Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet

When G.W. Bush campaigned for the White House, he was such a novice in foreign policy that he couldn't name the president of Pakistan. But he was advised by a group that called themselves the Vulcans—a group of men & one woman with long & shared experience in government, dating back to the Nixon, Ford, Reagan & 1st Bush administrations. After retuning to power in 2001, the Vulcans—including Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage & Condoleeza Rice—were widely expected to restore US foreign policy to what it had been in past Republican administrations. Instead, they put America on an entirely new course, adopting a far-reaching set of ideas & policies that changed the world & America's role in it. In this revelatory volume, James Mann narrates the hidden story of these six history makers, their early careers & rise to power, the interactions & underlying tensions among them, their visions & their roles in the current administration. Along the way, he offers a wealth of new information (about how Rumsfeld schemed in the Nixon White House, how Cheney toiled as Rumsfeld's doorkeeper, how Wolfowitz first warned of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East in the 1960s) to complete a remarkable look at George W. Bush's inner circle.