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Title details for Worthy Fights by Leon Panetta - Available

Worthy Fights

A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace

by Leon Panetta
Jim Newton
Audiobook
2 of 2 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
2 of 2 copies available
The inspiring and revelatory autobiography of the defense secretary and CIA director who led the intelligence war that killed Bin Laden, among many important roles in a legendary career
It could be said that Leon Panetta has had two of the most consequential careers of any American public servant in the past fifty years. His first career, beginning as an army intelligence officer and including a distinguished run as one of Congress’s most powerful and respected members, lasted thirty-five years and culminated in his transformational role as Clinton’s budget czar and White House chief of staff. He then “retired” to establish the Panetta Institute with his wife of fifty years, Sylvia; to serve on the Iraq Study Group; and to protect his beloved California coastline. But in 2009, he accepted what many said was a thankless task: returning to public office as the director of the CIA, taking it from a state of turmoil after the Bush-era torture debates and moving it back to the vital center of America’s war against Al Qaeda, including the campaign that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden. And then, in the wake of bin Laden’s death, Panetta became the U.S. secretary of defense, inheriting two troubled wars in a time of austerity and painful choices.
Like his career, Worthy Fights is a reflection of Panetta’s values. It is imbued with the frank, grounded, and often quite funny spirit of a man who never lost touch with where he came from: his family’s walnut farm in beautiful Carmel Valley, California. It is also a testament to a lost kind of political leadership, which favors progress and duty to country over partisanship. Panetta is a Democrat who pushed for balanced budgets while also expanding care for the elderly and sick; a devout Catholic who opposes the death penalty but had to weigh every drone strike from 2009 through 2011. Throughout his career, Panetta’s polestar has been his belief that a public servant’s real choice is between leadership or crisis. Troubles always come about through no fault of one’s own, but most can be prevented with courage and foresight.
As always, Panetta calls them as he sees them in Worthy Fights. Suffused with its author’s decency and stubborn common sense, the audiobook is an epic American success story, a great political memoir, and a revelatory view onto many of the great figures and events of our time.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    October 7, 2014

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780553544749
      • File size: 560648 KB
      • Duration: 19:28:00

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Politicians are generally not seen as candid and unpretentious, but this audiobook presents former Congressman and CIA director Leon Panetta as sincere and approachable. His story is quite American, and his accomplishments are many. Panetta reads his own book in a clear, pleasant voice; his pace allows listeners to follow his story with ease. Throughout his political career, Panetta presented himself as a genuine man of the people, and that view of himself comes through in this book. However, his narration lacks the emotion and immediacy of the events he speaks about. He also drops some words at the ends of sentences and reads too slowly in places. Panetta has had a fascinating career, but he needs a professional to sing his praises. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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