Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power

This book takes the reader from the beginning of the National Security Council (NSC) up through the Clinton administration. It describes how the NSC has evolved over time and the nature of its functioning and how different Presidents utilized its advice. As the NSC is instrumental in providing U.S. national security advice to the President, this book is an important one in the study of Presidential power, decisionmaking and the national security policymaking. It describes the policymaking process and the inter-agency and bureaucratic formulation of policy and how different Presidents structured the functioning of the NSC differently to suit their needs or what they and their top advisors deemed to be the optimal national security policymaking structure. I found the book to be excellent, engaging, and thorough study. I particularly was interested in learning about how Henry Kissinger and his numerous proteges that worked with him and eventually held their own top positions in government had a significant and substantive impact on U.S. national security policy for the last 30+ years. This book is required reading for the student of U.S. national security policy formulation.

For this new book by David J. Rothkopf, one can ignore the cover and title as sales hype for the book for this is a solid history and analysis of the NSC from around 1945 to the present day; it is a 550 page book in small font so it is fairly detailed and lengthy, generally an impressive book in terms of volume of information, detail, and scope; the book is mainly text and notes but it has a few pictures. It gives an up close look at the workings of the NSC for various administrations going back to approximately 1945 - 46, and The National Security Act of July 26, 1947, which was used to create the National Security Council under Truman. The early role of the NSC was to coordinate other departments and act mostly in an advisory role to the preseident. The NSC was started under Truman but became much more important under Eisenhower, who as a former general, appreciated good preparation, research, and security planning of foreign policy. The NSC included the President who was the chairman, the Vice President, Secretaries of State and Defense, and Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization. Also, other cabinet members participated including the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the JCS, and the Director of Central Intelligence. This form of the NSC, refined by Ike, has continued through to the present day, with the formality and impact of the NSC rising and falling, from one administration to the next, depending on the president and how he viewed and utilized his advisers. Kennedy did water down Eisenhower's NSC a bit and changed the NSC to permit the Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to in effect run the committe, but the overall impotance of the NSC was restored somewhat by Kissinger working for Nixon. I guess what I found interesting about the book was the idea that the author belives that Kissinger, especially in the time just before the Nixon resignation, changed the importance of the NSC as a body. It is generally well know Kissinger was involved in both policy-making and implementation. In the early days of the Nixon administration, Kissinger kept a low public profile at the NSC - before the Nixon visit to China - but he emerged after that trip as a media star - and continued that during his famous Middle East shuttle diplomacy. In a very interesting section of the book, we learn how Kissinger convened a meeting of the NSC while Nixon slept prior to his resignation and Kissinger on his own, but chairing the NSC as an assistant to the president or in effect acting as the president, put the US armed forces on a high DEFCON alert status - something that normally only the president would do. Similarly, after Nixon's resignation, Gerald Ford was not comfortable with Kissinger but opted to keep him on for the sake of continuity. In addition, and as an example, the author gives us some insight into the Kissinger - Arthur Schlesinger rivavlry, that was won out by Kissinger, but Kissiger was sometimes outmanoeuvered by Rum

I read this book just after finishing Gerhard Weinberg's excellent book A World at Arms which spent a lot of time on Churchill and Roosevelt basically running World War II. Roosevelt would send a trusted aid out on a mission once in a while, but he esentially ran the War by himself. Truman wasn't even aware of the Atomic Bomb project until after Roosevelt's death. Stalin and Churchill were aware, but not Truman. It makes good sense that Truman then created the National Security Council, and it's no surprise that he included the vice president as a member. It's also not much of a surprise that also created by the same legislation the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Central Intelligence Agency. After all the interservice rivalries Army vs. Navy and FBI vs. OSS during World War II were pathetic. In this exhaustive history of the NSC Mr. Rothkopf discusses the working relationship between the President and the NSC since its birth. As you would expect, the organization has waxed and waned depending on the individuals involved. A major influence on the NSC from the late sixties through about 1990 has been Henry Kissinger whose influence has extended far beyond his actual time in office. The conclusion I reach after reading this book is that the NSC isn't perfect, what is, but it's a hell of a lot better than the way Roosevelt did it. This book is a good introduction to how one rather obscure part of our Government works.

David Rothkopf, CEO of both Intellibridge and the consulting firm the Rothkopf Group, has written an excellent historical narrative of the National Security Council, the committee "Running the World." Rothkopf combines both solid scholarship and his own personal recollections as being a senior member of the Clinton administration to paint a compelling picture of the highest echelons of the national security apparatus of the United States. Rothkopf's main thesis is that the people who make sometimes world and history altering decisions are not extraordinary; they are not superhuman. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, not unlike most of humanity. But for whatever reason they have made it into positions of incredible power. It is the importance of individuals that is the driving force of Rothkopf's story. The NSC has had its ups and downs. It played a strictly advisory role in its early years; while in the late 1960s to mid `70s was dominated by one man: Henry Kissinger. Mismanagement of the NSC nearly brought down President Reagan. However, just a few years later perhaps the most efficient and well run NSC in history was guided by Brent Scowcroft and George H.W. Bush through the first Persian Gulf War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is the role of individuals, especially the official chair of the NSC, the president, to shepherd U.S. national security policy through good and bad times. Rothkopf's biggest contribution is to paint a vivid picture of the role of individuals. For that, I highly recommend this book.

We certainly ain't in Kansas anymore. We've gone international in a big way in the last 60 years. Decision making on this level has changed. Whether you realize it or not could be based soley on whether you've read this book, or not."Running The World" by David Rothkopf. It's a great (sometimes funny, sometimes scary)look into the function of the NSC, probably the most important branch of the government...that no one knows about. As far as a ruling body, the National Security Council are the CEOs of our government. Rothkopf is a great storyteller and as the former Managing Director of Kissinger Associates and Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce (Clinton), he's been involved with domestic and international policy from the inside. He has the ability to captivate and inspire thought and ideas. Rothkopf himself coined the now-so-popular phrase "Emerging Markets" that has been spoken by Presidents Clinton and Bush. This was a great first read for me for the summer, it'll be a tough act to follow.