Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War

“This is a book about my more than four and a half years at war. It is, of course , principally about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where initial victories in both countries were squandered by mistakes, shortsightedness , and conflict in the field as well as in Washington, leading to long, brutal campaigns to avert strategic defeat.” So begins Robert Gates description of his four years as Secretary of Defense. While our troops were fighting, dying, and have their bodies blown apart; the other wars; the political, bureaucratic, and diplomatic (and not so diplomatic) wars that were the everyday fight of the Secretary of Defense, are the story that is told. This book paints picture after picture of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Gates describes a pentagon that focuses on planning for a hypothetical future war at the expense of those fighting a current one and of both a pentagon and Veteran’s Administration that play a callus lack of concern for those whose bodies have paid the price of war. This is both a gentle and, at times, a blunt appraisal of how our government functions. Gates is probably least flattering of Congress. He states, “I was constantly amazed and infuriated at the hypocrisy of those who most stridently attacked the Defense Department for being inefficient and wasteful but would fight tooth and nail to prevent any reduction in defense activities in their home state or district no matter how inefficient or wasteful.” It is also a wonderful insight into foreign affairs. Gates describes in detail our interactions with governments and their leaders in all of the crises that we all experienced during his over four years as Secretary. I found his description of the “Arab Spring” insightful. He states, “Revolutions and their outcomes are usually a surprise (especially to those overthrown) and damnably hard to predict. Experts can write about economic hardship, demographic problems such as a “youth bulge,” pent-up rage, and “prerevolutionary” conditions, but repressive governments often manage such conditions for decades. Thus was the Obama administration— and everyone else in the world (including every Arab government)— surprised by the “Arab Spring,” a revolution that shifted the political tectonic plate of the Middle East.” His observation that, “the best organized and most ruthless have the advantage in revolutions.” is a maximum we should all have nailed to our brains when we feel supportive of any revolution. Few revolutions have gone as well as our own, whether it be the Russian revolution, the French revolution, the Chinese revolution or almost any that come to mind. His rather candid descriptions of individuals are not harsh but are frank and seldom flattering. Neither Joe Biden nor Dick Cheney would likely be flattered nor would Russian President Vladimir Putin of whom he said; “I said to some of my colleagues privately that I’d looked into Putin’s eyes and, just as I expected, had seen a stone-cold killer.” I found the book fascinating and I found the critical reviews surprising. It is a long book and several reviewers were not happy about that. One of the problems with e-books is that their length is not obvious as it is in a printed volume where the thickness of the binding can determine whether or not you pull it off the shelf. It is not difficult reading but there is a lot of information and therefore requires some concentration. It is not a novel and cannot be read like one. While the book does not divulge any state secrets and therefore does not provide facts that are not in the public domain, Gates insights and descriptions of how decisions were made should be of interest to any citizen and voter. It is important to understand how our government functions; otherwise, we might believe anything that someone with a political agenda tells us. I hope you read the book and enjoy it as much as I did.

Having served under Secretary Gates predecessors of Cohen and Rumsfeld I never experienced his leadership example personally due to my retirement. I have always had a negative bias toward Robert Gates as a weasel and “yes man” and this memoir coming out at this time somewhat confirms my feeling to his character. It would have been much more effective if he “went on the record” vocalizing or publishing this material while in office as some have done. He had nothing to lose, unless….. Robert Gates initially appeared to me as a civilian who either voluntary or involuntary skipped military service to his country then came to an epiphany that the citizen soldiers were worth considering. At least he came to this conclusion where many others in the Obama Administration have not. I always thought him ambivalent about decision making and took the consensus road. On reading the book I found it equally divided between his time with the Bush then the Obama Administrations. If I learned anything in the first part of the book, it is how George Bush was determined and focused on his own efforts to keep victory in Iraq. I obtained great insight, though Robert Gates eyes as SECDEF, into George W, Bush’s strong character which correlates with his creation of” Decision Points.” . Contrarily to my initial opinion, Robert Gates as SECDEF appears to be more of a negotiator and mediator than a leader of a 700 billion dollar/year enterprise. I learned through the book he was a Second Lieutenant 1967-69 in USAF in SAC and understands the military somewhat. I appreciate his time and service as SECDEF, but he spent much time worrying about military members, micromanaging, and seemed to shun his main responsibilities. If he manages his immediate civilian and commander subordinates, then the military member will be taken care of. He shirked his responsibility with the “2008 Bent Spear Event” with the B-52 sortie from Minot AFB to Barksdale AFB August 30, 2007 where six live nuclear warheads were flown in error. An example of the latter is the firing of SECUSAF Wynne and USAF Chief Moseley. He left it to someone else! That is his responsibility to fire these individuals for they work directly for him! Then to go to Mosley’s retirement? Duaaaaaaa? Then he went to Langley AFB, Combat Command, and he states he was well received and then to Scott AFB, Military Airlift Command and received more elation. Those are both competitive major air commands within the USAF. Why did he not go to Global Strike Command (The offending command)? That is the system that had the “Bent Spear Event!” This is weasel-esque. In the second portion of the book it is very interesting to peer into the new administration from his point of view with his value sets and experience versus new appointees lack of awareness of the world and national corporate history. The Obama Administration appears to have had the most inexperienced foreign policy staffers meddling in serious issues like Turkey and Armenia without knowing the caustic history between the two. Gates appears to be a father figure to Barak Obama in the fact he is 28 years older and it appears the President takes his advice readily and easily according to him. In this tour with this administration he appears a more mature SECDEF. He changes course early in the Obama Administration to micromanage the budget process for acquisition instead of the entire DOD in the previous 2 years. Gates provides a very favorable appraisal of Obama making decisions regarding DOD, drawn down in Iraq, surge in Afghanistan, and relationships with military personnel which I did not expect. Probably because Obama was his boss. He was not that generous to Biden where he felt he possessed competency, credibility, and integrity issues. His impressions of his entire stent at the DOD helm was that “Politics overriding national interests,” especially with the latter administration. It appears this work is a well-documented, methodical and encompassing diary as to his real intensions of accepting this position all along. I feel the book is well written an understandable in my vernacular. He approaches much from a historical perspective due to the fact he is a trained historian. After this read I have much more respect for Robert Gates and his contributions to our defense over his tenure. I now have great compassion for his predicament as SECDEF. His written message is easily comprehendible to me and other military people. His proven and verified advocacy for the military member turns me to his side. However, I felt he overdoes it in his worrying about uniform DOD members. That is what colonels and generals deal with! Not the SECDEF! Do your job and, not theirs! Gates through his words appeared to be very instrumental; in the rapid acquisition of MRVPs. ISR, and on fighting the VA on behalf of wounded warriors…. Let us see if this advocacy continues in his civilian position. Finally, his continuous criticism of Biden and his contrary positive view of Hillary Clinton appear to be an orchestrated opening statement to the 2016 presidential election. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, could this be?

I must confess that I knew little about Robert Gates before I bought this book. But I was quite keen to read the memoirs of someone who helped oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan while serving under two different presidents. Gates was brought on board by Bush 43 to help turn around the war in Iraq as it was beginning to bog down with casualties and no clear end in sight. Gates was a university president at the time, but had a long history of working with the government, including serving with Bush 41 (and Reagan, Carter, Ford) and serving as head of the CIA. So he was no neophyte to Washington, politics, or national issues. He immediately went to work supporting the idea of a surge that proved to be successful. Calling himself the "soldier's secretary", he was motivated by a deep need to protect the troops whose combat orders he signed. The book goes into significant detail about both wars, largely at the strategic level (tactical information largely is restricted to efforts to help protect the troops). He outlines the decision process, the people involved, the countries involved, and the bureaucracies involved. As a non-registered Republican, Gates comes off as very even-handed. He paints Bush in a slightly more positive light than Obama, which I was going to refute with a claim that Bush was an experienced president in the final lap of his second term while Obama was a new president who would have to seek re-election in four years. But Gates notes that himself. He characterizes Bush 43 as a man of decisive action, who was less concerned with political issues than with what he thought was right. He was fair and personable to Gates, although their relationship never went beyond a professional one. These same things can be said about Obama, other than his greater weighing of political costs and benefits and greater influence of White House staff. Without giving away the content of the book, it's pretty remarkable how similar Obama and Bush appear through Gates' eyes. To be sure, they were very different people and Gates notes that often enough. But at the bottom line, beyond their opposing political views, both were professionals who appeared to be very competent to Gates. There are a lot of other people beyond presidents mentioned in the book. Gates is very positive about Condi Rice and Hillary Clinton. Again, two different personalities and political positions, but two very competent Secretaries of State who both worked well with Gates. In fact, the information about Hillary is so positive I think this book would be a real boost for her should she run for president. Even for right-leaning readers, Gates claims that Hillary taught him not to judge a book by its cover, or media reputation. Biden and Cheney both get a lot of ink. Both were extremists within their governments. Cheney was an extreme war hawk, Biden an extreme peace dove. Foreign leaders get some coverage, as do many other people in the upper levels of Washington politics. And certainly, the generals and admirals get a lot of attention. Almost all of it is positive, although comments about their lapses in media judgment are noted. In general, Gates got along with most of the people he worked with, but he doesn't shy away from describing difficult situations or people, nor does he shy away from talking about the people he ended up firing. So this isn't a feel-good book where he's kind to everyone. Everyone takes a shot here and there, but it really seems that Gates generally tried to get along with most people and most of them tried the same in return (which is actually fairly shocking in politics!). All in all, I found it to be a very fascinating and (as far as I can tell) very honest look behind the curtains of power. Gates comes across as perhaps too sensible and thoughtful, or at least that's how it seemed to me. I could hardly fault or disagree with any of his decisions. If someone else does, at least the logic behind those decisions are clearly laid out, often with details of the political and/or military machinery that surrounded those decisions. Gates also deals with broader issues, such as problems with the Congress, or with the national media. Gates calls himself, above all, a realist, and I think he deserves that claim. He was both for and against war in different contexts, he served both presidents very well (Obama wanted him to stay on), and his motives seem to be largely apolitical and without career objectives. So as a person, I found him to be an interesting person to read about. As a topic, this book deserves to be read by a wide audience. Anyone interested in the personalities of the big players, the machinery of war and/or politics, the day-to-day challenges of being the Secretary of Defence, the history of US politics (going back almost 40 years), and plain human nature in general, is probably going to get something significant out of this book. At 600 pages it's definitely not a fast read. But it is well written, and for 600 pages of biographical history, it captured my attention from start to finish. With his added final thoughts and caveats at the end of the book addressing a lot of the questions I came up with throughout the book, I really don't have any reason to not give this book 5 stars. It's not the best biography I've ever read, but it certainly is a very good one that is sure to appeal to a broad audience on both sides of the political fence. Which, as Gates would point out, is a good thing. Solid five stars.

If you want a realistic looking into the Obama administration you have to read these memoirs! Thank you Mr. Gates for giving us this unique opportunity.

This audiobook has accompanied me on my way to work and is highly recommendable, as it delivers accounts on a number of aspects, such as serving under two administrations, running the biggest "account" in the US federal government in times of war and calamity and managing a political environment. The author gives a candid, reflective account with humour and passion, and the production is well read, well informed by his previous experience in Washington and at Texas A&M. The only thing missing are beginning and end statements on each of the 20 disks, but that is a manageable flaw.

I bought this book to understand how leaders take stride when facing adversity or crisis. No bigger crisis in the face of the earth than powerful countries waging war on terror and lives across battlelines are at stake. I find the insights very helpful. Its written in casual and yet thoughtful language. I would recommend this book to everyone who is interested in world politics, economies of war etc.

A fabulous insight into the worlds largest bureaucracy. Well written with no holds barred. Robert Gates is a great American.