-
Daydream Believers
- How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
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Publisher's summary
For eight years, the White House and many of the nation's opinion pages rang out with appealing but deluded claims: that we live in a time like no other, that new technology transformed warfare, that the world's peoples will be set free if only America topples their dictators, and that those who dispute such promises do so for partisan reasons. They thought they were visionaries, but they only had visions. And they believed these daydreams.
With stunning anecdotes, hidden history, and sharp insight, Kaplan reveals a truth whose understanding is crucial to finding leaders who can see the world as it really is.
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Excellent, important book, bad narration.
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Story
God and Ronald Reagan made presidential historian Paul Kengor's name as one of the premier chroniclers of the life and career of the 40th president. With The Crusader, Kengor returns with the one book about Reagan that has not been written: the story of his lifelong crusade against communism and of his dogged and ultimately triumphant effort to overthrow the Soviet Union.
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Whether you like Reagan or not....
- By Daryl on 10-20-13
By: Paul Kengor
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JFK's War with the National Security Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated
- By: Douglas Horne
- Narrated by: Larry Wayne
- Length: 7 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since researchers and commentators began questioning the conclusions of the Warren Report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the response has been: Why would the US national-security establishment - that is, the military and the CIA - kill Kennedy? As Douglas P. Horne details in this audiobook, JFK's War with the National Security Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated, the answer is because Kennedy's ideas about foreign policy collided with those of the US national-security establishment during the height of the Cold War.
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FINALLY THE TRUTH!
- By Helen Williamson on 05-28-16
By: Douglas Horne
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My Journey at the Nuclear Brink
- By: William Perry
- Narrated by: Kevin F Spalding
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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My Journey at the Nuclear Brink is a continuation of William J. Perry's efforts to keep the world safe from a nuclear catastrophe. It tells the story of his coming of age in the nuclear era, his role in trying to shape and contain it, and how his thinking has changed about the threat these weapons pose. In a remarkable career, Perry has dealt firsthand with the changing nuclear threat.
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His journey has just begun
- By Amazon Customer on 04-18-17
By: William Perry
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How Wars End
- Why We Always Fight the Last Battle
- By: Gideon Rose
- Narrated by: Gideon Rose
- Length: 12 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1991, the United States Army trounced the Iraqi army in battle only to stumble blindly into postwar turmoil. Then in 2003 the United States did it again. How could this happen? How could the strongest power in modern history fight two wars against the same opponent in just over a decade, win lightning victories both times, and yet still be woefully unprepared for the aftermath? Because Americans always forget the political aspects of war.
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Excellent book
- By Luis on 11-04-10
By: Gideon Rose
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America's War for the Greater Middle East
- A Military History
- By: Andrew J. Bacevich
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro, Andrew J. Bacevich
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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From the end of World War II until 1980, virtually no American soldiers were killed in action while serving in the Greater Middle East. Since 1990, virtually no American soldiers have been killed in action anywhere else. What caused this shift? Andrew J. Bacevich, one of the country's most respected voices on foreign affairs, offers an incisive critical history of this ongoing military enterprise - now more than 30 years old and with no end in sight.
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A Key to Understanding the US Need for Perp. War
- By Darwin8u on 05-01-16
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Pakistan on the Brink
- The Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan
- By: Ahmed Rashid
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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What are the possibilities—and hazards—facing America as it withdraws from Afghanistan and reviews its long engagement in Pakistan? Where is the Taliban now in both of these countries? What does the immediate future hold, and what are America’s choices going forward? These are some of the crucial questions that Ahmed Rashid—Pakistan’s preeminent journalist—takes on in this follow-up to his acclaimed Descent into Chaos.
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A Very Long NPR-like Interview and History Lesson
- By Harry Zimmer on 04-23-12
By: Ahmed Rashid
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Before the First Shots Are Fired
- How America Can Win or Lose Off the Battlefield
- By: Tony Koltz, Tony Zinni
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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For the better part of the last half century, the United States has been the world's police, claiming to defend ideologies, allies, and our national security through brute force. But is military action always the most appropriate response? Drawing on his vast experience, retired four-star general Tony Zinni argues that we have a lot of work to do to make the process of going to war-or not-more clear-eyed and ultimately successful.
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A must read for leaders
- By Ted on 06-17-22
By: Tony Koltz, and others
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Duty
- Memoirs of a Secretary at War
- By: Robert M. Gates
- Narrated by: George Newbern, Robert M. Gates
- Length: 25 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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From the former secretary of defense, a strikingly candid, vivid account of serving Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When Robert M. Gates received a call from the White House, he thought he'd long left Washington politics behind: After working for six presidents in both the CIA and the National Security Council, he was happily serving as president of Texas A&M University. But when he was asked to help a nation mired in two wars and to aid the troops doing the fighting, he answered what he felt was the call of duty.
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The Fighting Season
- By Cynthia on 01-28-14
By: Robert M. Gates
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Plan of Attack
- By: Bob Woodward
- Narrated by: Boyd Gaines
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Abridged
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Plan of Attack is the definitive account of how and why President George W. Bush, his war council, and allies launched a preemptive attack to topple Saddam Hussein and occupy Iraq. Bob Woodward's latest landmark account of Washington decision making provides an original, authoritative narrative of behind-the-scenes maneuvering, examining the causes and consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam.
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Rorschach Test
- By Michael on 05-03-04
By: Bob Woodward
What listeners say about Daydream Believers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Null Hypothesis
- 01-08-13
Interesting, though incongruent.
Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?
Reads like the compilation of study notes gathered over the years. The premise revolves around how the world (didn't) change after 9-11, though the author delves into the history of ballistic missile defense and technology evolution during the cold war. Many interesting, yet unlinked ideas. Much finger pointing and passive-aggressive arguing. Still a good read for any generalist looking to expand their portfolio on perspectives.
What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)
Non fiction. We all know how it ends.
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- Daniel B.
- 05-06-17
A must read if you want to know why Iraq Invasion
I lived through this and wondered why, now I know. Some things are too complicated to simplify this is one example.
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- xeyeldinTX
- 05-10-16
A Good Revisiting
Of the historical disaster our foreign policy has been for a long time, culminating in Iraq's invasion and leading to the quagmire we seem unable to extricate ourselves from. It does not touch upon those who have become gloriously wealthy in this filthy mess except tangentially. Nonetheless books of this kind always serve as a good way to stitch the facts together.
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- Lifeisshort
- 06-20-14
Repetitive Text; Poor Narration
Perhaps I have just read or listened to too many books about the Iraq War, but too much of the information in this selection is repetitive to me. The reader is well known and has evidently narrated a great many audiobooks but I found that his voice atonal and so deep I wondered if he'd had a cold during this performance.
If you haven't been inundated by the stories of the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld subterfuge in the run up to the war in Iraq and it's failures during the war this work will be beneficial. If you've read or listened to more than two or three audio's on the subject you might want to use your credit differently.
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2 people found this helpful