroft has played a central role in American foreign policy. Scowcroft helped manage the American departure from Vietnam, helped plan the historic breakthrough to China, urged the first President Bush to repel the invasion of Kuwait, and worked to shape the West's skillful response to the collapse of the Soviet empire. And when US foreign policy has gone awry, Scowcroft has quietly stepped in to repair the damage. His was one of the few respected voices in Washington to publicly warn the second President Bush against rushing to war in Iraq. The Strategist offers the first comprehensive examination of Brent Scowcroft's career. Author Bartholomew Sparrow details Scowcroft's fraught relationships with such powerful figures as Henry Kissinger (the controversial mentor Scowcroft ultimately outgrew), Alexander Haig (his one-time rival for Oval Office influence), and Condoleezza Rice (whose career Scowcroft helped launch—and with whom he publicly broke over Iraq). Through compelling narrative, in-depth research, and shrewd analysis, The Strategist brings color and focus to the complex and often secretive nature of US foreign policy—an intellectual battlefield on which personalities, ideas, and worldviews clash, dramatically shaping the world in which we live. Content: pt. I. Air Force officer -- 1. Junction City -- 2. Surviving hell on the Hudson -- 3. Crash landing -- 4. Soldier-scholar -- 5. Blue suiter -- pt. II. The Nixon and Ford administrations, 1972-1977 -- 6. Military assistant to the President -- 7. Kissinger's deputy -- 8. White House under siege -- 9. SALT, Detente, and the Intelligence Wars of the seventies -- 10. Managing failure: The last days of Vietnam -- 11. We mean business -- 12. National Security advisor -- 13. The fixer -- pt. III. The Carter and Reagan years, 1977-1989 -- 14. Out on the street -- 15. The Scowcroft Commission -- 16. Watergate-type problem -- pt. IV. The Bush Administration, 1989-1993 -- 17. Organizing security -- 18. The pause: Preparing for change -- 19. Gardening in a tempest -- 20. Cold Ware relics: Upheaval in Panama, Trouble in Afghanistan -- 21. Blood on the stones -- 22. One Germany -- 23. On-ramp -- 24. War in the Gulf -- 25. End of empire -- 26. China rising and the international economy -- 27. A new world order -- or the resumption of history? -- pt. V. Citizen-statesman -- 28. An independent voice -- 29. The broken process -- 30. Elder statesman -- 31. The strategist.