by James Mann
“We’ll be negotiating with ourselves”: Jonathan Weisman, “Bush’s Tax-Cut Hardball Seems to Have Paid Off,” USA Today, May 29, 2001.
“The election of President Bush changed that dramatically”: John Lancaster and Helen Dewar, “Jeffords Tips Senate Power,” Washington Post, May 25, 2001.
“Reagan proved deficits don’t matter”: Suskind, Price of Loyalty, p. 291. In his memoir, Cheney elaborated: “Of course I thought deficits mattered. I just believed that it was important to see them in context.” Reagan’s deficits had helped to win the cold war, he maintained. See Dick Cheney, In My Time (New York: Threshold Editions, 2011), p. 136.
“Didn’t we already give them a break at the top?”: Suskind, Price of Loyalty, p. 299.
U.S. presidents have raised taxes: See, for example, Ronald Brownstein, “Bush Breaks with 140 Years of History in Plan for Wartime Tax Cut,” Los Angeles Times, January 13, 2003.
more than $100 billion: Bob Davis, “Bush Economic Aide Says Cost of Iraq War May Top $100 Billion,” Wall Street Journal, September 16, 2002.
Sales of $600-a-night luxury hotel suites: Jon E. Hilsenrath and Sholnn Freeman, “Affluent Advantage: So Far, Economic Recovery Tilts to Highest-Income Americans; They Gain More, Spend More,” Wall Street Journal, July 20, 2004; Matt Stearns, “For the Richest Americans, the Economy’s Fine,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 28, 2004.
Walton family: Calculations based on Wal-Mart corporate filings.
surplus of $86 billion … deficit was $642 billion: Data from Congressional Budget Office, 2010.
“incomplete state of scientific knowledge”: Douglas Jehl and Andrew C. Revkin, “Bush, in Reversal, Won’t Seek Cut in Emissions of Carbon Dioxide,” New York Times, March 14, 2001.
Bush viewed this question: Bush, Decision Points, pp. 109–25.
One of the most prominent proponents was Nancy Reagan: Ibid., p. 106.
“Let’s show them … important White House signings”: Ibid., p. 275.
Bush and Kennedy stood side by side: Elisabeth Bumiller, “Focusing on Home Front, Bush Signs Education Bill,” New York Times, January 9, 2002.
4: SEPTEMBER 11
“one of the finest foreign policy teams”: James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet (New York: Viking, 2004), p. ix.
“retreads”: Thomas L. Friedman, “The Way We Win,” New York Times, November 14, 2000.
“George II was an obedient son”: Maureen Dowd, “When the Boy King Ruled,” New York Times, December 31, 2000.
“all right-wing nuts, like you,”: Colin Powell, My American Journey (New York: Ballantine Books, 1995), p. 526.
Rumsfeld also developed an antipathy toward Rice: Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown (New York: Sentinel, 2011), pp. 325–30.
Rice thought that Rumsfeld had trouble: Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 21.
Bush picked up the Washington Post: Bush, Decision Points, pp. 90–91; Rice, No Higher Honor, pp. 35–36.
“too far forward on your skis”: Karen DeYoung, Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), pp. 323–26.
“The President was really angry”: Rice, No Higher Honor, pp. 41–44.
“We had to be able to build”: Cheney, In My Time, p. 325.
“by far your biggest threat is Bin Laden”: National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, The 9/11 Commission Report (New York: W. W. Norton, 2004), p. 199.
she was wary of him: Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 64.
“there was a loss of urgency”: George Tenet, At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 139.
Bush later maintained: 9/11 Commission Report, pp. 260–62; Bush, Decision Points, p. 135.
Rice forwarded the decision to Bush: Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 70.
continuity-of-government exercises: Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, pp. 138–49.
no record of such a conversation and reason to doubt: See Barton Gellman, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency (New York: Penguin Press, 2008), pp. 118–28.
“Mr. President, you cannot come back here”: Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 73.
“Today, our nation saw evil”: George W. Bush, “Address to the Nation on the September 11 Attacks,” September 11, 2001.
“The rest of the world hears you”: George W. Bush, “Remarks to New York Rescue Workers,” September 14, 2001.
“until every terrorist group of global reach”: George W. Bush, “Address to the Joint Session of the 107th Congress,” September 20, 2001.
“There’s an old poster out West”: George W. Bush remarks in visit to the Pentagon, September 17, 2001.
“a little too blunt”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 140.
“began coming of age this weekend”: R. W. Apple Jr., “President Seems to Gain Legitimacy,” New York Times, September 16, 2001.
“as strong and forthright”: “Mr. Bush’s Most Important Speech,” New York Times, September 21, 2001.
“He’s done a first-rate job”: Mike Blanchard, “‘Clear, Confident’ Bush Rallies U.S.,” Ottawa Citizen, September 24, 2001.
“We will make no distinction”: George W. Bush, “Address to the Nation on the September 11 Attacks,” September 11, 2001.
Bush and Rice had parsed the words.… Rice said it reflected: Rice, No Higher Honor, pp. 76–77.
“Iraq has to pay a price”: Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, p. xix.
argued specifically for military action against Iraq: Rice, No Higher Honor, pp. 86–87.
“expensive weapons on sparsely populated camps”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 191.
“dressed up with nowhere to go”: Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 79.
“The mission must determine the coalition”: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, p. 354.
“boots on the ground”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 191.
“Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists”: George W. Bush address to Joint Session of Congress, September 20, 2001.
“I should have pushed Congress”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 162.
The vice president was the driving force: Cheney, In My Time, p. 348, and Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, p. 237.
“I want a plan tomorrow.… They just need to move”: Rice, No Higher Honor, pp. 94–96.
new system of tribunals: Gellman, Angler, pp. 162–68.
“The Vice President was, as I remember it, the one”: Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 106.
no constitutional protections: Bush, Decision Points, p. 166.
“weasel out”: Douglas J. Feith, War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), p. 161.
Powell asked for a National Security Council meeting: DeYoung, Soldier, p. 369.
In a written memo, Bush promised: Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 108.
black sites: Dana Priest, “CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons,” Washington Post, November 2, 2005, and Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (New York: Doubleday, 2008), pp. 139–81.
“renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitation”: Mayer, Dark Side, p. 124.
its first high-level al-Qaeda operative: Bush, Decision Points, p. 168.
turned down two of the CIA’s proposals: Gellman, Angler, p. 177; Bush, Decision Points, p. 169.
“Damn right”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 170.
subjected to waterboarding 183 times: Scott Shane, “Waterboarding Used 266 Times on 2 Suspects,” New York Times, April 20, 2009.
“proved difficult to break”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 170.
“the most senior legal officers … Had I not authorized waterboarding”: Ibid., pp. 169–71.
“I think there was a huge sense”: Gates, Duty, p. 93.
5: IRAQ
“it does not end there”: Bush address to Congress, September 20, 2001.
“phase one”: Powell interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, September 23, 2001.
p
laced Somalia under intense surveillance: Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, p. 309.
“axis of evil”: George W. Bush, “State of the Union Address to the 107th Congress,” January 29, 2002.
battle plans for an invasion of Iraq: Bush, Decision Points, p. 234.
following the model of … Harry S. Truman: Ibid., pp. 174–75.
“We must take the battle to the enemy”: George W. Bush address, “West Point Commencement,” June 1, 2002.
“will not hesitate to act alone”: The National Security Strategy of the United States of America, September 2002, http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/nsc/nss/2002/.
“Saddam is a familiar dictatorial aggressor”: Brent Scowcroft, “Don’t Attack Saddam,” Wall Street Journal, August 15, 2002.
“Son, Brent is a friend”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 238.
“You are doing the right thing”: Ibid., p. 225.
“Take it to the U.N.”: DeYoung, Soldier, pp. 401–2.
“Saddam has perfected the art of cheat and retreat”: Vice President Dick Cheney speech to Veterans of Foreign Wars, August 26, 2002.
He ordered Rice to call Cheney: Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 180.
“Your man has got cojones”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 239.
“time was of the essence”: Peter Baker, “Rove’s Version of 2002 War Vote Is Disputed,” Washington Post, December 1, 2007.
Rove … had argued for a postelection vote: Rove, Courage and Consequence, pp. 300–302.
first president since Franklin Roosevelt: Ibid., p. 315.
“we settled on the one issue”: Defense Department transcript of Wolfowitz interview with Vanity Fair, May 9, 2003.
“I doubt it was even the principal cause”: Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, p. 321.
an Iraqi plot to kill his father: Michael Isikoff, “Saddam’s Files,” Newsweek, March 22, 2008, http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/03/22/saddam-s-files.html.
“You just keep on digging”: Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 171.
vindicated in the case of Libya: Bush, Decision Points, pp. 267–68.
“pre-9/11 mindset”: Cheney, In My Time, p. 388.
“we would have waited too long”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 229.
“slam dunk” … to shift the blame to the CIA: Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, pp. 362–67.
Saddam told FBI debriefers: Bush, Decision Points, p. 269.
“It wasn’t possible just to stand still”: Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 201.
“This is something Condi has wanted”: Ibid., p. 190.
“But the intelligence was wrong”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 254.
“It was a big mistake”: Ibid., pp. 256–57.
had surpassed $2 trillion: John Nagl, “What America Learned in Iraq,” New York Times, March 20, 2013.
“I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators”: Cheney interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, March 16, 2003.
“our nation building capabilities were limited”: Bush, Decision Points, pp. 249–50.
He had relied on assurances from Rumsfeld: Ibid., pp. 258–59.
6: REELECTION AND ITS UNHAPPY AFTERMATH
New Year’s Day in 2003 … “strong wartime leader”: Rove, Courage and Consequence, pp. 361–63.
he would be willing to step aside: Cheney, In My Time, pp. 417–18; Bush, Decision Points, pp. 86–87.
Bush hoped to run against Howard Dean … a more formidable opponent: Bush, Decision Points, p. 287.
he reversed course and decided to endorse the measure: Elizabeth Bumiller, “Bush Signs Bill Aimed at Fraud in Corporations,” New York Times, July 31, 2002.
“$28,000 for ulcer surgery”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 281.
“through private insurance plans”: Ibid., p. 282.
largest single-nation health initiative … 4.5 million people: Tiaji Salaam-Blyther, “The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief,” Congressional Research Service, Congressional Research Report 7-5700, September 27, 2013.
“Stuff happens”: Donald Rumsfeld news conference, April 11, 2003.
“My answer is: Bring ’em on”: George W. Bush at White House news conference, July 2, 2003.
“trumped their aversion to empire”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 268.
“We never recovered fully”: Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 274.
“I considered it a low point” … He also felt blindsided: Bush, Decision Points, pp. 88–89.
The most dramatic of the battles: This section is based on the definitive, detailed account in Gellman, Angler, pp. 277–326.
“I never wanted to be blindsided like that again”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 174.
“There’s our opening”: Ibid., p. 288.
“I had no role in any of it”: Rove, Courage and Consequence, p. 390.
“a buoyant confidence reminiscent of Truman and F.D.R.”: William Safire, “Bush’s Freedom Speech,” New York Times, January 21, 2005.
these political dynamics were reversed: David S. Broder, “Social Security’s Capitol Divide,” Washington Post, February 20, 2005.
had argued that Brown lacked the qualifications: Rove, Courage and Consequence, p. 449.
“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job!”: George W. Bush remarks at Mobile Regional Airport, September 2, 2005.
“I took too long to decide”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 310.
“deeply anchored”: Linda Greenhouse, “A Judge Anchored in Modern Law,” New York Times, July 20, 2005.
“The issue is their nonexistence”: Charles Krauthammer, “Withdraw This Nominee,” Washington Post, October 7, 2005.
“much of my political capital was gone”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 330.
“black sites”: Dana Priest, “CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons,” Washington Post, November 2, 2005.
the New York Times revealed the existence: James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, “Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts,” New York Times, December 16, 2005.
resulted in errors: Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 106.
more than three thousand Iraqi civilians were killed: http://icasualties.org.
“It’s failing”: Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 515.
retired generals publicly called for the ouster of Rumsfeld: David S. Cloud and Eric Schmitt, “More Retired Generals Call for Rumsfeld’s Resignation,” New York Times, April 14, 2006.
“I’m the decider”: White House news conference, April 18, 2006.
Mitch McConnell … told Bush: Bush, Decision Points, p. 355.
The election had little to do with Iraq: Rove, Courage and Consequence, pp. 460–70.
“It was a thumping”: George W. Bush, White House news conference, November 8, 2006.
7. SECOND-TERM CHANGES
“He turned and was out the door fast”: Cheney, In My Time, pp. 442–43.
“Cheney?”: Gates, Duty, p. 7.
without Rumsfeld’s input … “I could barely contain my joy”: Rice, No Higher Honor, pp. 540–41.
“on the same page”: Gates, Duty, p. 99.
Syria was secretly building a nuclear reactor: This account is based on the memoirs of Bush, Cheney, and Rice: Bush, Decision Points, pp. 420–22; Cheney, In My Time, pp. 465–73; Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 708.
“Tojo option”: Gates, Duty, p. 174.
Bush called in his advisers: Bush, Decision Points, pp. 413–14; Rice, No Higher Honor, pp. 490–91.
the Bush administration would be willing to talk: Glenn Kessler, “U.S. Will Join Talks with Iran and Syria,” Washington Post, February 28, 2007.
“Hill and Rice made concession after concession”: Cheney, In My Time, p. 474.
negotiations collapsed: Steven Lee Myers, “Nuclear Negotiations with North Korea Collapse,” New York Times, December 12, 2008.
as a bargaining chip: James Mann, The Obamians: The Struggle Inside the White House to Redefine American Power (New York: Viking Press, 2012), p. 197.
“no more U-turns to pull”: Leonar
d Doyle, “Condi’s Coup: How the Neo-Cons Lost the Argument over Iran,” Independent, July 18, 2008.
a new unit, the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence: Mann, Obamians, pp. 194–96.
Although Cheney had proposed military action: Gates, Duty, p. 191.
“ending tyranny in our world”: John Lewis Gaddis, “Ending Tyranny: The Past and Future of an Idea,” The American Interest, September/October 2008, vol. 4 (1), pp. 6–15.
the “Arab spring” of 2005: Charles Krauthammer, “Syria and the New Axis of Evil,” Washington Post, April 1, 2005.
“A democratic Egypt” … one-on-one session with the Egyptian leader … “more rapid change”: Rice, No Higher Honor, pp. 324–27.
“only when we liked the projected outcome”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 406.
Bush, however, ordered the speech rewritten: Peter Baker, Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House (New York: Doubleday, 2013), p. 591.
“I wanted the people inside Burma”: Laura Bush, Spoken from the Heart, p. 394.
“the toughest and most unpopular decision”: Bush, Decision Points, p. 355.
take its hand off the bicycle seat: See, for example, “If you’re not willing to take your hand off the bicycle seat, the person will never learn to ride”: Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown, p. 667.
Petraeus spoke almost daily with Meghan O’Sullivan: Fred Kaplan, The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013), p. 198.
“unloaded on him”: Gates, Duty, p. 39.
“I do not believe that more American troops”: Thomas E. Ricks, The Gamble: General Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq (New York: Penguin Press, 2009), p. 92.
“So what’s your plan, Condi?”: Rice, No Higher Honor, p. 544.
“grave and deteriorating”: James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton (cochairs), The Iraq Study Group Report (New York: Vintage Books, 2006), p. xiii.
“a short-term redeployment or surge”: Kaplan, Insurgents, pp. 205–7.
“we need to change our strategy in Iraq … The situation in Iraq is unacceptable”: George W. Bush, “Address to the Nation on Iraq,” January 10, 2007.
only 35 percent of Americans: Gallup Poll, http://www.gallup.com/poll/116500/presidential-approval-ratings-george-bush.aspx.
