Duty

Robert M. Gates, defense secretary under George W. Bush and then Barack Obama, recounts his years in office from 2006 to 2011, when he managed the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first-person memoir covers his dealings with Congress, the Pentagon bureaucracy and Obama's White House staff, whom he portrays as micromanagers, and it was the first to describe the Obama administration's debates in cabinet meetings. Gates criticizes Vice President Joe Biden, speaks well of Hillary Clinton, and calls Obama's decision to send Navy SEALs after Osama bin Laden one of the most courageous he saw. He also faults Bush policy on Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay. Knopf published it in January 2014.

James Mattis included it on the list of favorite books in an appendix to Call Sign Chaos.