This Epinion is about Ethnic Cleansing, Famine, Iraqis and Bill Clinton

War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals is a great piece of literature written by an award-winning author. David Halberstam, best known for his novel The Best and the Brightest, a chilling account of the Vietnam War, approaches a more modern view of history. He attempts to deconstruct the post-Cold War era from the inside-out, and the result is yet another work worthy of literary merit.

General Timeline of the book

Halberstam begins by addressing the aftermath and consequences/benefits of the Persian Gulf War, briefly mentions the election of 1992, and spends the majority of the book developing his conclusions relating to the Clinton administration. He touches on the election of 2000 at the end, but his main focus is on the years 1992-1999.

Main Themes

The central thesis that Halberstam attempts to prove is that the Clinton administration had no coherent foreign policy initiative, and their relative and almost collective inexperience drastically hindered the domestic agenda that got Clinton elected.

He addresses the following main conflicts:
Gulf War
Bosnia
Somalia
Haiti
Rwanda
Kosovo

Brief synopsis

After the quick resolution to the Persian Gulf War, America once again could bask in its military superiority, especially with respect to air power. The precision-guided missiles and heat-sensing weapons had allowed the US to easily overtake the Iraqi army, especially by ¡¥tank-plinking¡¦ at night. One Iraqi official noted that tanks used to be the safest place at night, but the new US weapons made finding a safe-heaven almost impossible. Basically, George Bush, having participated in the official dismantling of the Soviet Union and a successful war in the Middle East was riding high going into the 1992 election.

(Never mind that the US had to intervene in the Middle East because of Hussein¡¦s incessant need to exert influence with his new weapons [that we sold him] and to attempt to pay off high debts [that he owed us because of arms sales in the Iraq-Iran war] by controlling oil in a region [that hated us being there and eventually sent some people here to kill as many as they could] where the US has some influence.)

Anyway, Halberstam shows that perhaps the Clinton-Gore ticket was the only game in town that stood a fighting chance against Bush and his 85+% approval rating. To make a long story short, Bush failed to acknowledge the importance of domestic issues in the post-Cold War era, and along with some idiotic moves, lost the election.

The Clinton team (described in great detail) was not fit to address some of the issues facing the world, and Clinton¡¦s obsession with focusing on domestic policy ¡¥like a laser-beam¡¦ put him in a tough position.

Halberstam gives a detailed account of the situations with Somalia (an incident partially, but not purposely, left behind by the previous administration) and the residual effects of the administrations partial failure in that region, citing Haiti and the (in)action in Rwanda. Each of these issues is described in saturating detail, with historical references and a unique approach that addresses the issue from the standpoint of the individuals experiencing it.

The issues that get the most attention are the crises in the Balkans: Bosnia and Kosovo. Halberstam does a tremendous job breaking down the problem from a variety of perspectives, including the upper-level administration, Milosevic himself, the written media, and the visual media as well. His approach includes a tremendous amount of personal information and history on all the major, and many of the minor, players. This personal aspect provides a unique light on the situation and allows the reader to really have a feel for the enormity of each major decision.

Halberstam¡¦s concludes that there was never a coherent ¡¥Clinton Doctrine¡¦ and the administrations actions abroad was more of a combination of sporadic decisions influenced by a weak foreign policy initiative and competing interests in Congress and the upper level military. Clinton desired to focus on domestic issues and only devoted political capital when he was forced to, or when it supported a domestic issue (WTO, NAFTA, NATO expansion, etc.).

That was not brief!!

From a 500 page book, yes it was. ļ

Some problems I have with the book

There is no real sense of continuity in the book. There are 44 chapters and each one addresses a different issue (especially at the beginning of the book) but I never knew what year we were in, or what would come next. He brings up an issue, departs from it to describe a character for a chapter, addresses another issue, and then comes back to the original event.

The other problem is the ridiculous amount of detail provided for some of the minor members of the administration. The book reads well, but I think this superfluous information takes away from the main themes of the book.

Overall

I recommend any of his books, but if you want to experience the more modern issues, this book is a veritable encyclopedia of foreign policy affairs since 1992. Although not a great speaker, (I saw him speak on pre vs. post-Sept. 11) David Halberstam is a very informed and eloquent writer. His books may be a bit long, but for those interested in politics, foreign policy, or anything that we have all lived through, Halberstam is the first place I would consult.

~Thanks