by Leon Panetta
Meeting with NATO leaders in Brussels. That’s Jeremy Bash, my chief of staff and partner through my time at the CIA and Department of Defense, to my left. The Marine is John Kelly, my military aide at the Defense Department.
Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak and I collaborated on a number of issues of great importance to our countries. He was a reliable ally, a trustworthy counterpart, and a friend. Here we enter the Pentagon together in April 2012.
Meir Dagan, Israel’s legendary former director of the Mossad. I once asked him how he would deal with Al Qaeda. His answer: “Kill them.”
In June 2012, I had the rare opportunity to visit Vietnam. We exchanged artifacts from the war, discussed America’s commitment to Asia, and held a number of ceremonial affairs, including this review of Vietnamese troops.
On a visit to China in September 2012, I met with my counterpart, Defense Minister Liang Guanglie. He gave me a plate with my face on it. I was flattered, but really, what do you do with such a gift?
I started life in my dad’s restaurant, and have always appreciated a good meal. Here I’m dining in the mess hall of the PLA Engineering Academy of Armored Forces in Beijing on September 19, 2012.
I am Catholic. I carry a rosary, attend mass every Sunday, and say my Hail Marys when the occasion arises. It was thus a special honor when on January 16, 2013, on a trip to Italy, I had the opportunity to meet the pope. He thanked me for my work in keeping the world safe.
My final round of European visits was a pensive one, and included a stop in Britain, our most enduring ally. Here I’m leaving 10 Downing Street after meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron.
One of my last trips as secretary of defense took me to Tripoli (I was the first defense secretary ever to visit Libya) and to this graveyard, the oldest resting place of American servicemen outside the United States.
Wrapping up. My staff gave me this cake as a farewell gift (the meat-axe is meant to symbolize my work cutting the Pentagon budget).
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was a friend and ally through my time at defense. He helped end the bans on gays openly serving and on women in combat. Here we prepare to testify regarding the attack on the U.S. facility in Benghazi, a topic that holds endless appeal for some members of Congress.
I’ve known Hillary Clinton for more than twenty years. I served with her in the Obama cabinet and beside her in the Clinton administration. She is smart, principled, and decisive, a magnificent public servant.
Heading home. Here I’m boarding the plane for California after concluding my tenure as secretary of defense.
President Obama had brought me back to government service in 2009 and did me the honor of attending my farewell when I wrapped up that service in 2013.
Back in Monterey, Sylvia and I oversee the Panetta Institute for Public Policy at Cal State Monterey Bay. It’s our hope to give young people some of the same sense of mission and possibility that have guided us through our lives in government.
Our family celebrated Sylvia’s and my fiftieth wedding anniversary in Hawaii. Here we are surrounded by our sons—Jimmy, Carmelo, and Christopher—their lovely wives, and our grandchildren. And, of course, Bravo.
*Eisenhower considered Goldwater a buffoon even before the 1964 convention. The speech sealed his enmity.
*A fascinating study by the Brookings Institution in 2000, based on a survey of 450 history and science professors, ranked reducing the federal budget deficit as one of the ten most important achievements of the federal government in the second half of the twentieth century, and found that it was exceeded in terms of difficulty only by reducing workplace discrimination. The study may be found at http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2000/12/11governance-light.
*Clinton did come to her district and did his best for her in 1994, but she was defeated by eight thousand votes. I’m sure that had she voted against us, she would have won, making her vote on the budget one of the bravest I have ever seen a member cast. One other note: Her son later married Chelsea Clinton.
*Later, when Rahm became chief of staff to Obama, some pundits would suggest that he picked up his language from me. I deny it.
*That agreement, signed on June 21, 1993, was known as the Governors Island Agreement because it was negotiated on Governors Island in New York.
*I actually don’t remember doing that, but George recounts it in his memoirs, and notes that he was hurt by it. I didn’t mean to snub him, but I was trying to curb Clinton’s unfocused meetings and also to protect George in those days from Clinton’s suspicion that he was a leak. I have no doubt that George’s account is correct.
*Bob Gates was part of the original commission but dropped off when he was appointed secretary of defense. He was replaced by Meese.
*The executive assistants who worked with and followed Sheetal were outstanding professionals: Jan, John, Amy, Gerald, Vince, and Maggie. One deserves special mention. Shana, a career analyst, started as my executive assistant and then became my deputy chief of staff. She was by my side during the entire bin Laden operation and helped ensure a smooth transition between me and David Petraeus.
*That claim has since been challenged as well. Jose Rodriguez, in his memoir, says he provided the briefing and that not only was Pelosi present for a full discussion but that she participated fully and asked a number of questions that to him made it clear that she understood the range of interrogation techniques that had been used.
*Not his real name.
*Not her real name.
*In his May 23, 2013, speech, President Obama publicly noted his role in the Awlaki case. “As president,” he said, “I would have been derelict in my duty had I not authorized the strike that took him out.”
*My first trip as director was to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India to take the measure of the war and our campaign against Al Qaeda along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. This was my second.
*These are not their real names.
*That exchange is captured in the movie Zero Dark Thirty. The film centers on “Maya” to the exclusion of work done by others; she was a vital part of the hunt for bin Laden, one of the many people in a gigantic team effort.
*A few months later we held an event at the CIA and recognized some of those who participated in the operation. I was under the impression that everyone in the audience enjoyed a security clearance, but learned later that one of the producers of Zero Dark Thirty was allowed to attend. Some critics pounced on that; all I can say is that my shout-out to the SEAL team member that day was meant to congratulate him, not to expose him, and was made only because I had been assured that everyone in the audience was cleared.
*I did not know then, and only learned from Bob’s memoirs, that he had also suggested Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, and New York mayor Michael Bloomberg as possible successors.
* The number includes spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; technically, those were budgeted separately from general defense spending, but that was largely an accounting fiction. The fact is that money spent to fight those wars was military spending no matter how it was labeled.
*President Obama directly confronted this question in his important speech on May 23, 2013: “To say that a military tactic is legal, or even effective, is not to say it is wise or moral in every instance. For the same human progress that gives us the technology to strike half a world away also demands the discipline to constrain that power—or risk abusing it.”
*The law was later changed to lower the standard for transfers.
*There is no fixed point for identifying the beginning of the Vietnam War, but in 2012 the Defense Department began a series of events to commemorate the conflict.
*Kelly was promoted to a four-star commander of the U.S. Southern Command.
*The fact that they were prepared for the Hill, not Ambassador Rice, undercuts the claim by some that the talking points were specifically written for Rice so she could “mislead” the country.
*My China trip also produced one of the more memorable gifts I received during my tenure as secretary of defense: I was presented with a ceremonial plate that featured a portrait of me. I was flattered, though puzzled as to how I could ever use it.
*It turned out that I would make one more trip, in early 2013. That’s because President Obama named former senator Chuck Hagel to succeed me. The president had believed Hagel, a Republican, would be easily confirmed by his former colleagues, but instead he was subjected to a fairly grueling and drawn-out process. As a result, I stayed on longer than I’d intended, not leaving until February 2013.
