num_pages: 467
description: "Plan of Attack" is a definitive account of how &amp; why President Geo W. Bush, his war council &amp; allies launched a preemptive attack to topple Saddam Hussein &amp; occupy Iraq. Woodward's latest account of Washington decisionmaking provides an original, authoritative narrative of behind-the-scenes maneuvering over two years, examining the causes &amp; consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam. Based on interviews with 75 key participants &amp; over 3.5 hours of exclusive interviews with Bush, Plan of Attack is part presidential history charting the decisions made during 16 critical months; part military history revealing precise details &amp; the evolution of the Top Secret war planning under the restricted codeword Polo Step; part a spy story as the CIA dispatches a covert paramilitary team into northern Iraq 6 months before the start of the war. This team recruited 87 Iraqi spies designated with the cryptonym DB/ROCKSTARS, one of whom turned over the personnel files of all 6000 men in Saddam Hussein's personal security organization. What emerges are astonishingly intimate portraits: Bush in war cabinet meetings in the White House Situation Room &amp; Oval Office, &amp; in private conversation; Dick Cheney, the focused &amp; driven vice president; Colin Powell, the conflicted &amp; cautious secretary of state; Donald Rumsfeld, the controlling war technocrat; Geo Tenet, the activist CIA director; Tommy Franks, the profane &amp; demanding general; Condoleezza Rice, the ever-present referee &amp; national security adviser; Karl Rove, the hands-on political strategist; other key members of the White House staff &amp; congressional leadership; &amp; foreign leaders ranging from British Prime Minister Blair to Russian President Putin. Plan of Attack provides new details on the intelligence assessments of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction &amp; the planning for the war's aftermath.
language: English
title: Plan of Attack
titlecomplete: Plan of Attack
characters: George W. Bush, George Tenet, Tommy Franks, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove
genres: Military Fiction, History, Presidents, Biography, American History, War, Politics, Government, Nonfiction, Terrorism
ratings_count: 5448
places: The United States of America
series: Bush at War
publisher: Simon & Schuster