Secdef: The Nearly Impossible Job of Secretary of Defense

By Charles A. Stevenson

Book Overview

SECDEF offers an expert's insights into one of the most difficult jobs in Washington. Of the twenty-one men who have held the post of secretary of defense since it was created in 1947, only half served more than eighteen months. The first, James Forrestal, committed suicide soon after leaving the Pentagon. Seven of his successors were fired or allowed to resign gracefully after losing the confidence of the president. Many left frustrated and disappointed, while few retained the celebrity and esteem they held while in office. One observer has called the job "the graveyard of political ambitions."Charles A. Stevenson, who as a national security adviser to four U.S. senators has seen several defense secretaries in action, examines the unique challenges of this office to learn why the failure rate has been so high. SECDEF focuses on how the secretary performs in the broader world of national security policymaking, how he handles civil-military relations in planning strategy and wars, how he functions on the National Security Council and deals with the president and secretary of state, and how well he performs as a politician, especially in dealing with Congress. In office, Charles Stevenson finds, these men have tended to fall into one of the three general roles for executing such responsibilities: revolutionaries, firefighters, or, the most common role, team players. Stevenson analyzes each type for its defining characteristics and evaluates individual secretaries. This book will appeal to defense professionals and students alike and to readers interested in American defense and foreign policy who want to learn more about the important role often played by the person informally labeled the SECDEF.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1574887955
• ISBN13: 9781574887952
• Release Date: June 2007
• Publisher: Potomac Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Good Sale

The book arrived in the estimated time and in the condition advertised by this seller.

clear and insightful

I have always been interested in themes of security and diplomacy although I haven't read much literature about it. Nowdays, the world have a critic look on the person running the business of defense in the United States, that is to say, the Secretary of Defense. Leaving aside that politics opinions, is very interesting to know what is the real job of this secretary and what are the duties performed by him. This book clearly explain how difficult is this job, the skills required to commit the job and some facts such as the big budget handled by this department. I was particularly interested in the life and works of Robert McNamara and Donald Rumsfeld. The latter because of his involment of the Irak war but also, because I think Mr. Rumsfeld has a lot to teach to new generations. I know people think of him as a stubborn that knows everything, but you can always get the best from someone.

The Nearly Impossible Job

The Secretary of Defense is in some ways the second most imporant man in Washington. The budget he overseas is $419 billion for the current year. His department is bigger than any other single department. He manages more people than all the rest of the Government agencies put together. Trying to manage all of this may be more than any one man can handle. He's got to please the President more than anyone else, but then there's Congress, the senior military officials, and other members of the cabinet, particularly the Secretary of State. The origin of the position came from Truman. His famous quotation summarizes what he was trying to fix: 'I have the feeling that if the Army and the Navy had fought our enemies as hard as they fought each other, the war (WW II) would have ended much sooner.' One of the people that fought him on the whole idea of a Defense Department was James Forrestal. So when the department was created, Truman made Forrestal the Secretary of Defense with orders to make it work. This book is the story of the secretaries that have held the office from Forrestal down to Rumsfield. It's about the people, what they did and how they did it. Most important, it's about the job itself.