The Strategist: Brent Scowcroft and the Call of National Security

About this book

For more than thirty years Brent Scowcroft has played a central role in American foreign policy. Scowcroft helped manage the American departure from Vietnam helped plan the historic breakthrough to China urged the first President Bush to repel the invasion of Kuwait and worked to shape the Wests skillful response to the collapse of the Soviet empire. And when US foreign policy has gone awry Scowcroft has quietly stepped in to repair the damage. His was one of the few respected voices in Washington to publicly warn the second President Bush against rushing to war in Iraq. The Strategist offers the first comprehensive examination of Brent Scowcrofts career. Author Bartholomew Sparrow details Scowcrofts fraught relationships with such powerful figures as Henry Kissinger (the controversial mentor Scowcroft ultimately outgrew) Alexander Haig (his one-time rival for Oval Office influence) and Condoleezza Rice (whose career Scowcroft helped launch -- and with whom he publicly broke over Iraq). Through compelling narrative in-depth research and shrewd analysis The Strategist brings color and focus to the complex and often secretive nature of US foreign policy -- an intellectual battlefield on which personalities ideas and worldviews clash dramatically shaping the world in which we live.