Rating: 
Summary: Informative, Fascinating, Gripping
Review: David Halberstam, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, has again managed to write an outstanding book! I have read several books by Halberstam, and the red thread through all his books is the amazing talent he has for transporting the readers into the world he is writing about. "War in a time of Peace" gives a good overview/understanding of America's foreign policy in the 1990'ies. It is interesting to read how the Clinton administration planned to (and did to a large extent) keep focus on domestic issues, but was more or less forced to take action internationally, as different conflicts (Haiti, Somalia, Balkans) caught up with America. The Vietnam War had made many decision-makers in America unwilling to use American soldiers to take action internationally. For example, initially, no serious attention was given to Slobodan Milosevic and his men. In fact, for a long time the Clinton administration chose to ignore all reports from the Balkans. Clinton's Admin staff deliberately used expressions such as "act of genocide" and equal omitting expressions, to avoid acknowledging that genocide in fact took place. The failure of using forces against Milosevic, gave him the opportunity to set out on an ethnic cleansing spree, bordering to what happened to Jews during WWII. I said that this book covers the foreign policy of the 1990'ies.. To be fair, 30 pages or so to cover Bush Sr., and the rest to Clinton. The title "War in a time of Peace" is slightly misleading, although Somalia and Haiti are covered, this really is a book mostly on the Balkans. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this book. Reading this book made me understand what really happened in the Balkans and why. As usual, Halberstam's book is very well researched, with fascinating insights. The pages describing how technological advanced US is compared to other countries, and its abilities (missiles hitting only a few feet off target), must fascinate every reader! Highly recommended! After reading "War in a time of Peace" I've picked up that this book is more or less a sequel to Halberstam's book on the Vietnam War "The best and the brightest". I am doing this the other way around.. "The best and the brightest" is my next book to read..
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Review of American Foreign Policy in the 90s
Review: Every American should read this book to understand the agonizing complexities that face the President of the United States, no matter who holds the office. Halberstam, without taking sides, leads us from Bush Sr. to the end of the Clinton presidency brilliantly, painting perceptive and memorable portraits of not only the events, the debates that went into the big decisions, but also of the cast of 20+ characters that made up the key personnel in these administrations. An irreplacable book.
Rating:
Summary: Superb Investigation Of Foreign Policy & Politics
Review: For those of us who marveled at former journalist David Halberstam's masterful account of the ways in which the personal biographies and contemporary history fatefully intersected to produce the disastrous American incursion into Vietnam in 1970's "The Best And The Brightest", his recent (2001) tome "War In A Time Of Peace" is the long-awaited sequel and companion piece on the ways in which the ghost of our involvement in southeast Asia yet haunts America's role in foreign affairs in the late 20th century. As in the previous work, Halberstam's trademark insights into the ways in which personal ambitions and private agendas fuel and contort the political processes of which American foreign policy is a part make this book memorable and worthwhile. For example, his observation's on former Secretary of State Madeline Albright's arrogant attempt to nation-build in Somalia makes it easier to understand lapses in our policy there that led to the now-famous firefight chronicled so brilliantly in "Blackhawk Down", resulting in several dozen American causalities and hundreds if not thousands of dead and wounded Somalis. His brilliance is in showing how these individual personalities interact, often clashing based on the existential circumstances they find themselves embroiled in. Thus does Army General Wes Clark find himself embroiled in a very difficult conundrum in the Balkans, facing both an intransigent enemy and an uncertain and indecisive command structure by way of both President Clinton and the Joint Chiefs. One marvels at the ways in which Halberstam entwines the details of the personal biographies of a play card of figures ranging from Clark to Colin Powell to Madeline Albright to Richard Holbrooke to Anthony Lake to James Baker to Dick Cheney with the cross-cutting issues and circumstances that eventually come to comprise contemporary history. In so doing he brings history to life, making its study both more interesting and more relevant, showing how particular individuals and their own personal political, philosophical, and social baggage and predispositions animate the interactions at the government's highest levels. Sadly, it also chronicles how petty, venial, and subjective such decision-making can be, as in Albright's arrogantly misguided decision to try to force a motley collection of feudal Somali warlords into experimenting with democracy. What makes all of this even more interesting and more intriguing is how he then overlays the ways in which many of the chief players and architects of the American foreign policy decisions in the Balkans were affected by their roles in the war in Vietnam, whether it be as a calculating conscientious objector like Bill Clinton, a government official like Anthony Lake, or a then young Captain and Lt. Colonel by the name of Colin Powell. In this fashion we come to see the lingering impact the war in Vietnam had in shaping and propelling the course of events in the 1990s. Indeed, the shattering affect the war had on both the Defense Department and the State Department and the kinds of men and women that came to administer and manage them can be seen in the quixotic unfolding of American foreign policy as it meandered aimlessly from position to position over the intervening decades without any seeming central focus or evident grand strategy. Thus, over the smoldering coals of the memories of the American defeat in Vietnam, the foreign policy of the American government circled cautiously around the perimeters of meaningful involvement, desperate to avoid any commitment that might draw it into another inconclusive and unpopular ground war, even when confronted with the sensational and melodramatic facts of another holocaust being systematically conducted by the Bosnian Serbs on the ground in the Balkans. This is a wonderful book, a book superbly researched, documented, and written, and it is certainly one I can highly recommend for students of contemporary history. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: Good account of events
Review: Halberstam does an effective job of recounting the happenings in the Balkans, but his account of domestic affairs is a little left leaning. He gushes over Clinton's political abilities contrasting them with GHW Bush who he thinks just didn't understand America after the cold war. The account of the Clinton foreign policy (or lack of one) is even handed and he made me want to meet Richard Holbrook who comes across as a skilled negotiator and shrewd politician. A couple omissions and some of the wording are a little left of center or at least a little less than objective when comparing and contrasting the two parties. He recounts Clinton's victories in both elections without mentioning Perot at all. He also refers to those that led the Republican trouncing in '94 as "religious fundamentalists" and "zealots". All in all a pretty good book, just ignore the partisan lean.
Rating:
Summary: About as exhaustive as you can get in five hundred pages
Review: I became a fan of David Halberstam's through his sportswriting, but since I have a longstanding interest in history and current events, I decided to check out some of his political writing as well. Having read this book, I'm glad I did. In "War In a Time of Peace" Halberstam attempts to summarize and analyze the key components of American foreign policy from 1989 to 2001 in a (relatively) brief and user-friendly five hundred pages. And it's a rousing success. Halberstam obviously has a profound understanding of the vast array of forces that shape modern-day politics, and he has an engaging writing style that keeps things moving right along. The main thrust of the book is an examination of the effect the end of the Cold War had on U.S. foreign policy. Much of Halberstam's discussion focuses on two related themes: first, the decline in importance of foreign policy in American politics following the removal of the Communist threat; and second, the loss of clear-cut foreign-policy philosophies and objectives without the Soviets as an enemy. Halberstam proves his first thesis quickly enough with this fact: the first President Bush, despite his successes in the Cold War and the Gulf War, couldn't get himself reelected in 1992 in the face of the Clinton campaign's "It's the economy, stupid" logic because the American public didn't care as much about foreign affairs as it had even five years ago. The second theme of the book, regarding the ambiguity that accompanied foreign policy in the nineties, is reflected in the debates over just how and how much the U.S. should get involved in battles in faraway places like Somalia and (especially) the former Yugoslavia. Central to these debates was a fundamental question: should America, with its overwhelming military might, use its military as a police force in areas in which it lacked a vital national interest? In the wake of Vietnam, this was not an easy question to answer, and it loomed large over many of the Clinton administration's important foreign-policy decisions. Halberstam goes to great lengths to discuss the complex mix of factors that influenced these decisions in the Clinton years: American electoral politics, international politics, the internal machinations of the military, American public opinion, changes in journalistic practices, advances in military technology, Bill Clinton's personal problems, the legacy of Vietnam, and much more. Halberstam also gives the reader biographical sketches of many of the major American political and military players, as if to try to explain the impact their own experiences had on their views. He's sympathetic to these people, but at the same time Halberstam has a keen understanding of their weaknesses and how they worked against them. I'm not really what you'd call a foreign politics or current events aficionado, but I think that may be why I found this book such a good read. It has enough detail to provide a comprehensive overview of American foreign policy in the post-Cold War period, without getting too bogged down in minutiae. At the same time, Halberstam demonstrates a remarkable perceptiveness in tracing the links between events and personalities that shaped America's actions. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive account of foreign policy in the 90's
Review: I found this book oddly even-handed. Halberstam deftly showcases the intricacies surrounding military operations and the steps to launch them along with their potential consequences. The author also shows how the Clinton administration ( actually Clinton himself) drug his feet. As an admitted moderate Republican, I thought at first glance that this book would be the ultimate trashing of the party (based on your average everyday journalistic bias), but Halberstam explains the positions of both parties, along with naming the good and bad guys in the Republican and Democratic camps. I was especially fascinated with the portraits given of Tony Lake and former Def. Sec. Bill Perry and will be checking out their books to read more about American defense issues. All in all, not a bad book. Could have been much shorter, so I can only give 3 stars overall.
Rating:
Summary: Ghosts of Vietnam Haunt 1990s American Foreign Policy
Review: I had a professor who defined journalism as "history written in a hurry." In his sequel to The Best And The Brightest author David Halberstam uses the journalist's tools - personal interviews and background research - to explore how the shadow of Vietnam and the Cold War shaped the United States' foreign policy during the 1990s. What emerges, is a thoughtful, portrait of the United States from the perspective of its foreign policy decisions. It is a book written for thoughtful citizens; a book that, clearly, was not written in a hurry; a book that unearths the struggles, egos and the political maneuvering among the key figures in The White House, the State Department and the military. Halberstam shows how the decisions of Vietnam War Veterans, like Colin Powell and Anthony Lake, and those who were not, like President William Clinton, influenced American politics and policy. Lesser-known players who contributed to the picture were not overlooked. Halberstam notes that the irony of the Gulf War was the wrong branch of the service and the wrong military leaders were celebrated at its conclusion. Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell received ovations for their humiliation of an allegedly mighty, but now bedraggled Iraqi Army. If one man was responsible, he notes, it was an innovative air force strategist, Colonel John Warden. At the time of the Gulf War, Warden was the head of a top-secret air force group working within The Pentagon and represented a group of younger military officers who were eager to adapt military thinking and planning to the uses of the new technological advanced weaponry. The major opposition to his thinking came not from the army or even civilians, but rather senior officers in his service branch, especially three and four star generals attached to the Tactical Air Command. They believed the airpower was there to support the army on the ground. They despised Warden and his ideas. As luck would have it, when General Schwarzkopf requested an air plan for Desert Storm, Warden's senior officer was on leave and the request found its way to his desk. Roy Gutman, an American reporter who happened to be in Yugoslavia in 1991 and was starting to write what would be a series of prophetic dispatches for Newsday, the Long Island, New York daily, is another unknown player. Stationed in Belgrade from 1973 to 1975 as a Reuter's correspondent, he had embraced what he termed as "the golden age of Tito", a Serbo-centrism that tempered the vision of many western diplomats and journalists. On his return in 1991 he saw signs that Yugoslavia was becoming a different country. An interview with Vojislav Seselj, an ultra nationalist Serb who had once been jailed by Tito for his ethnic views and was known for his personal cruelty, convinced the journalist that something sinister was about to happen with its likely epicenter as Banja Luka, a city in Northern Bosnia, which time which prove to be the home of the Serbian campaign of ethnic cleansing. Halberstam's search for the real story behind the headlines gives the reader clear insights into why events in the Balkans, Haiti and Somalia reflect American foreign policy and politics. He discusses the wariness of the U. S. military to ever be caught again in a ground war lacing clear objectives, the frustrations of political leaders who never served in the military and their effects on American commanders in Kosovo. On the last page of the book, the author allows himself a glimpse into our future, which in light of the events of September 11, 2001 proves tragically prescient. Writing in May, 2001, Halberstam, allows himself to speculate about the need for a missile shield, what he terms "a high-tech Maginot Line, the wrong idea at the wrong time." He notes that intelligence analysts believe "the threat to an open society like America c[o]mes from terrorists, rather than the military power of rogue states" which themselves present an exceptional target. The author has carved a unique niche for himself. His books are the product of four to five years of research, a luxury few, if any other journalists are indulged. The emerging portrait of the United States is vivid and full of human detail.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive account of foreign policy in the 90's
Review: I've read many books on foreign policy and politics, but few have delved so deep into the minds of our nation's leaders in the White House and the Pentagon. Halberstam paints a cohesive portrait as to what shaped their beliefs and how this affected foreign policy decisions in the 90's. These individuals each have their own motives, shaped beliefs and aspirations which often conflict with one another. This explains a great deal to those on the outside looking in regarding the complexity of shaping policies. You can watch and read the news all you want, but Halberstam provides what you don't get in the mass media, and that's an in-depth and personal look at the dynamics within two presidential administrations.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best
Review: It is always such a treat for me when I get into such a well-written book. I do not think I am along in that many times a book that is supposed to be god turns out to be average and because of this I always seam to get such a kick out of an excellent book. I thought the real value of this book was in the detailed descriptions of the main players and their backgrounds. It really helped to understand why certain decisions were made. Given the current political campaigns, the section on Wesley Clark was very interesting. When you read through it you almost think the author new something about the next step Clark would take. The books covers the Haiti, Somalia, and Balkans military campaigns but the real detail is over the two Balkan conflicts. I felt that he really got to know the personalities involved because we did such a good job in ting back their personal histories to their current stands on issues and even why they choose the section of the government that they did. The book did have some undertones of why the military men were more cautious because of the Vietnam War but I did not fully buy into that given the time distance and the Gulf war Victory. Overall this was a wonderful book that is full of spot on personality review and good details on why certain policies were followed. I would recommend it to anyone.
Rating: 
Summary: Insightful, well written
Review: Once again, David Halberstam has shown why he is one of the greatest writers of our time. This book explains in great detail how the foreign policy (or lack of one by Clinton) of our presidents has a direct effect on us all. For me, the expose of an inept Clinton White House is somewhat indicative of the mess we are in today. Halberstam does give a little too much praise to Clinton for his domestic policy, but shows clearly how he underestimated the rest of the world.
I read Halberstams' "FIREHOUSE" and was impressed then. I'm looking forward to reading more of his work.
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