No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington

From one of the world’s most admired women, this is former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s compelling story of eight years serving at the highest levels of government.  In her position as America’s chief diplomat, Rice traveled almost continuously around the globe, seeking common ground among sometimes bitter enemies, forging agreement on divisive issues, and compiling a remarkable record of achievement.

 

A native of Birmingham, Alabama who overcame the racism of the Civil Rights era to become a brilliant academic and expert on foreign affairs, Rice distinguished herself as an advisor to George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential campaign.  Once Bush was elected, she served as his chief adviser on national-security issues – a job whose duties included harmonizing the relationship between the Secretaries of State and Defense.  It was a role that deepened her bond with the President and ultimately made her one of his closest confidantes.

 

With the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Rice found herself at the center of the Administration’s intense efforts to keep America safe.  Here, Rice describes the events of that harrowing day – and the tumultuous days after.  No day was ever the same.  Additionally, Rice also reveals new details of the debates that led to the war in Afghanistan and then Iraq.

 

The eyes of the nation were once again focused on Rice in 2004 when she appeared before the 9-11 Commission to answer tough questions regarding the country’s preparedness for – and immediate response to – the 9-11 attacks.  Her responses, it was generally conceded, would shape the nation’s perception of the Administration’s competence during the crisis.  Rice conveys just how pressure-filled that appearance was and her surprised gratitude when, in succeeding days, she was broadly saluted for her grace and forthrightness.

From that point forward, Rice was aggressively sought after by the media and regarded by some as the Administration’s most effective champion.

 

In 2005 Rice was entrusted with even more responsibility when she was charged with helping to shape and carry forward the President’s foreign policy as Secretary of State.  As such, she proved herself a deft crafter of tactics and negotiation aimed to contain or reduce the threat posed by America’s enemies.  Here, she reveals the behind-the-scenes maneuvers that kept the world’s relationships with Iran, North Korea and Libya from collapsing into chaos.  She also talks about her role as a crisis manager, showing that at any hour — and at a moment’s notice — she was willing to bring all parties to the bargaining table anywhere in the world.

 

No Higher Honor takes the reader into secret negotiating rooms where the fates of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and Lebanon often hung in the balance, and it draws back the curtain on how frighteningly close all-out war loomed in clashes involving Pakistan-India and Russia-Georgia, and in East Africa. 

 

Surprisingly candid in her appraisals of various Administration colleagues and the hundreds of foreign leaders with whom she dealt, Rice also offers here keen insight into how history actually proceeds.  In No Higher Honor, she delivers a master class in statecraft  — but always in a way that reveals her essential warmth and humility, and her deep reverence for the ideals on which America was founded.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE was the sixty-sixth U.S. Secretary of State and the first black woman to hold that office.  Prior to that, she was the first woman to serve as National Security Advisor.  She is a professor at Stanford University, and co-founder of the RiceHadley Group.  Rice is also the author of the New York Times bestselling Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family.

 

Prologue

Introduction

1 Before the Crack in Time

2 Honest Broker

3 Policy Begins

4 The Middle East

5 Vladimir Putin

6 “The United States Is Under Attack”

7 War Planning Begins

8 The War on Terror and the Home Front

9 Trouble in Nuclear South Asia

10 The Two-State Solution

11 Thee World’s Most Dangerous Weapons

12 Saddam Again

13 Confronting the International Community with a Choice

14 48 Hours

15 Bush the African

16 New Challenges in Iraq

17 2004

18 “Iraqis Need to Govern Themselves”

19 Another Step Toward a Palestinian State

20 Four More Years

21 Secretary of State

22 Promoting America’s Interests and Values Abroad

23 High Mountains and Dirt

24 The Color Revolutions Multiply

25 Baghdad and Cairo

26 A Heartbreaking Place Called Darfur

27 Katrina

28 Bringing Back the All-Nighter

29 Can Anything Else Go Wrong?

30 Transformational Diplomacy

31 Building a New Relationship with India

32 Democracy in Latin America and Beyond

33 A Change of Leadership in Iraq

34 Shifting Course on Iran

35 The Middle East Plunges into War

36 Revising the Framework for the War on Terror

37 Iraq Spirals Downward

38 An Explosion in Asia and a Challenge for U.S.-China Relations

39 Playing the Last Card

40 A Diplomatic Surge

41 A New Approach to Latin America

42 Improving the Daily Lives of Palestinians

43 Iraq and the Home Front

44 The Road to Annapolis

45 Emergency Rule

46 Final-Status Talks Begin

47 A Final Year 622

48 It Seems Like Yesterday—It Seems Like Forever

49 Whither China?

50 Olmert Makes an Offer

51 Completing the Task of Building a Europe Whole, Free, and at Peace

52 War Breaks Out in Georgia

53 Cementing Key Relationships with Iraq and India

54 He Lives in His Own Head

55 One Last Chance for North Korea

56 The Financial Crisis of 2008

57 Mumbai

58 One Last Chance for a Palestinian State

Epilogue

 

Note on Sources

Acknowledgments

Index