From Booklist After years working for both the CIA and the National Security Council, Gates was president of Texas A & M when he was asked by President George W. Bush to replace Donald Rumsfeld as secretary of defense in 2006. He accepted, and he served in both the Bush and Obama administrations until 2011. He has written a revealing but sometimes frustrating recounting of his experiences as he attempted to manage the Pentagon and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Gates offers absorbing and often surprising accounts of the formation of new and sometimes successful policies to alter the course of the wars. He also describes the internal wars within each administration and his struggles to ram change through the Pentagon bureaucracy. Unfortunately, Gates shows little introspection, or questioning regarding the basic geopolitical strategy that got the U.S. into these wars. Furthermore, given his decades in Washington, Gates’ pose as an outsider banging his head against entrenched political and bureaucratic interests isn’t credible, especially since Gates was regarded as a savvy infighter during his earlier experience in Washington. Still, this is a useful and informative, if self-serving, memoir covering critical years in recent history. --Jay Freeman Read more Review A 2014 New York Times Notable Book“Probably one of the best Washington memoirs ever...Historians and policy wonks will bask in the revelations Gates provides on major decisions from late 2006 to 2011, the span of his time at the Pentagon…Gates is doing far more than just scoring points in this revealing volume. The key to reading it is understanding that he was profoundly affected by his role in sending American soldiers overseas to fight and be killed or maimed.” —Thomas E. Ricks, The New York Times Book Review   “Touching, heartfelt...fascinating...Gates takes the reader inside the war-room deliberations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and delivers unsentimental assessments of each man’s temperament, intellect and management style...No civilian in Washington was closer to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than Gates. As Washington and the rest of the country were growing bored with the grinding conflicts, he seemed to feel their burden more acutely.” —Greg Jaffe, The Washington Post   “Forthright, impassioned…highly revealing about decision making in both the Obama and Bush White Houses…[Gates’] writing is informed not only by a keen sense of historical context, but also by a longtime Washington veteran’s understanding of how the levers of government work or fail to work. Unlike many careful Washington memoirists, Gates speaks his mind on a host of issues…[he] gives us his shrewd take on a range of foreign policy matters, an understanding of his mission to reform the incoherent spending and procurement policies of the Pentagon, and a tactile sense of what it was like to be defense secretary during two wars.”  —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times  “A refreshingly honest memoir and a moving one.”—Jack Keane, The Wall Street Journal“A compelling memoir and a serious history…A fascinating, briskly honest account [of a] journey through the cutthroat corridors of Washington and world politics, with shrewd, sometimes eye-popping observations along the way about the nature of war and the limits of power.…Gates was a truly historic secretary of defense…precisely because he did get so much done…His descriptions of how he accomplished these feats—the mix of cooptation and coercion that he employed—should be read by every future defense secretary, and executives of all stripes, as a guide for how to command and overhaul a large institution.”—Fred Kaplan, Slate  “A breathtakingly comprehensive and ultimately unsparing examination of the modern ways of making politics, policy, and war…Students of the nation’s two early twenty-first century wars will find the comprehensive account of Pentagon and White House deliberations riveting. General readers will be drawn to [Gates’] meditations on power and on life at the center of great political decisions…His vision is clear and his tale is sad. Gates takes ‘Duty’ as his title, but the account of his service also brings to mind the other two thirds of the West Point motto: ‘honor’ and ‘country.’”—David M. Shribman, The Boston Globe “Duty…is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of what makes Washington tick.” —Edward Luce, Financial Times  “Gates has offered…an informed and…earnest perspective, one that Americans ought to hear, reflect on and debate.” —Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic“Engaging and candid….Young people who want to understand and live up to the highest ideals of American statesmanship would do well to read this book carefully; Gates has much to teach about the practical idealism that represents the best kind of American leadership.”—Foreign Affairs “Compelling…trenchant.” —Newsday“This is a serious, thoughtful, illuminating, and valuable insider account of the final years of the George W. Bush administration and early years of the Obama presidency….Gates holds little back in this revealing memoir.” —Choice “If you read only one book by a Washington insider this year, make it this one. It should be savored by anyone who wishes to know more about the realities of decision-making in today’s federal government.” —Library Journal“The full story that emerges from this detailed and often deeply personal account is of a man fed up with the dysfunction of the nation’s capital.” —The American Conservative Read more See all Editorial Reviews
C**S
One of the few memoirs I may read a second time
As someone who has been associated with the US government (as active duty, a DoD civilian, and as a contractor) for 26 years now, I found this book to be incredibly insightful. I might well read it again. It usually takes me months to read a book this size; I finished this one in just over a week. One aspect that I enjoyed is that while Gates made numerous references to his past, he did not go on and on and on about it. When I read a book like this I do not care about how the author's grandparent's made their way to America. I do not care about where or under what conditions the author grew up. For a book like this I want to be hit in the face immediately with the here-and-now, and that's what Gates did. I think of the entire 600 pages he spent just over TWO pages on this childhood. Some authors spend entire chapters (or multiple chapters) about their years as a child and/or teenager. Some readers like that, and that's fine. For me, I don't care. If I am reading a SECDEF's memoirs I want them to begin at the moment he gets the call from the President and end with the day he resigns. This book is perfect in that regard. The amount of detail is amazing. Gates take you into the Situation Room with him, into the Oval Office, into the countless meetings and gives what I believe to be a balanced assessment of every personality that was in-play during his tenure (from field commanders to POTUS). Just as important, his love for the troops and their well-being is beyond question. Well done, Bob!
J**T
Balanced, but hates politics too much
I tend to think of memoirs as little more than a platform for public figures to try to glorify themselves or frame their legacies to ensure against the inevitable -- that everyone will forget that you ever existed (applies to most people besides presidents). In "Duty," on the other hand, Robert Gates gives us a pretty solid and fair account of his time in office as Secretary of Defense. He scores several points above the self-seekers out there.That's not to say that Gates is just trying to get the facts out there; he's got his point of view and he's pushing it at us. The difference, in my view, is that Gates is doing it fairly. He's not above calling BS when he thinks he sees it -- he's especially hard on Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, and virtually the entire White House staff of Obama. But he's not just taking pot shots. He frames his disagreements as just what they were: policy disagreements, and he's gracious in noting that the people behind the disagreements are solid, smart, good people with whom he got along very well on a personal level.That simple acknowledgement -- that those with whom we may disagree are, at the bottom of it all, pretty decent people -- is all to rare among public figures, and Gates gets my kudos for basing his memoirs on that foundational idea. He thinks pretty little of preening, parochial congresspeople and the way they place personal political gain above the good of the country, but regardless of policy differences he makes sure to note the good people he served with who genuinely had a different view of what's good for America, and Gates makes sure we know he appreciated that in his colleagues.My biggest gripe with "Duty" is simply that I think Gates abhorred so much that politics could be an element of policymaking that he failed to acknowledge that -- as much as he doesn't like it -- it's a fact of governing. He tended in his memoir to be pretty harsh with those who kept politics on the president's radar, and I found that a little unfair. Presidents have to play politics. It shouldn't govern all, that's true, but by even Gates' own account, neither Bush nor Obama gave abeyance solely to politics. As such, I feel like Gates should have allowed more latitude to political advisers to do their jobs without griping about them all the time.
M**H
Great Look at the Politics of War.
Bob Gates provides an excellent look at the politics and personal stresses of being Secretary of Defense. Fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were certainly a priority. That said, he also spent considerable time on Iran, China, Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell, budget cuts, White House micromanagement, and Congressional parochialism.Mr. Gates’ focus on troop welfare seemed to be at odds with numerous bureaucrats. A good example was his insistence on quickly deploying Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. He struggled against a bureaucracy that was more focused on developing new weapons for the next war, rather than saving troops in the current war.Since the author worked for both Bush and Obama, he is able to provide a unique assessment of each president. Whereas President Bush was focused on winning the wars, President Obama was focused on getting out. One surprising observation was that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was a major supporter of the military; something for which she is not normally given credit. Both she and the author were frequently allied against an inexperienced White House security council.Overall, this is a great book. It is easy to read and paints a deeply personal picture of Mr. Gates. In many ways, it’s an insightful look at how the self-serving interests of Congress can affect how we fight wars. The book is long, at almost 600 pages and contains numerous color photos. Most readers should find this book interesting.
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