I have been dipping into George Shultz's 1000 page memoir of his being Secretary of State under Reagan. He is famous for: economists' lags are politicians' nightmares, but there is lots more. The book is Turmoil and Triumph.
As I now read it more sequentially, I am impressed by his account of his thinking, and of how he worked with Reagan, and the bureaucratic politics he had to work with. Reagan comes off better than usually portrayed. I cannot judge if Shultz is reliable or accurate in his account, but at least it is not bragging or hiding. The tone is very very different than Condolezza Rice's recent memoir, where I wish there was more thinking and more detail.
I don't know how Shultz is viewed as a Secretary of State, or more generally in his public service. What I am struck by is his recurrent attempts to make for a strategic plan for moving forward on various issues (he says it is his training as an economist), his negotiating skills (he was a labor economist and mediatory), and his willingness to admit setbacks and defeats.
What is also impressive is his account of Foreign Service Officers, their skills and talents, their imperfections and idiocies. I could imagine wanting to become such an Officer after reading this book. Neither James Baker's nor Rice's had that effect.
I need to read memoirs by Democratic Secretaries of State, since the end of WWII.
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