Counsel To The President

Description for COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT by Clark Clifford with Richard Holbrooke:

Clark Clifford, the legendary adviser to American's presidents, has written a classic memoir of power, policy, and politics in Washington over the past five decades. Clifford was Harry S Truman's White House Counsel, John F Kennedy's personal lawyer, and Lyndon B Johnson's Secretary of Defense at the height of the Vietnam War. He participated in virtually all of the great national security decisions since World War II and remains today an active and influential member of Washington's inner circles.

Like Clark Clifford's life and career, COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT spans the American Century. In an epic account, written with Richard Holbrooke, Clifford chronicles his ascent from a young lawyer and naval officer to a trusted presidential counselor, while revealing his intimate knowledge of the most dramatic events and important personalities of our time.

With a mastery of style and narrative detail, Clifford writes about how he successfully argued for the recognition of Israel in 1948 and how he failed to persuade President Johnson to limit American involvement in Vietnam in 1965. We see through Clifford's eyes the unforgettable train trip and late-night poker game with Winston Churchill en route to the "Iron Curtain" speech, and struggle with him through President Truman's "hopeless" reelection campaign of 1948. We see hm advise Senator John Kennedy in his fight to disprove allegations that eh did not write his Pulitzer Prize-winning book PROFILES IN COURAGE, and witness how he shared President Johnson's growing isolation, frustration, and anguish over a war he could not control.

COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT offers penetrating insights into American politics and foreign policy and riveting portraits of our leaders that only Clark Clifford can provide. It is the quintessential Washington memoir of our time.