Executive Branch, U.S. Politics in the Post Cold-War Era, U.S. - Political Biography, Middle Eastern Conflicts, Middle Eastern History, U.S. International Relations, Iraqi Politics, United States History - 21st Century

Plan of Attack

Name: Plan of Attack
Author: Bob Woodward
ISBN: 9780743255486

by Bob Woodward, Alice Mayhew

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Overview

Plan of Attack is the definitive account of how and why President George W. Bush, his war council, and allies launched a preemptive attack to topple Saddam Hussein and occupy Iraq. Bob Woodward's latest landmark account of Washington decision making provides an original, authoritative narrative of behind-the-scenes maneuvering over two years, examining the causes and consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam.

Based on interviews with 75 key participants and more than three and a half hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush, Plan of Attack is part presidential history charting the decisions made during 16 critical months; part military history revealing precise details and the evolution of the Top Secret war planning under the restricted codeword Polo Step; and part a harrowing spy story as the CIA dispatches a covert paramilitary team into northern Iraq six months before the start of the war. This team recruited 87 Iraqi spies designated with the cryptonym DB/ROCKSTARS, one of whom turned over the personnel files of all 6,000 men in Saddam Hussein's personal security organization.

What emerges are astonishingly intimate portraits: President Bush in war cabinet meetings in the White House Situation Room and the Oval Office, and in private conversation; Dick Cheney, the focused and driven vice president; Colin Powell, the conflicted and cautious secretary of state; Donald Rumsfeld, the controlling war technocrat; George Tenet, the activist CIA director; Tommy Franks, the profane and demanding general; Condoleezza Rice, the ever-present referee and national security adviser; Karl Rove, the hands-on political strategist; other key members of the White House staff and congressional leadership; and foreign leaders ranging from British Prime Minister Blair to Russian President Putin.

Plan of Attack provides new details on the intelligence assessments of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and the planning for the war's aftermath.

Synopsis

"Plan of Attack is the definitive account of how and why President George W. Bush, his war council, and allies launched a preemptive attack to topple Saddam Hussein and occupy Iraq. Bob Woodward's latest landmark account of Washinton decision making provides an original, authoritative narrative of behind-the-scenes maneuvering over two years, examining the causes and consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam." "Based on interviews with 75 key participants and more than three and a half hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush, Plan of Attack is part presidential history charting the decisions made during 16 critical months; part military history revealing precise details and the evolution of the Top Secret war planning under the restricted code word Polo Step; and part a harrowing spy story as the CIA dispatches a covert paramilitary team into northern Iraq six months before the start of the war. This team recruited 87 Iraqi spies designated with the cryptonym DB/ROCKSTARS, one of whom turned over the personnel files of all 6,000 men in Saddam Hussein's personal security organization." What emerges are astonishingly intimate portraits: President Bush in war cabinet meetings in the White House Situation Room and the Oval Office, and in private conversation; Dick Cheney, the focused and driven vice president; Colin Powell, the conflicted and cautious secretary of state; Donald Rumsfeld, the controlling war technocrat; George Tenet, the activist CIA director; Tommy Franks, the profane and demanding general; Condoleezza Rice, the ever-present referee and national security adviser; Karl Rove, the hands-on political strategist; other key members of the White House staff and congressional leadership; and foreign leaders ranging from British Prime Minister Blair to Russian President Putin. Plan of Attack provides new details on the intelligence assessments of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and the planning for the war's aftermath.

The New York Times Sunday Book Review - Ted Widmer

Plan of Attack offers by far the most intimate glimpse we have been granted of the Bush White House, and, better still, a glimpse of the administration's defining moment: its war of choice against Saddam Hussein … Plan of Attack is, as its title suggests, a more combative book than anything Bob Woodward has written in a long time, and reminds us of the investigative passion that got him going in the first place. He could not have chosen a better moment for his comeback.

About the Author, Bob Woodward

A rookie reporter at The Washington Post when he got the call about a break-in at the Watergate in 1972, Bob Woodward has become synonymous with the term "investigative reporter."

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Editorials

Ted Widmer

Walter Russell Mead

Bob Woodward is the most accomplished political reporter of his generation, and Plan of Attack gives us the best glimpse of life in our republican court that we are likely to have until the principals retire to their private estates and avenge themselves on their rivals by writing memoirs.
— The Washington Post

The New York Times

In his engrossing new book, Plan of Attack, Bob Woodward uses myriad details to chart the Bush administration's march to war against Iraq. His often harrowing narrative not only illuminates the fateful interplay of personality and policy among administration hawks and doves, but it also underscores the role that fuzzy intelligence, Pentagon timetables and aggressive ideas about military and foreign policy had in creating momentum for war. — Michiko Kakutani

Publishers Weekly

While researching this book, Woodward (All the President's Men; Bush at War) interviewed more than 75 individuals and spent three and a half hours over the course of two days with George W. Bush himself. The resulting account of the decisions made before and following the start of the Iraq war has raised hackles on both sides of the political spectrum. While many conservatives see it as a smear on the administration, many liberals feel Woodward has handled the situation with kid gloves (a criticism that is only reinforced by the fact that Plan of Attack is at the top of the President's reading list on his Web site). Reading in first person as Woodward, veteran actor and audiobook reader Gaines does a superb job of conveying this important information in a mature yet charged manner. His voice is smooth and measured, and his timing, modulation and emphasis are perfectly suited to both the material and to Woodward's narrative voice. Because it is done so well, Gaines's delivery becomes transparent-a window through which we can view Woodward's text without distraction. Simultaneous release with the S&S hardcover. (Apr.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Foreign Affairs

Woodward, who has become the court chronicler of the Bush administration, provides in Plan of Attack a much better book than the first in the series, Bush at War. One reason is that the divisions at court have become sharper. Another is that Woodward was in as good a position as anybody else to address the two central puzzles about Bush's approach to Iraq: Did he realize, first, that he was going to war on the basis of dubious intelligence and, second, that running post-Saddam Iraq would be so difficult and dangerous? Addressing the first question, Woodward suggests that Bush never doubted that weapons of mass destruction were there; the best that can be said on the second is that the main players were so preoccupied with arguing the case for war that they failed to attend to the issues of occupation. Woodward's methods-relying on interviews and occasional media references, with little historical perspective or analysis-remain flawed. Nonetheless, the readiness of key players to talk freely with him at a time when the quality of their judgments had yet to be tested ensures an account that rings true throughout.

Library Journal

Woodward (Bush at War) recently said that this book has as much new information as any of his 12 previous ones. Indeed, Woodward presents a fact-filled account of Bush's decision to go to war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 2003. Already, the book has stirred controversy based on its conclusion that Bush decided to go to war in January 2003 and not two months later, as he claims, and for its recounting of CIA director George Tenet's exclamation that the existence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq was a "slam dunk." Woodward is at his best when he shows how foreign-policy issues became the battleground of pro-war cabinet members and the moderate Secretary of State Colin Powell, who despite his misgivings about fighting a war without UN support went from reluctant warrior to war supporter. President Bush is portrayed as unwavering in his belief that war against Saddam Hussein was right, although no WMD have been found, American soldiers continue to die, and Iraq remains an unstable nation. At times the reader can be overwhelmed by an abundance of facts and the author's shifting from one topic to another. However, some notable chapters about intelligence in Iraq are as engrossing as the best espionage thrillers. Woodward has written a memorable narrative of modern presidential decision making that all public libraries must own.-Karl Helicher, Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.