Days of Fire

Starred review from September 30, 2013
The complex partnership of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney undergirds this authoritative narrative of their tumultuous eight years in Washington. Baker (The Breach), the senior White House correspondent for New York Times, skillfully navigates how Bush, a national security neophyte, came to rely heavily on the former Wyoming congressman and secretary of defense, a consummate Washington insider. Although Cheney became one of the most influential vice presidents in American history and grew to relish his Darth Vader reputation, Baker upends the popular perception that Bush did his bidding. The president and the vice president were wholly in sync on the issue that mattered most, Iraq. Cheney's relations to Secretary of State Colin Powell and other officials deteriorate after Americans fail to be greeted like liberators or find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Cheney's star wanes further after Hurricane Katrina, reaching rock-bottom after a notorious duck hunting accident, while other officials like Condoleezza Rice grow closer to the president. Baker concludes that Bush was without a doubt his own man with a "solid" record on issues like AIDS in Africa and prescription drugs for seniors, but has his legacy undone by Iraq. Though the author also catalogs domestic episodes from his disastrous nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and the financial meltdown of 2007-2008, the conduct of the war carries the book. Baker delivers a fast-paced read that deftly weaves the trials and tribulations of the Bush presidency into a monumental tale of hubris and missed opportunities for greatness. Agent: Raphael Sagalyn, The Sagalyn Literary Agency.

Starred review from October 1, 2013
A thorough, objective and surprisingly positive examination of the Bush-Cheney years. Written as though it has the perspective of a century's distance on the events of the last decade, New York Times senior White House correspondent Baker (The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton, 2000, etc.) dispatches false and puerile memes--Bush stole Florida, blood for oil, Bush lied and kids died, etc.--to the dustbin of history as he delivers "the most documented history of the Bush-Cheney White House to date." The author is no Bush cheerleader; he shines a pitiless light on the failures of judgment, erroneous intelligence and excessive reliance on subordinates that led to the debacle in Iraq, which undid Bush's second term. Baker concludes that Bush "was at his best when he was cleaning up his worst." The author shows how it all went wrong, however, without a hint of partisan rancor. This briskly written but exhaustively detailed account defies expectations by portraying an administration of intelligent, patriotic adults with necessarily limited information striving to do what they believed was best for the nation in a dangerous era, with real but overlooked achievements. The president, in particular, appears as a man of decency who retained his optimism and dedication to principle as his polls declined to record lows and political allies fled. In delineating the businesslike relationship between Bush and Cheney, Baker refutes the popular notion that Cheney was the dominant figure, though Bush relied heavily on his experience during his first term. Indeed, Cheney was increasingly sidelined during the second term, except on matters of national security, where he consistently pushed against constitutional limits to defend the country from terrorists by whatever means appeared necessary. In the end, Bush's successor, after campaigning vigorously against his policies, quietly adopted many of them. A major contribution to the rehabilitation of our 43rd president.

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October 15, 2013

Baker (chief White House correspondent, New York Times; The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton) centers this evenhanded account of George W. Bush's presidency on the relationship between Bush and his controversial vice president. Bush was his own man in the White House, says Baker, not Dick Cheney's pawn. While the vice president's authority and influence were indeed unprecedented, Bush would have arrived at the same policies in any case. During the administration's second term, Bush sought and heeded Cheney's counsel far less often, and by 2008, Cheney found his advice "discarded" on Syria, North Korea, secret prisons, and other policy questions, while suffering major disappointment over Bush's decision to let stand the perjury conviction of his close aide Scooter Libby. Baker's book is based on extensive documentation, including interviews with Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, David Petraeus, and many other top officials named and unnamed--including Cheney himself. VERDICT Baker is strongest on the administration's second term, when his own White House tour of duty began. Throughout this lengthy book, readers may wish for more narrative and less reporting. There are so many quotations from so many sources, with many abrupt changes of scene and context. Even so, this is our fullest portrait yet of the Bush presidency, so relevant collections should include it.--Robert Nardini, Niagara Falls, NY

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 15, 2013
Baker, the senior White House correspondent for the New York Times, has written an ambitious, engrossing, and often disturbing study of the inner workings, conflicts, and critical policy decisions made during the eight years of Bush and Cheney governance. It is no accident that Baker consistently refers to Bush-Cheney, since Cheney was undoubtedly the most influential and powerful vice president in recent years. Baker's portrait of him is not flattering. Cheney prided himself as a hard-nosed tough guy, to the point of ruthlessness. He fought constantly with other cabinet members, showing little respect or tolerance for their views. He was a conservative true believer with a tendency to ignore facts that got in the way of his view of reality. By the end of their eight years together, even Bush stopped listening to him. Bush is a more sympathetic figure, and Baker sees him as a man trapped by events, whose hopes for a more modest foreign policy and a compassionate conservatism domestic affairs were frustrated by the vast shadows cast by 9/11. This is a superbly researched, masterful account of eight critical, history-changing years.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)