Rumsfeld et sa "slice of history"...

Voici comment il présente sa motivation à écrire:

"'I'd read other folks' books about things I'd been involved in . . . and I'd think, 'My goodness, that's not my perspective,'" chuckles former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in an interview last Friday. "I remember talking to [former Secretary of State] George Shultz and he said, 'Don, that's the way it is. Everyone has their slice of history and you need to write yours one day so that it is part of the records."

Peut-on lui reprocher de ne pas être assez documenté?

"Mr. Rumsfeld tells me that he sees his 815-page volume as a "contribution to the historic record"—not some breezy Washington tell-all. In his more than 40 years of public service, he kept extensive records of his votes, his meetings with presidents, and the more than 20,000 memos (known as "snowflakes") he flurried on the Pentagon during his second run as defense secretary. Mr. Rumsfeld uses them as primary sources, which accounts for the book's more than 1,300 end notes. He's also digitized them so readers and historians can consult the evidence first-hand at www.rumsfeld.com."

Au passage, il "règle quelques comptes" (au sujet de Condi Rice):

"Condi Rice is a very accomplished human being," he says in our interview, and "she had an academic background. Blending things and delaying things is okay in the academic world. She developed a very strong relationship with the president, which is critically important. And yet one of the adverse aspects of the way things functioned—and I wouldn't use the word 'dysfunction'—is that things did get delayed, and the president didn't get served up, in a crisp way, options that he could choose among."

Un article complet sur le site du Wall street journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704422204576130172848389628.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop