White House Warriors: How the National Security Council Transformed the American Way of War

by John Gans Narrated by David Marantz

Overview

When Congress originally created the National Security Council in 1947, it was intended to better coordinate foreign policy after World War II. Nearly an afterthought, a small administrative staff was established to help keep its papers moving. President Kennedy was, as John Gans documents, the first to make what became known as the NSC staff his own, selectively hiring bright young aides to do his bidding.



Despite Kennedy's death and the tragic outcome of some of his decisions, the NSC staff endured. President Richard Nixon handed the staff's reigns solely to Henry Kissinger, who micromanaged its work on Vietnam. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan's NSC was cast into turmoil by overreaching staff members who, led by Oliver North, nearly brought down a presidency in the Iran-Contra scandal. Later, when President George W. Bush's administration was bitterly divided by the Iraq War, his NSC staff stepped forward to write a plan for the Surge in Iraq.



Gans demonstrates that knowing the NSC staff's history is the only way to truly understand American foreign policy. As this essential account builds to the swift removals of advisors General Michael Flynn and Steve Bannon in 2017, we see the staff's influence in President Donald Trump's still chaotic administration and come to understand the role it might play in its aftermath.

Editorial Reviews

James Mann

"This is an especially lucid account of how Washington came to deal with the rest of the world, full of lively anecdotes that make the book not just good history but a good read. John Gans is one of the most knowledgeable experts we have on the National Security Council staff, how it works, and how it doesn’t. He's studied foreign policy both as a scholar and a public official, and the lessons he learned have gone into this book."

Ivo H. Daalder

"When it comes to US national security policy, some of the most powerful and consequential people in Washington are also the least well known. John Gans shines a bright light on these National Security Council staffers and shows how they have influenced presidential decisions on war for decades. White House Warriors is must-read for anyone interested in how Washington really works."

Josh Earnest

"In the White House briefing room, I was often asked about the power of the National Security Council. John Gans was one of my best sources to help explain the ways this unique and elusive institution has served the American president, including the one I worked for. In White House Warriors, Gans proves as good a guide for readers as he was for me, taking all of us inside the staff's daily work as well as the debates and decisions that continue to transform America's relationship with the world."

Dr. Kurt M. Campbell

"In White House Warriors, John Gans superbly describes how the National Security Council (NSC) — the most secretive and powerful institution in the country — shapes America’s role in the world, particularly during periods of conflict. The NSC, part star chamber, part gladiator arena, and part Game of Thrones drama is expertly revealed to us in the pages of Gans’ primer on Washington power."

Graeme Wood

"In the tradition of David Halberstam, John Gans Jr. has provided an essential account of one of Washington's most consequential, but also most misunderstood, working parts."

Booklist [starred review]

"This forceful historical account is a much-needed published assessment, given that NSC members are generally not known to the public. . . . This book is essential reading for all interested in politics, government, and contemporary history."

Eliot Cohen

"John Gans shows us how the staff of the National Security Council has gradually accumulated or been given extraordinary influence over American national security policy. Sharply critical of this development, the author understands and even admires the people whom he believes have, less through ambition than the abdication of others, inadvertently undermined democratic governance. Controversial, compellingly written, and above all an essential read for anyone who wants to know not only why the United States goes to war, but how."

Alyssa Mastromonaco

"Serving at the pleasure of the president is a one-of-a-kind experience. With keen insights, deep research, and just the right amount of empathy, John Gans takes us inside the long and sometimes crisis-filled days of some of the lucky few who have worked in the White House. Readers will come away better informed about the successes and setbacks not just of the public servants so adroitly profiled here but the United States itself."

Gary J. Bass

"This insightful and compelling book helps make sense of how the White House’s powerful National Security Council staff works and also why it often doesn’t—sometimes helping presidents make sound foreign policy, but all too frequently getting the policy wrong with terrible human consequences. Richly detailed from interviews with White House staffers, the book disproves Donald Trump’s feverish claims of a ‘deep state’ out to undermine the presidency."

Kirkus Reviews

2019-01-16

A former chief speechwriter at the Pentagon expands his doctoral dissertation to demonstrate how the National Security Council has become one of the dominant forces in shaping American foreign policy.

Relying on a combination of academic research and less formal anecdotes, Gans, who runs the Global Order Program at the University of Pennsylvania's Perry World House, shifts back and forth between admiration for the NSC and warnings that the mostly publicity-shy staff members have accumulated too much influence without being overseen by anybody outside the White House. The agency was originally created in 1947 to coordinate sensitive, divergent foreign policy recommendations emanating from the armed services, the Defense Department, the State Department, the CIA, and other elements, and its staffers—not subject to confirmation by the Senate or any other body independent of the president—have become a "band of warriors" for the White House. Gans identifies high-profile national security advisers to every president, beginning with Harry Truman's group of advisers and moving through Henry Kissinger, Condoleezza Rice, Henry McMaster, and others. A chief value of the book, though, is the author's focus on case studies about how less-visible staff have exerted influence. These include Alexander Vershbow and Nelson Drew, who shaped Bosnian genocide intervention during the Bill Clinton presidency. To establish his theme early, Gans opens the book with scenes suggesting the influence of NSC staff member Meghan O'Sullivan on the controversial decision of George W. Bush to invade Iraq. Perhaps the most dramatic, revealing section occurs during the Ronald Reagan presidency, as the NSC gained the influence to implement foreign policy, leading to the Iran-Contra scandal and the loss of American lives to terrorists in Lebanon. The author also offers up-to-date research about the role of the presidency of Barack Obama, and he squeezes in a few pages of impressions about the chaos of the NSC during the Trump era.

A useful historical study that will especially interest those seeking a look at government from the inside.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171475437
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	05/14/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged

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