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A sacred oath : memoirs of a Secretary of Defense during extraordinary times / Mark T. Esper.

By: Esper, Mark T [author.].
Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2022]Copyright date: ©2022Edition: First edition.Description: x, 735 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 24 cm.Content type: text Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 9780063144316; 006314431X.Subject(s): Esper, Mark T | Trump, Donald, 1946- | United States. Department of Defense -- Officials and employees -- Biography | Cabinet officers -- United States -- Biography | Ministres -- États-Unis -- Biographies | United States -- Politics and government -- 2017-2021Genre/Form: Autobiography | Autobiographies. | Autobiographies.
Contents:
Introduction: A meeting like no other -- First days, early warnings -- An army renaissance -- War with Iran begins in Iraq -- Civilian control and reform of the Pentagon -- Tehran escalates -- America strikes -- The politics of building a better navy -- The Afghanistan dilemma -- COVID: a tragic, epic fight -- Operation Warp Speed -- Desperate measures -- The republic wobbles -- A walk in the park -- Hard days and long nights -- Making lemonade -- A salute to America? -- Pride, promotions, and politics -- Lost causes and important ones -- China, China, China -- America's strategic advantage -- Unrest in the northwest -- October surprises -- Endgame -- Epilogue -- Appendix A: The army vision -- Appendix B: June 24, 2019, initial message to the department -- Appendix C: June 2, 2020, message to the department, support to civil authorities -- Appendix D: June 3, 2020, press conference in the Pentagon briefing room -- Appendix E: November 9, 2020, final message to the department -- Appendix F: November 9, 2020, letter to the president -- Appendix G: January 6, 2021, tweets regarding the assault on Capitol Hill -- Appendix H: January 3, 2021, Washington Post opinion piece authored by the ten living former Secretaries of Defense.
Summary: "Former Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper reveals the shocking details of his tumultuous tenure while serving in the Trump administration. From June of 2019 until his firing by President Trump after the November 2020 election, Secretary Mark T. Esper led the Department of Defense through an unprecedented time in history--a period marked by growing threats and conflict abroad, a global pandemic unseen in a century, the greatest domestic unrest in two generations, and a White House seemingly bent on breaking accepted norms and conventions for political advantage. A Sacred Oath is Secretary Esper's unvarnished and candid memoir of those extraordinary and dangerous times, and includes events and moments never before told."--Publisher's website.
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Holdings
Item type Current library Collection Shelving location Call number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Book Book Bellmawr Biography Adult B Esp (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 05000011086316
Book Book Gloucester Twp. Biography Adult B Esp (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 05000011255465
Book Book Haddon Twp. Biography Adult B Esp (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 05000011086357
Book Book South County Biography Adult B Esp (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 05000011255507
Book Book Voorhees Biography Adult B Esp (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available 05000011099152
Total holds: 1

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:



INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Former Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper reveals the shocking details of his tumultuous tenure while serving in the Trump administration.

From June of 2019 until his firing by President Trump after the November 2020 election, Secretary Mark T. Esper led the Department of Defense through an unprecedented time in history--a period marked by growing threats and conflict abroad, a global pandemic unseen in a century, the greatest domestic unrest in two generations, and a White House seemingly bent on breaking accepted norms and conventions for political advantage. A Sacred Oath is Secretary Esper's unvarnished and candid memoir of those extraordinary and dangerous times, and includes events and moments never before told.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 699-714) and index.

Introduction: A meeting like no other -- First days, early warnings -- An army renaissance -- War with Iran begins in Iraq -- Civilian control and reform of the Pentagon -- Tehran escalates -- America strikes -- The politics of building a better navy -- The Afghanistan dilemma -- COVID: a tragic, epic fight -- Operation Warp Speed -- Desperate measures -- The republic wobbles -- A walk in the park -- Hard days and long nights -- Making lemonade -- A salute to America? -- Pride, promotions, and politics -- Lost causes and important ones -- China, China, China -- America's strategic advantage -- Unrest in the northwest -- October surprises -- Endgame -- Epilogue -- Appendix A: The army vision -- Appendix B: June 24, 2019, initial message to the department -- Appendix C: June 2, 2020, message to the department, support to civil authorities -- Appendix D: June 3, 2020, press conference in the Pentagon briefing room -- Appendix E: November 9, 2020, final message to the department -- Appendix F: November 9, 2020, letter to the president -- Appendix G: January 6, 2021, tweets regarding the assault on Capitol Hill -- Appendix H: January 3, 2021, Washington Post opinion piece authored by the ten living former Secretaries of Defense.

"Former Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper reveals the shocking details of his tumultuous tenure while serving in the Trump administration. From June of 2019 until his firing by President Trump after the November 2020 election, Secretary Mark T. Esper led the Department of Defense through an unprecedented time in history--a period marked by growing threats and conflict abroad, a global pandemic unseen in a century, the greatest domestic unrest in two generations, and a White House seemingly bent on breaking accepted norms and conventions for political advantage. A Sacred Oath is Secretary Esper's unvarnished and candid memoir of those extraordinary and dangerous times, and includes events and moments never before told."--Publisher's website.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Kirkus Book Review

Donald Trump's secretary of defense dishes on his dimwitted boss and an army of enablers. "Can't you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?" As Esper, a West Point graduate and combat veteran, recounts at the opening of this overlong memoir, those were Trump's words when protestors surrounded the White House in June 2020. It wouldn't be the only absurd question from Trump, who also asked Esper why they couldn't launch missiles into Mexico to destroy cartel drug labs. Much of Esper's work as secretary of the Army and then secretary of defense, to judge by his account, was devoted to trying to explain to Trump and his cronies why they couldn't do such things thanks to inconvenient obstacles such as the Constitution and international law. Indeed, Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Mark Milley developed what they called the "Four Nos": "no unnecessary wars; no strategic retreats; no politicization of the DoD; and no misuse of the military." The White House seemed bent on breaking each of those rules, as when it demanded politicizing the military by means of a North Korea--worthy triumphant parade and misusing it with plans for martial law and seizing voting machines. Esper's account could have used some trimming, but he's rigorously methodical and a capable writer. His explanation of the Alexander Vindman scandal, when Trump pressured Esper to illegally expel a whistleblower from the ranks, is the most thorough in the literature (outside of Vindman's own memoir). The author takes special pains to show how, over the course of Trump's four years, competent civil and military servants were forced out and replaced by loyalists; in Trump's desperate last year, it was nothing short of a purge. Esper ventures that Trump's instincts were not always wrong, but, as he explains, "the ends he often sought rarely survived the ways and means he typically pursued to accomplish them." A damning portrait of a chaotic, inept administration that posed countless dangers to the nation and the world. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
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