Point of View

This narrative is told in the first person. The perspective is that of Richard Clarke, who, in this book, chronicles his 30 years as a civil servant: In 1979--the same year Israel's Begin and Egypt's Sadat signed a peace treaty in Jerusalem--Clarke began working for the U.S. government as a Pentagon analyst. He was later appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary for Intelligence at the State Department, and, in 1990, Assistant Secretary of State for Politico-Military Affairs, followed by positions as Coordinator for Security Infrastructure and Counterterrorism, and chair of the Counterterrorism Security Group. In 2000, at the request of President G.W. Bush's National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, he prepared a report spinning off most CSG responsibilities into other agencies. After completing his plan--as a career bureaucrat, he was a master of writing coherent, formal reports, action plans, and decision documents--he requested a new position, as the new chair...