by Leon Panetta
kidnapping by pirates from, 401–3
South Asia, 23, 230
South Carolina, school segregation in, 37–39, 40–41
South Korea, 273–76, 338, 395
South Vietnam, refugees from, 53
South Waziristan, 241, 260, 268
Soviet Union, 274, 278–81, 283–84, 355, 420
space-based weapons systems, 384
Special Operations Command, U.S., 248, 353
special operations forces, 307–8, 312, 383, 402, 428
Sperling, Gene, 104
Stars and Stripes, 354
State Department, U.S., 162, 199, 249,
285–86, 337, 379, 393
Staten Island, N.Y., 46–47
Stavridis, Jim, 380–81
Steinbeck, John, 9
Steinberg, Jim, 198, 199
Stephanopoulos, George, 102, 104, 111, 121, 133–34, 137, 141–42, 147–48, 164
Stevens, Chris, 428–29
Stockdale, James, 94
Stockton, Paul, 343, 438
Stoneman, Shelly, 348
Suleiman, Omar, 303–4
Sulick, Michael, 198, 203, 212, 280
Summers, Larry, 104
Sunni Muslims, 412
superpowers, 273–74, 279
Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), Egyptian, 362
Supreme Court, U.S., 22, 51, 118, 401
Brown decision by, 36
surveillance aircraft, 384
Sutphen, Mona, 217
SVR, 279–80
deep-cover agents of, 281–84
Syria, 362, 393, 424, 447–51
TaePoDong II missile, 342
Taiwan, 444
Talcott, Burt, 52–59, 69
Taliaferro, Jeff, 348
Taliban, 241, 251, 254–55, 285–86, 300, 378, 415–16, 417
Tampa, Fla., 248, 250, 353
Tantawi, Mohammed Hussein, 362–64
Tauzin, Billy, 120
tax cuts, 91, 109
Clinton’s middle class, 93, 108, 112, 116, 164, 462–64
Reagan, 83, 85–86
Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, 74
taxes, 150
on the poor, 112, 119
on the rich, 119, 122, 128, 164
tax increases, 87, 88–89, 112, 115, 128, 462
Tea Party, 76, 340, 370, 442
Tehran, 205, 313
Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP), 236, 267
television, in political campaigning, 56–58
Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, 177
Tenet, George, 215
terrorism, 194, 235–38, 243, 249, 250–51, 270–88, 339, 341, 463
Thisted, Poul Hagen, 401–3
Thomas, Bill, 98
three-strikes policy, federal, 128, 143
Thurmond, Strom, 35, 37–39
Toiv, Barry, 116, 137
Tolchin, Martin, 84
Tora Bora, 289, 307, 312, 319
Torkelson, Jodie, 137
torture, 193, 205, 207
transportation funding, 110–11, 117, 120
Treasury Department, U.S., 69, 249, 351–52
Tripoli, 362, 381, 428–30
Truman, Harry S, 124, 131–32, 148, 209, 270, 366
Trump, Donald, 320
Tsongas, Paul, 92
Tunisia, 300–301, 302–3
Turkey, 399–400
Tyson, Laura, 104, 106, 109, 164
unemployment, 117, 122
United Arab Emirates, 362, 411–12
United Nations, 150, 198, 448
on Haiti, 146–47
Security Council of, 146, 382, 448
United States:
Al Qaeda and, 247–48
government default of, 165
hatred toward, 245
immigrant dream of, 4
Uribe, Alvaro, 278
Uruguay, 277
Vaca, Frank, 101
Vatican, 457–58
Veneman, John, 34, 38, 39
Venezuela, 277
Veterans Affairs Department, 345
Vickers, Mike, 306, 338–39
Vienna, 284
Vietnam, 53, 420–21
Vietnam War, 20–21, 25, 28, 47, 53, 349–50, 419–20
voting rights, 28, 36
Voting Rights Act of 1965, 26
Vu Dinh Doan, diary of, 420–21
Waco, Tex., 118, 160
Wagner, Robert, 47
Waldhauser, Thomas, 423–24, 455
Walter Reed hospital, 256, 458
Wardak, Abdul Rahim, 355
Ware, Marilyn, 183
Warren, Earl, 18, 22, 25, 36, 51, 464
Washington, D.C., 20, 33, 40, 48, 52, 59–60, 62, 114, 151, 183, 185, 196–97, 256, 333, 336, 360, 398
civil rights legislation in, 27–28
cynicism in, 25
divisions in, 464–65
Panetta’s exploratory visit to, 21–23, 461
partisan disagreement and personal invective in, 153
riots in, 28–29
Vietnam War memorial in, 21
Washington Post, 51, 116, 124, 156, 158, 196
waterboarding, 193, 207, 219, 223, 225
Watergate scandal, 44, 51–52, 62
Watt, James, 70–72
Waziristan, 267
welfare reform, 91, 128, 129–30, 142, 162, 165, 175–79, 192, 463
Welsh, Mark, 212, 246–48, 453
West Point, 256, 388
White, Byron, 118
White, Scott, 203, 212
White House, 42, 44, 213–14
White House Budget Plan, 171–72
White House Correspondents’ Dinner, 320
White House Situation Room, 213–14, 230, 233, 238, 285, 304, 308, 317, 321, 326–27, 335, 430
Whiteman Air Force Base, 311
Whitewater, 123
Willging, Paul, 74
Wilson, James Q., 143
Wilson, Pete, 71
wind power, 108
Winnefeld, James “Sandy,” 339–40, 341–42, 376, 402, 428–29
Wise, Benjamin, 459–60
Wise, Jean and Mary, 459
Wise, Jeremy, 269, 459–60
women:
Taliban’s denial of rights of, 251, 254, 285
in U.S. military, 451–56
Woods, Tyrone, 429
Woodward, Bob, 51, 106–7, 134, 141
Woog, Carl, 420–21
World Trade Center, 46–47
1993 attack on, 118
September 11 attack on, 183–84, 193, 347
World Trade Organization (WTO), 280
World War II, 8–11, 13–15, 53, 78, 274, 383, 457, 462
Wright, Jim, 99
WWSB (World Wide Stations and Bases), 229
Wyoming, 8, 49, 191
Xi Jinping, 444
Yadlin, Amos, 271
Yemen, 244, 246, 257, 258, 260, 386, 391
Zardari, Asif Ali, 236, 327
Zawahiri, Ayman al-, 260–61, 288, 292
Zayed, Muhammad bin, Crown Prince of UAE, 411–12
Zazi, Najibullah, 247–48
Zenith Insurance, 183
Zero Dark Thirty, 315n, 331n
Ziegler, Ron, 43–44
Zubaydah, Abu, 225–26
PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS
Image 1 and Image 2: Courtesy of the Panetta family.
Image 3 and Image 4: Courtesy of the Panetta family.
Image 5 and Image 6: Courtesy of the Panetta family.
Image 7: Courtesy of the Panetta family.
&
nbsp; Image 8 and Image 9: Courtesy of the Panetta Institute.
Image 10: © George Rose/Getty Images.
Image 11 and Image 12: Courtesy, William J. Clinton Presidential Library.
Image 13 AP Photo/Ron Edmonds.
Image 14: AP Photo/Charles Tasnadi, File.
Image 15: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images.
Image 16: Courtesy, William J. Clinton Presidential Library.
Image 17: Andrew A. Nelles, Sun-Times Media.
Image 18: Courtesy of the Panetta Institute.
Image 19: © Molly Riley/Reuters/Corbis.
Image 20: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite.
Image 21: Ron Sachs/Pool/Getty Images News.
Image 22: Courtesy of the Panetta Institute.
Image 23 and Image 24: Courtesy of the Panetta Institute.
Image 25: Ali Al-Saadi/Getty Images.
Image 26: AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta.
Image 27: © Jim Young/Reuters/Corbis.
Image 28: Rex Features via AP Images.
Image 29: Department of Defense.
Image 30: Scott Olson/Getty Images.
Image 31: © Jason Reed/Reuters/Corbis.
Image 32: AP Photo/Susan Walsh, Pool.
Image 33: © Philip Cheung/Corbis.
Image 34: AP Photo/Evan Vucci.
Image 35: © POOL/Reuters/Corbis.
Image 36: © Xinhua Press/DOD/Glenn Fawcett/Corbis.
Image 37: © Flash90/Guy Assayag/EPA/Corbis.
Image 38: © KHAM/Reuters/Corbis.
Image 39: © Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo/Department of Defense, courtesy of the Panetta Institute.
Image 40: © Larry Downing/Pool/Getty Images.
Image 41: AP Photo/L’Osservatore Romano, ho.
Image 42: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin.
Image 43: © Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo/Department of Defense, courtesy of the Panetta Institute.
Image 44: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin.
Image 45, Image 46, Image 47, and Image 48: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images.
Image 49: Courtesy of the Panetta Institute.
Image 50: Courtesy of the Panetta family.
My father, Carmelo Panetta, came to this country in 1921, arriving at Ellis Island with twenty-five dollars in his pocket and nothing else. He worked as a waiter, bought a restaurant, and invested wisely. In 1946 he purchased twelve acres in Carmel Valley. Here, he and I take a break from tending the walnut orchard he planted on that land.
As a boy, I was an accomplished pianist, even getting a pretty glowing review in the local paper when I was ten. Practicing wasn’t my favorite way of spending time, though. Sports won the day.
I met Sylvia at a mixer at Santa Clara University, where I was a student, in 1958. We hit it off that evening and began dating regularly. We were married on July 14, 1962. I still wear the watch she gave me as an engagement present, and I’ve always left it set to California time.
I graduated from Santa Clara Law School in 1963, following in my older brother’s footsteps. My parents joined me for the occasion. My brother and I were the first in our family to attend college.
Sylvia gave birth to our first son, Chris, on Mother’s Day 1963; our second, Carmelo, after my father, was born in 1964, while I was still serving in the army. (Not pictured here, because he wasn’t yet born, is our third, Jimmy.)
My first boss and one of my most important mentors was California senator Tom Kuchel, a moderate Republican and civil rights champion put in the Senate by California governor Earl Warren, who named him to the office when Richard Nixon vacated it to become Ike’s vice president.
In late 1975, I announced my candidacy for the U.S. Congress, challenging an incumbent Republican, Burt Talcott. This photo of me, my boys, and my dad at the ranch helped make the point that I understood the district while Talcott did not. I beat him by more than six percentage points. And I still own that truck.
As a member of Congress, I returned home almost every weekend and regularly met with constituents. Here I’m talking with a group of seniors outside the house my dad built.
Some campaign mail from my early years.
One of my proudest accomplishments as a member of Congress was to halt offshore oil drilling along the central California coast and establish the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, a struggle that took more than a decade but was deeply satisfying. Imagine this same image dotted with oil platforms.
In 1992, President-elect Bill Clinton asked me to leave Congress and become his budget director. I accepted and later served as his chief of staff. Here we are in the Oval Office, joined by Press Secretary Mike McCurry, Secretary of State Warren Christopher, who, as Clinton’s transition team chairman, helped recruit me to the administration, and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger.
A lighter moment from the Clinton years. This was his birthday in 1995, and we all rode horses around the White House grounds. On the left is Harold Ickes, and on the right is Erskine Bowles. None of us is much of a cowboy.
In late 1995, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, reluctantly joined by Senator Bob Dole, forced a confrontation over the federal budget that resulted in a government shutdown. Polls showed that the public strongly blamed Republicans for the mess, helping Clinton to rebound the next year.
The government shuts down.
After serving for two years as OMB director and helping win passage of an economic plan that ultimately balanced the federal budget, I moved over to become Clinton’s chief of staff. Here we are on Air Force One.
This is from late 1996, near the end of my time as chief of staff. Clinton and I are walking across the South Lawn of the White House to the waiting helicopter.
That’s me on top of the budget.
I got two opportunities to work closely with Rahm Emanuel. He worked in the White House when I was Clinton’s chief of staff, and he was chief of staff to President Obama when I went to work at the CIA. Here the two of us celebrate Memorial Day in Chicago in 2013. By then he was mayor and I was home in California.
Senator Dianne Feinstein and I are old friends, but she initially was cool to my appointment as director of the CIA, in part because the Obama transition team had not consulted her about it even though she chaired the Senate Intelligence Committee. Still, she came around, supported my nomination, and worked closely with me on intelligence operations when I went to the agency.
Taking the oath of office as the new CIA director, with Sylvia by my side.
Soon after taking office, President Obama approved the release of memos from the Bush era laying out the legal arguments surrounding “enhanced interrogation.” I opposed the release, and worried about the implications for morale at the CIA. Recognizing the importance of the issue, Obama visited the agency on April 20, 2009. He got a rousing welcome.
Mike Morell and I get the news that bin Laden is dead and our forces are safe. This was one of the proudest moments of my life.
The Washington Post reports the news of bin Laden’s death. Behind me is a flag that flew over the World Trade Center and that hung in my office throughout the months we tracked and ultimately located the man responsible for 9/11. The flag is now displayed in the CIA Museum.
This brick came from bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. I was given it as a souvenir after the successful operation.
Within the administration, I argued against concluding our combat mission in Iraq without leaving some residual force to protect our interests and preserve stability. I lost that debate, and on December 15, 2011, presided over the casing of the colors in Baghdad.
My office at the Pentagon. The portraits of Dwight Eisenhower and George Marshall were left over from Bob Gates’s time; I kept them because I shared Bob’s admiration for those two leaders. Th
e retriever is Bravo; he came with me.
At my confirmation hearing for secretary of defense. I was confirmed by a unanimous vote, no doubt in part because we had successfully concluded the bin Laden operation five weeks earlier.
As secretary of defense, you get to see some impressive hardware. Here I am aboard the USS Enterprise.
As he entered the House of Representatives to deliver his 2012 State of the Union address, President Obama complimented me on a “good job tonight.” The microphone at the left of this photo caught the remark and sent reporters scrambling. The president was referring to our successful rescue of Jessica Buchanan and Poul Hagen Thisted, a pair of aid workers kidnapped in Somalia and freed by a U.S. special operations team that same day.
As CIA director and secretary of defense, I traveled to more than fifty countries. This shot is from 2012, as we were wrapping up a trip in Afghanistan.
The president and I marking the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
One of the great pleasures of serving as defense secretary is meeting our men and women in uniform. Here I’m speaking with a group of them in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in late 2012.
I was proud to help end the military’s long ban on women serving in combat, and I was moved to do so in part by women I saw around the world serving our country in perilous positions. Pictured here are First Lieutenant Kelly Boak, Lance Corporal April Whitham, and Lance Corporal Elisabeth Reyes, all serving in Afghanistan.
Afghan president Hamid Karzai was a difficult partner, though we actually hit it off on occasion. Here he visits the Pentagon in early 2013.
