Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War (Unabridged)
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4.1 • 36 Ratings
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
From the former secretary of defense, a strikingly candid, vivid account of serving Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
When Robert M. Gates received a call from the White House, he thought he’d long left Washington politics behind: After working for six presidents in both the CIA and the National Security Council, he was happily serving as president of Texas A&M University. But when he was asked to help a nation mired in two wars and to aid the troops doing the fighting, he answered what he felt was the call of duty.
Customer Reviews
Duty is honest contemporary history
This book is incredible and notable in its candor and honest portrayal of one man’s experience. He held one of the most powerful positions, in the most powerful country on the Earth, at a time when our country was involved in multiple wars. This book is excellent for anyone interested in leadership and the inner workings of government at the highest level.
A perspective that must be presented told in a manner that engages any audience
This is a great book and a great presentation by audio book.
Gates indicated his purpose for writing the book was to tell those who did battle on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan what the secretary was doing on their behalf in Washington. As one of that target audience, I am grateful to him for this no-holds-barred account of his time from his perspective.
The events are presented in a thoughtful, simple, and very forthright manner. This will go down as one of the authoritative pieces of historical non-fiction of our times. The scope of his responsibility coupled with the breadth of his experience in this job and his previous ones make him an invaluable perspective on the events of our recent past.
In my opinion, if we had more like him in government today, we would be much better off as a country. Selfless, non-partisan, and full of integrity, this is the story of a great man doing of things of consequence to shape the world in which we live.
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