Rating: 
Summary: Insulting...
Review: This is a troubling product... It was obviously slapped together in a few months after 9/11's military escalation... Yet the book is worth less than the ink and paper absorbed in its quick production. No special insights about what distinguishes Secretary Rumsfeld appear. The book is about an abstraction. It is based on public information stichted together abruptly in the obvious hope of making a quick buck from the prominence Rumsfeld gained at the hands of a concerned nation absorbed by daily Pentagon press briefings. Beyond this cheap publishing angle, in substance the book is empty. It could be about any figure who strikes an average reader (the mass target audience of the quick buck book gambit), at a gut level as having leadership qualities. No relevant lessons can be drawn from the assembled data. No analysis even of that limited data is conducted that could teach anything about the character of influence and leadership. Any proper approach to examining the leadership qualities of a public figure would entail far more thought and reflection than went into this skinny volume. Research would include interviews with substantial numbers of people who actually know the person. For a subject who is an active leader, research would certainly include interviewing that person (not done in this case). Most obviously to a thoughtful reader but not to this book's author, perspective borne of historical distance may be necessary before anaccurate and meaningful appraisal can be given of the leadership skills of the US's current Secretary of Defense.
Rating: 
Summary: Some people are just plain lucky
Review: Well, Well, I held Rumsfeld in awe. I was sadly mistaken. I am giving 4 stars for this book(Rumsfeld himself gets a single *) because it has made me learn things about the man, and change my view of him(what the intention was, is a moot point!). The book is filled with his quips( a better word for a gaping mouth, ashamed to admit he does not know the answer, evasive tactics). The book is filled with that. To fill the career graph with 2 pages, being a chairman, is not any big achievement. People get hononary Doctorates too....people also get 4 more pages to fill in their resume ones they reach a post after working like a dog!, but some people are just plain lucky, Rumsfeld is one of them. Is he a good leader? Well - that depends on how you define leadership. He is an effective leader, no doubt, Hitler was effective too(just to drive the point home, not for comparison, unless some PC cutlet starts jumping as if sitting on a frying pan). One need not be a Patton, to be a leader. Good leaders always have a humane touch to their actions. I am not saying what actions he took post Sept 11, were wrong, but How has it helped us? Do you think it was a difficult task for him in that position to do what he did. I don't think so( With authority, comes responsibility!). If you hold Rumsfeld in awe, and want to keep it that way, don't read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent and clean biography
Review: You don't have to be a great admirer of Rumsfeld to appreciate this book. Its written in a neutral way. Along with the positives the negatives are also stated. Although I must say that sometimes the negatives have been written in a twisted way.
But its a great book to read and know about the last 2 or 3 decades of Rumsfeld's involvement in American politics.
| 
