The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President
Selected Book Details
- Hardcover
- Edition: First Edition
- Author: Taylor Branch
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster
- Release Date: September 2009
- ISBN-10: 1416543333
- ISBN-13: 9781416543336
- List Price: $35.00
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryA GROUNDBREAKING BOOK about the modern presidency, The Clinton Tapes invites readers into private dialogue with a gifted, tormented, resilient President of the United States. Here is what President Clinton thought and felt but could not say in public. This book rests upon a secret project, initiated by Clinton, to preserve for future historians an unfiltered record of presidential experience. During his eight years in office, between 1993 and 2001, Clinton answered questions and told stories in the White House, usually late at night. His friend Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch recorded seventy-nine of these dialogues to compile a trove of raw information about a presidency as it happened. Clinton drew upon the diary transcripts for his memoir in 2004. Branch recorded his own detailed recollections immediately after each session, covering not only the subjects discussed but also the look and feel of each evening with the president. The text engages Clinton from many angles. Readers hear candid stories, feel buffeting pressures, and weigh vivid descriptions of the White House settings. Branch's firsthand narrative is confessional, unsparing, and personal. The author admits straying at times from his primary role -- to collect raw material for future historians -- because his discussions with Clinton were unpredictable and intense. What should an objective prompter say when the President of the United States seeks advice, argues facts, or lodges complaints against the press? The dynamic relationship that emerges from these interviews is both affectionate and charged, with flashes of anger and humor. President Clinton drives the history, but this story is also about friends. The Clinton Tapes highlights major events of Clinton's two terms, including wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, the failure of health care reform, peace initiatives on three continents, the anti-deficit crusade, and titanic political struggles from Whitewater to American history's second presidential impeachment trial. Along the way, Clinton delivers colorful portraits of countless political figures and world leaders from Nelson Mandela to Pope John Paul II. These unprecedented White House dialogues will become a staple of presidential scholarship. Branch's masterly account opens a new window on a controversial era and Bill Clinton's eventual place among our chief executives. |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
The Clinton Tapes
Rating:
With former President Clinton in the news lately, we thought it would be a good time to look at the most recent book covering his White House years, `The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President' by Taylor Branch.
The first thing that bears mention, is that this is not a book of transcripts of secret (or not so secret) White House tapes made in the Oval Office a la Nixon or even LBJ. The book is rather the recollections of Pulitzer Prize winning author, Taylor Branch (`Parting the Waters' about the rise of Martin Luther King) who was hired by Clinton to conduct a series of late-night interviews with the then president to chronicle his years in the White House; tapes that Clinton himself, has held onto for his own posterity, library, book, etc...
While not nearly a direct transcript, Branch's deckle edged book is based on a series of detailed recollections from his discussions with Clinton that revel the president's insider views and opinions on all the major issues of his two-term presidency. The range of topics is wide, moving adroitly from issues of a domestic nature (health care, gays in the military, campaign finance reform, the environment, the media and his major work on behalf of the economy and the balanced budget amendment) to foreign affairs (the middle east peace process, Bosnia, Somalia, Iraq, Haiti, etc.) to politics (the mid-term elections, the contest with Bob Dole in 1996 and some harsh words reserved for Al Gore in the wake of the 2000 debacle, as well as relations with the House and Senate Republicans and their pestiferous leader, Newt Gingrich).
Some of the best and worst moments are those reserved exclusively for the Clintons, where Branch's affinity for his former campaign worker friend (they knew each other from George McGovern's presidential run 20 years earlier) show a certain favoritism for giving the Clinton's at least the benefit of the doubt. Subjects like Whitewater, Vince Foster, Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky are tempered by the more personal stories involving Clinton's golf game, Hillary's various social issues as well as the close relationship of both parents with daughter Chelsea.
In all, what emerges from The Clinton Tapes is an intimate look at a man who is a deep analytical thinker, a leader that is well schooled on his job and who considers the down-the-line implications of every move much like an experienced chessman. Once Clinton finally decides to release the tapes, we should have a window into even more of the nuances of the issues chronicled here, but until then, The Clinton Tapes serves as a rare window into a complex and issue filled eight-year term at the top.
Also available as an audio book.
A First Person Account of the Clinton Presidency
Rating:
The title is a bit of a misnomer because the taping process provided the basis for the book, but the content of the tapes do not shape it in the manner of tapes from the Johnson or Nixon presidencies. The tapes did provide a basis for Taylor Branch to witness and explore the Clinton presidency. Branch avoids much of the Schlesinger type of hagiography, while still showing much empathy and sympathy for his subject. Branch is very good at walking through the issues of being a "participant observer" in the White House and freely mentions where Clinton asked for his counsel and what that involved. The book reminded me of the many international issues in which Clinton became involved. This was striking given his lack of foreign policy experience before assuming office. He comes off as much more perceptive and knowledgeable than other modern presidents who assumed office with similar deficits (e.g., Bush II, Reagan, LBJ).
The book is a bit unbalanced in places. There is much attention to Clinton's always forgettable "State of the Union" addresses. Those passages were a reminder that despite his rhetorical gifts, Clinton's only memorable quotes involved gaffes. In this, he has much in common with virtually all his peers since at least Nixon. On the other hand, a number of things are missing or seem to have less coverage than I would have expected, such as the Asian currency crisis. The reasons for avoiding Monicagate seem clear given the nature of the taping project and the wide scope of the Starr investigation. Still, Branch offers little insight into how the Clintons repaired their marriage or how Clinton maintained a busy presidency during that period. There also is surprisingly little on Clinton's take regarding his critics in the press. The press reception to presidents is always puzzling. Johnson and Nixon were reviled. Carter puzzled and mostly received unsympathetic coverage, while Bush I and Reagan tend to get polarized reactions, and Bush II received largely favorable press despite the administrations dismissive attitude toward the mainstream media.
The book is a good reminder of the hurdles that Clinton faced, particularly after the Gingrich takeover of Congress. yet, it's clear that he accomplished much, often in subtle, small bore ways. The minimalism and subtlety may have been among the many things that handicapped Gore. Despite Clinton's popularity, his administration did not accomplish the broad popular programs that mark a presidency that needs little trumpeting. Like many Clinton critics on the Left, I saw Clinton as a masterful politician who could have done more to advance progressive policies and instead squandered his capital on ultimately questionable policies like NAFTA. he also squandered an opportunity with gays in the military but not engaging obvious stakeholders like gay ex-military personnel. Clinton's lack of "sticking his neck out" is, perhaps, a reminder of how he ultimately allowed himself to be cowed by the old boy Southern feudalism of his home state politics. An odd omission is how Clinton was shaped by the South and Southern politics but emerged (along with Branch) as something other than the superficially reconstructed feudalists who tend to represent much of the South. This is particularly true given the repeated references to Branch and Clinton as socially liberal Southerners. In some ways, they represent the "New South" that often got discussed but never entirely materialized.
Clinton's observations of Clinton, Bush II and others are interesting. He clearly recognized the petulant moralism of Jimmy Carter, while also grasping how Carter had transformed his public standing and image as an ex-president. Clinton also made dead on assessments of Bush II and its shame that (unlike, e.g., Dick Cheney), he chose observe custom and to demur about discussing his successor.
Some of the book's limitations reflect Branch's willingness to waste space on things like State of the Union addresses. While he generally eschews injecting himself too much into the story, I could have done without the gratuitous references to UNC sports teams. Clinton's booster-ish attitude about the Arkansas Razorbacks makes sense in providing color and background, but a biographer's sports interests really get in the way of the story. By the end, it was bit sad to see the Clinton years come to close, despite the length of the book. The former president becomes a bit of an old friend, with Branch guiding us through his days. The book makes clear that a president must wade through many ceremonies and distractions without becoming tedious. The book lacks the full play-b-play coverage of, for example, the Haldeman diaries, but provides a close look, nonetheless, with a minimum of inference.
The Clinton Tapes
Rating:
I orginally checked this book out at my branch library. I liked it so well I wanted to have it in my personal library. It is more than just the scandalous books published or the one-sided books written by liberals published. on Clinton. I felt even though the author was a friend of Clinton he seemed to try to be objecctive. I especially liked the part on Haiti and it's never ending problems which Clinton was so frustrated in trying to solve. No one will solve Haiti's problems in the foreseeable future because of its culture, graft and politics.
My husband and I were stationed in Puerto Rico 1957-1960 and the problems were just as bad then as now. The U.S. Army did have a presence in Haiti but it was very low key and only a few people knew about it on our post.
Excellent Work, Within the Limits of Oral History
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Like Kennedy, Clinton was very interested in how the history of his Administration would be written. His first idea was to hire his friend Taylor Branch (Martin Luther King's biographer) to be the Arthur Schlesinger of the Clinton White House: i.e., an in-house historian who witnessed the history and took notes. This was not practical given the inevitable resistance of Presidential assistants to Branch's presence at meetings. So Clinton had Branch visit him on a monthly basis to tape and interview as an oral history project. Clinton kept the tapes and had them transcribed and used them to write his memoirs. Neither those tapes nor their transcripts have been published. But Clinton did give Branch permission to write his own book, which is based on the impressions he dictated after each session.
Branch adds some of his own impressions of Clinton, which are favorable. By Branch's account, Clinton has a very close and affectionate relationship with his wife and daughter and is a very social and likeable fellow. He is also a positive person with a good sense of empathy.
The account is very useful for emphasizing the breadth of issues that a modern President must juggle -- multiple domestic and foreign policy concerns, political concerns, media relations, reelection, and family matters. The lesson here is the importance of having a positive-minded and intellectually curious person who will not get overburdened by this juggling act. This would seem to qualify Obama, Clinton, the elder Bush, Reagan, Kennedy, and Eisenhower as good post-war Presidents.
Another lesson is the importance of personal relationships. Surprisingly enough, this is extremely important in diplomacy, where modern communication systems allow close relationships to flourish amongst world leaders. Clinton and the elder Bush appear to have been masters at this technique, for the good of the country. Personal relationships are equally important domestically, and Clinton is portrayed as being able to forge good relationships with his most bitter political opponents, which allowed him to get things done.
Branch is critical of Clinton's sense of victimization by the press and failure to curry better relations with select members of the press. Instead, Clinton viewed the whole press as against him. On the other hand, the fixation with scandal, even blatantly false and non-existent scandals like Whitewater, Travelgate, and Vince Foster, do seem to justify Clinton's sense of victimization. But his continued strong approval ratings tend to show that Americans were capable of seeing through such tactics.
Nothing much new here on Lewinsky. Branch's version differs a bit from that offered in Clinton's memoirs -- in Branch's book, Clinton tends to blame his lapse as the result of a stupid response to stress. It appears that Clinton did not talk all that much with Branch about Lewinsky, which is not surprising given his desire to avoid having to turn the whole oral history project over to Ken Starr.
Clinton's show-down with Gingrich over the government shut down is well told. In this narrative, the blame falls on Gingrich for simply assuming that Clinton would cave and for overlooking that, in Clinton's words, Gingrich wasn't the the only one prepared to stand on his principles. It appears that the Republicans believed their own cartoon version of Clinton: that he was bereft of any principle and was fundamentally weak. That simply was not the case.
But it does appear that the Republicans were quite successful in the fascinating technique of attacking a man not at his weak points but at his strengths. It was readily apparent that Clinton was an exceptional politician -- and clearly the best Democratic politician since Lyndon Johnson. So the Republicans attacked this strength -- i.e., he was too good a politician, would trade on anything and not pay attention to principles, and was corrupt. This explains the continued resurrection of the "character" issue throughout Clinton's two terms, culminating in the impeachment. Clinton had serious weaknesses, but this character attack was unfair. The guy was a policy wonk who did have the same core principles as FDR: the desire to provide more security and more inclusiveness. Was there a brutal self-interest and sexual corruption underneath this? Yes, but we don't elect Gods to the presidency.
Branch does not give us enough of his own analysis and impressions of Clinton and his presidency, which I suppose is an inherent limit to oral history. But those limits prevent this from being a great book.
The Clinton Tapes
Rating:
I purchased this item for my son-in-law and he liked it. Being a history major, this carries some weight.
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