Condoleezza Rice is an interesting person. She is a very religious, intelligent, and dare I say it...., articulate women. This book is her memoirs of her tenure in the White House with both Bush administrations. This book is not a short book. It is over 700 pages and covers the many challenges this country, the administrations and herself faced during her time as National Security Adviser and eventually Secretary of State.
She is critical of herself, not missing an opportunity to admit where she mis-spoke, mis-stepped and plain old screwed up. However she was not as critical on George W. Bush, when I think he deserved it. This books covers from the contested election, to 911, to Afghanistan and Iraq to Katrina and everything in between. Rice is a master of the idiom, peppering this book with enough idioms to fill a separate book.
As America’s chief diplomat, Rice traveled almost continuously around the world, seeking common ground among sometimes bitter enemies, forging agreement on divisive issues, and compiling a remarkable record of achievement. Although I do not agree with her on many issues, I believe she acted honestly based on her beliefs as to what was right and wrong.
No Higher Honor takes the reader into secret negotiating rooms where the fates of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Lebanon often hung in the balance, and it draws back the curtain on how frighteningly close all-out war loomed in clashes involving Pakistan-India and Russia-Georgia, and in East Africa.
I think the most disturbing part of this book is that you walk away dumbfounded and the level of intervention the US practices. Some of the foreign countries committing atrocities just so the US could step in and pay them off. I believe 'blow back' is real and is caused by the aforementioned. Its time we walk away.
Hardcover: 784 pages
Publisher: Crown; 1 edition (November 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 030758786X
ISBN-13: 978-0307587862
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