By His Own Rules : The Ambitions Successes and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld

About this book

Once considered among the best and brightest of his generation Donald Rumsfeld was exceptionally prepared by successful careers in politics and business to assume the Pentagons top job in 2001. Yet six years later he left office as the most controversial Defense Secretary since Robert McNamara widely criticized for his management of the Iraq war and for his difficult relationships with Congress administration colleagues and military officers. Was he really the arrogant errant over-controlling Pentagon leader frequently portrayedor as his supporters contend a brilliant hard-charging visionary caught in a whirl of polarized Washington politics dysfunctional federal bureaucracy and bad luck? Bradley Graham a longtime Washington Post reporter who closely covered Rumsfelds challenging tenure at the Pentagon offers an insightful biography of a complex personality. In the tradition of Karen DeYoungs Soldier and Bart Gellmans Angler By His Own Rules is a layered and revealing portrait of a man whose impact on U.S. national security affairs will long outlive him.