Duty; Memoirs of a Secretary at War

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. Second printing [stated]. Hardcover. Good/Very good. Platon (Jacket photograph). x, 618, [8] pages. Illustrations (color). Index. Front flyleaf roughly removed (presumably the page had been signed or inscribed). DJ has slight wear and soiling. Minor pencil erasure residue on fep. Robert Michael "Bob" Gates (born September 25, 1943) is an American statesman, scholar, and university president who served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011. Gates initially began his career serving as an officer in the United States Air Force but was quickly recruited by the CIA. Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and was Director of Central Intelligence under President George H. W. Bush. After leaving the CIA, Gates became president of Texas A&M University and was a member of several corporate boards. Gates served as a member of the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan commission co-chaired by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton, that studied the lessons of the Iraq War. Gates was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush as Secretary of Defense after the 2006 election, replacing Donald Rumsfeld. He was confirmed with bipartisan support. In 2008, Gates was named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report. He continued to serve as Secretary of Defense in President Barack Obama's administration. He retired in 2011. Gates was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Obama. According to a Washington Post book review, he is "widely considered the best defense secretary of the post-World War II era". Derived from a Kirkus review: Former Secretary of Defense Gates presents a politically charged memoir. It's clear that the job of the head civilian administrator of the military is a political one. Gates maintains a mostly respectful tone when it comes to the current commander in chief, though it's quite evident that his views are qualified. Gates tries to explain the personalities of Afghanistan commander Stanley McChrystal and Iraq commander David Petraeus and their dynamics with President Barack Obama. Gates also unleashes on the current Congress. The author emerges as a canny administrator who struck a number of right notes in entering the administration, first under George W. Bush and then Obama. He came alone, without a phalanx of support staff, and he came prepared to speak his mind, not disguising his belief that "the Pentagon was buying too many weapons more suited to the Cold War than to the twenty-first century." He was not able to transform the military into the fast-moving, lean force of the future A smart and plainspoken insider's view of the military-industrial-governmental complex.