This book is George P. Shultz’ memoir of his years as U.S. Secretary of
State. He served in that position during the presidency of Ronald
Reagan. According to the U.S. Constitution, the Secretary of State is
the president’s chief adviser on foreign affairs. However, since the
end of WWII, that position of first among equals has often been
challenged by people holding the position of National Security Adviser
to the president.As one of the president’s senior advisers,
Shultz counseled the president concerning such developments as the war
in Lebanon, the military threat posed by the Soviets, and the growing
use of terrorism in various places around the world to achieve
political goals. As most readers will recall, at the outset of his
presidency, Reagan was inflexible in his stance toward the Soviet
Union, even going so far as to call it “the evil empire.” Thus, the
first years of his presidency were some of the most tense during the
period of the Cold War. In describing his role as a senior
policymaker, Shultz also paints portraits of key governmental leaders
with whom he interacted.On the foreign scene they included
individuals such as Margaret Thatcher, Yitzhak Rabin, Hosni Mubarak,
and Mikhail Gorbachev.
On the domestic side, he his series of
portrayals include such individuals as Casper Weinberger, Ed Meese, Jim
Baker, and George Bush. As his predecessors—Dean Acheson and
Henry Kissinger—did, Shultz offers his insights about the foreign
policy making apparatus in the United States. Further, he elaborates
upon the problems which arise between the National Security and State
Department staffs. At first, upon leaving office, Shultz felt
no inclination to write of his experiences as Secretary of State. He
thought perhaps it was best to leave an assessment of what had
transpired to historians. But, giving the matter second though, and
feeling himself invigorated enough to tackle the job, he decided to
give the world this first hand account of his tenure as the president’s
chief foreign policy adviser.