The President's Men

In his new book, Presidential Command, Henry Kissinger's former assistant, Peter Rodman, says that when it comes to recent administrations, we've gotten it all wrong. The late author assesses the leadership styles of past presidents, and writes that it’s Nixon – not Bush—who should be labeled the “decider.” He says that while W was most successful when he acted as the decider, it was, alas, his father who was the most effective president of recent years. Yet while his observations on presdients are astute, things get a little murky when he describes his own years in the White House. Writes Michiko Kakutani: “He tends, however, to be considerably less reliable when it comes to discussing events in which he or his mentor, Mr. Kissinger, were intimately involved.”