The Quiet Man - The Indispensable Presidency of George H.W. Bush

The Quiet Man – The Indispensable Presidency of George H.W. Bush – by John Sununu

“The Quiet Man…”, John Sununu’s first ever book, is very well written but it really wasn’t the book that I was expecting nor the book that I was hoping it would be. Had Sununu made a minor change, such as putting himself on the front cover instead of his boss, my expectations might have been a bit different and, therefore, may have enjoyed it a tad better.

This book is about the 41^st president, but I came away feeling like it was too much Sununu and not enough Bush. It’s not that Sununu blabs ad nauseum about himself, his history, and his background, it’s just that I never felt like I was in the same room with George H.W. Bush. I didn’t feel like I ever understood what made 41 tick, and never felt truly like I was inside his head. Instead, I felt like I was being told a story about a casual acquaintance of the author whose main job was not to show us the bad as well as good, but rather paint a hagiography.  

Consider the title: It includes the word “Indispensable”. I’m not sure I would use this word to describe the presidency of George H.W. Bush.  That’s not meant to badmouth the man in any way. He did some great things, some good things, and some bad things.  Sununu tends to elaborate too highly on the good stuff and blame everyone else for the bad stuff. We read about the broken “Read My Lips” promise, and the author really does tell a great first-hand account of how Bush did everything he could to keep his pledge, but it turns out to be too insurmountable of a challenge. So Sununu tends to only mildly slap Bush on the wrist and blame the bulk of the conundrum on the congress. The same thing can be said about Bush’s disastrous reelection campaign of 1992. Sununu blames Bush’s reelection committee for causing his boss to stumble so badly.  In retrospect, this sentiment is partially true (Lee Atwater, the genius behind 1988 had succumbed to a brain tumor and lost his life in 1991), yet when one is Commander-in-Chief, one must shoulder the bulk of the blame.  Bush himself was o.k. with this, but Sununu tries too hard to be an unflinching apologist.

Still, though Sununu does a great job describing some of the key events. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on the collapse of the Cold War and Glasnost, as well as the detailed account of the events leading up to Desert Storm.  Other chapters that focus on Panama and the above mentioned 1992 debacle seem as though Sununu cut them too short, and I really wanted more.  For all the idol-worship, Sununu does know how to keep the history interesting.

Another minor gripe I have is that Bush’s presidency is not detailed sequentially in this book, yet the chapters are laid out by ‘topic’. I recently encountered this in a similar retrospective – Stuart Eizenstat’s book on Jimmy Carter – and came away the exact same feeling. It’s my opinion that books that detail an administration are best told in the order they happened, since the events overlap with each other, and we’re allowed a better picture of the overall perceptions by all in and out of the administration.

Still, for a freshman effort, I would recommend this book as it does give an insider’s view of the administration.  It’s quite tilted in its subject matter’s favor, but Sununu was a very loyal soldier and served his term in office quite well.

If you really are looking for a much more detailed and balanced portrait of George H.W. Bush – before and during his presidency – I would recommend Jon Meachum’s excellent biography “Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush”.