After starting it more than a month ago, I’ve finished reading the 784-page “NO HIGHER HONOR: A Memoir of My Years in Washington” by Condoleeza Rice. Under President George W. Bush, Ms Rice served as the first female African American Secretary of State. Before that she was President Bush’s National Security Adviser.
The Bush years 2001-2008 were marked by some startling events: The 9/11 terrorist attack in New York. The US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and the overthrow and killing of Saddam Hussein. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan. Islamic terrorist attacks in India. The emergence of Iran and North Korea as nuclear-weapon-capable states. Bloody regional conflicts in Georgia, Russia and Sudan. And other pressing international disputes that required frequent long distance air travel by the US Secretary of State.
Condoleeza Rice’s memoir reads like a diary of her busy schedules in the White House, the State Department, and foreign capital cities. Before reading this book I was one of those persons who thought President George W. Bush was a dummy. I don’t think so anymore. On the contrary, I now view him as an intelligent and practical man.
