Other portions of the book contain numerous nuggets of interest to historians, but it treats its stated subject entirely unsystematically -- various bits and pieces about each "war" are scattered here and there. A hazard of star status, one suspects, is that anything you write makes the bestseller lists. The temptation to throw a couple years of random notes in the air, and string them together in the order in which they are picked up, must be overpowering.
At his best Woodward provides a look at the people who make political
news and a description of the policy-making process at Washington's rarefied
heights: the intense rivalries and suspicions, the scheming, the personal
ambition, the cover-your-ass of bureaucrats everywhere. It's not a pretty
picture, but it's where the book makes a contribution.
-- William Blum
ISBN 0-671-60117-2
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