Leon Panetta's story, "Worthy Fights", surprised me in a number of ways. I know of him as a Cabinet Member of Obama's Administration, and understand that he's had a long political career, but until I read this book, I wouldn't have been able to tell anyone much about his extensive career in public service. In his book, the recurring theme throughout is how Panetta viewed government service, and about the high standards and ideals he brought to his various positions.

In the first few chapters, Leon Panetta tells some of his and his family's personal history, and how he first entered government service. He establishes himself someone interested in doing the right thing in the service of his Country, not someone operating under strict ideology serving Party bosses to win elections. Apparently, that behavior served him well in his career, serving first as a staffer for Republican Senator Kucher of California in the mid 1960's, and then Director of the Office of Civil Rights under President Nixon. Southern senators pressed Nixon to slow down civil rights enforcement and school integration, and Panetta refused to yield to their pressure. This conflict with President Nixon and the Southern senators, and his steadfast commitment to "doing the right thing" eventually led to his removal from that office.

After a brief stint as an aide to John Lindsay, then Republican mayor of New York, Panetta went back to California to practice law. Because he felt the Republican Party was moving too far to the right, he switched his Party affiliation to the Democrats, and later ran for Congress, serving as a Congressman for almost twenty years. During his Congressional years, Panetta focused on budget issues, and eventually became chair of the Congressional Budget Committee. His work coordinating budget activities, working well with members of both parties, and his organizational skill eventually led to him being named as President Clinton's Budget Director, and later Chief of Staff.

Clinton's Presidency is remembered for many things, not all of them good, but his fight to get his budget approved did lead to a balanced budget and a budget surplus. Panetta was a key participant in the development of the budget package. Panetta's description of the struggle to get the budget approved during this time, overcoming the opposition of the Republican Congress and then Speaker Newt Gingrich was informative. Gingrich in the House and Bob Dole in the Senate felt that their opposition to Clinton's programs and shutting down the Government would make Clinton cave to their demands, however Clinton remained firm in his position, and the Republican Party ended up being blamed for the problems associated with the government shutdown. Panetta's description of those Congressional and Executive struggles, as difficult as they may have been, seem mild in comparison to today.

After being out of Washington during the Bush years, Panetta's organizational abilities, his dedication to giving direct and honest advice, and to doing the right thing were attractive attributes which brought him to Obama's attention. When staffing his Cabinet, Obama named Panetta as CIA director. While not an Intelligence insider, Panetta's background as Chief of Staff in the White House gave him intelligence background experience, and Obama wanted an "outsider" to help reorganize the CIA. One of the major accomplishments of the CIA during Panetta's term was the tracking and ultimate removal of Osama Bin Laden. As Panetta indicates in his book, making the final decision to raid the Abbottabad compound, given its risks and uncertainties, was a difficult one, and Obama's advisors were not all in agreement on this issue. Panetta's role as head of the CIA to provide information and advice to the President to allow the go-ahead decision to be made was a significant achievement in his term. Panetta played a role in other significant decisions during Obama's first term including use of drone strikes on terrorist positions and elimination of enhanced interrogation techniques on captives.

After two years in the CIA, Panetta was asked to move over to the Pentagon and replace retiring Defense Secretary Gates. Policies Panetta had to deal with in the Military included smoothing the way for the end of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, continuing the move of the Armed Forces in a leaner and meaner direction, expansion of the role of women in the Armed Forces, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, tension in Iraq, the Middle East, Israel, the Arab Spring, and dealing with a smaller budget due to sequestration and the inability of Congress to agree on budget matters.

So this book was a good review of Panetta's career in public service, and of a blueprint for others to follow in the service of their Country. Unfortunately, you get the feeling that partisan politics seems to be the new way in Washington, and Panetta's approach of working together and doing the right thing for the Country, regardless of who gets the credit for it, seem to be the way of the past.
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I checked out this book to get more insight into the conflicts of the Middle East and the inner workings of the Obama Administration. This is the fourth Obama cabinet memoir I've read (Clinton, Gates, Geithner) but it had the least to say about the Obama Administration, which was a disappointment. I was hoping to learn why Panetta left as Secretary of Defense so quickly (served about 18 months) but got no such insights. It was partly to due with his desire to spend time with family, he had always made weekend trips home to California no matter his position in government. Panetta returns to his strong feelings about public service throughout the book, and I suspect he avoided any criticisms of Obama, Joe Biden, or the Clintons because he knows he'll be asked to serve again soon. So, the book contained few real heartfelt disclosures, unlike Bob Gates' memoir, but an occasional gem falls out. The subtitle of the book is "Leadership in War and Peace," but there is very little leadership-related material. I didn't glean many insights into how Panetta led his staff, his approach to conflict resolution or negotiation, or how he managed much of his office. Throughout the book, Panetta highlights certain details of events or speeches, and sometimes individuals, that he feels have gone underappreciated in history.

The first 40 percent of the book is about Panetta's early career. Panetta's dad immigrated from Italy in 1921, and he was born in 1938. His parents opened a bar in Monterey, CA. Before the U.S. entered World War II, his grandfather came to visit from Italy and was forced to stay after Pearl Harbor. Worse, his grandfather was one of thousands of Italian Americans living along the coast who were rounded up into detention camps under FDR, giving Panetta a unique perspective on civil liberties during wartime that would assist his thinking as later CIA director and Secretary of Defense.

Panetta never quite defines what an "Eisenhower Republican" is to him, but he was one-- and also an Earl Warren Republican in the 1950s. Panetta responded to JFK's call to service in the 1960s and became an aid to Senator Kuchel. As the Republican Party moved rightward (Kuchel did not support Barry Goldwater and other conservatives), his boss was attached by Birchers on the right and lost in the 1968 primary. Panetta then worked in the Office of Civil Rights under former CA governor Bob Finch in the Cabinet for Health, Education, and Welfare. Panetta claims that both himself and Finch were appalled by the Nixon Administration's heavy-handed politics. Panetta was fired by Nixon for being too liberal on desegregation in housing and education policy, which he learned from a newspaper article that said he was resigning. Nixon had courted influential Southerners during the election and it became clear that politics came first. He writes that he was "one of the least surprised" by the revelations of Watergate. He purportedly brought up that history when President Obama tapped him to be CIA chief, and Obama claimed he was aware of the history and included it in his reasons for wanting him.

Panetta went to work for the mayor of New York City, but missed California and returned to Monterey to practice law. Panetta is a practicing Catholic and it's clear throughout the book that time with family and California are the most important things to him. He became a Democrat in 1971 and unseated the Republican congressional incumbent in 1976. He sees one crowning achievement as protecting the Monterey coastline from off-shore drilling. The other was his work on budget committees in Congress, which he says is the "most important work I would do in Congress." He was also on the House Budget Committee from 1979 to 1989, working with Reagan and Bush 41, both of whom he admired and writes well of. He praises Bush for his willingness to increase taxes and Panetta chaired the Budget Committee working out the balanced budget deal of 1990. He appreciated that Reagan would make "thank you" phone calls after passing a budget, and admired Reagan's ability to lead publicly. He worked on the commission on base closings from 1988-1992, fighting to keep the base in his district open but being forthright about the need to "move on" and attract commerce to the area when it was time to close it.

He writes that he was a deficit hawk for two reasons: he was raised to be personally frugal and he hates the cost of servicing the debt, particularly for future generations. He praises Reagan as being a better leader and politician than Carter, and Bush '41 for putting "country first," and doing the right thing to balance the budget and raise taxes. (Panetta is noted for being one of the few to vote against the 1991 Gulf War.) Panetta felt that the GOP's conservative wing's reach for Pat Buchanan in '91 was "desperate," and he repeatedly bemoans the right-wing takeover from the 60's to today.

Since I work in a government budget office, I found Panetta's discussion of budget negotiations and procedures to be interesting. He was tapped by Bill Clinton to be OMB Director for his expertise. Panetta "admired" the "perseverance" of Clinton, and praises Clinton for being the first President he ever saw to read "every line" of the federal budget and for diving into its details. When Clinton wanted Panetta to be Chief of Staff, he called James Baker for advice. Panetta almost fired George Stephanopoulous and Rahm Emmanuel for being too strong in the personalities, Sephanopoulous had an ego and would butt into the room when not needed or wanted.

Panetta offers many insights into negotiations with Congress. One notable story involved negotiating for a difficult "yes" vote from Congresswoman Barbara-Rose Collins from Detroit on an assault weapons ban.

"she informed me that Jesus had spoken to her in a dream the night before. 'Really?' I asked calmly...'What did Jesus say?'

'He told me I should consider supporting the president,' she answered, then added, 'I think God will allow me to support this bill if I get a casino for my district.'

'I'm glad to hear that Jesus is flexible,' I responded."

If one character gets blasted in the book, it's Newt Gingrich. Gingrich made public accusations that White House staffers were known drug users. Panetta "lost it," and publicly fought Gingrich. Panetta relishes in the aftermath of the famous 1996 shutdown debacle, when Gingrich overplayed his hand and was made to look like a brat. Panetta points out that the shutdown furlough of White House staffers was what allowed Monica Lewinsky greater access to Bill Clinton. By that time, Panetta was Chief of Staff and makes no mention whatsoever of his possible responsibility in keeping women away from the President (as was their duty per orders from Mrs. Clinton as others have alleged). He writes he was later "baffled" to learn of the affair (which came out after Panetta had already left the White House).

His biggest frustration with Clinton was his secretly consulting for advice with Dick Morris. Panetta was supposed to be the "filter of ideas" and all advice or meetings for the president. Morris was an egotistical maniac hated by many Clinton staffers. Eventually, they brought Morris on in an official capacity rather than keep dealing with the secret relationship. Panetta has an "enormous respect" for Bill Clinton and leaves it at that.

Panetta left to start the Panetta Institute for Public Policy at CSU, Monterey Bay. He served as an Iraq Study Group member under President Bush, which he enjoyed but was disappointed with the Bush Administration's handling. He was surprised to be tapped as CIA director and the first hints of his frustration with the Obama Administration come when his friend and former colleague Diane Feinstein, who chaired the committee which would have to approve Panetta's appointment, was not notified and found out via the media. Panetta inherited John Brennan as Deputy Director, who was fluent in Arabic and good at his job. Panetta was technically subservient to the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, who he did not get along with. He writes that Admiral Blair had "looney" notions and was glad when he was replaced by Jim Clapper.

Panetta explains his daily routine at the CIA, which was one of the few "how I do work" insights of the book. His main battle with the Obama Administration came over the release of formerly classified memos about enhanced interrogation. Obama released them but "listened respectfully" to CIA officers' concerns and later visited the CIA for a morale-boosting visit. Panetta defends the CIA and notes that life-saving intelligence was gathered by enhanced interrogation techniques, but the benefits did not outweigh the costs and it should never happen again.

Panetta writes repeatedly of Obama's "disdain" for Congress. Besides the Feinstein incident, Obama would sic Rahm Emanuel on anyone who negotiated with Congress or divulged information to Congress without authorization. He does not write much about his interactions with Bob Gates in the book, which I find odd. He does write that he saw generals like Stan McChrystal as "boxing in" Obama but does not write of the White House's ignorance and disdain for military culture as Bob Gates describes so sharply in his memoir. Panetta found David Petraeus to have an outsized ego, writing that his office "was a shrine" to himself. Panetta opposed his nomination to replace him at CIA when he moved to Defense.

Panetta doesn't write much about operations (like Libya and Yemen) where the CIA would have obvious presence. You get little insight into CIA operations at all. On Libya and other issues, Hillary Clinton was the war hawk while Biden was the dove. Panetta defends the killing of American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in 2011 but does not revel in it. He recounts how an Al Qaeda operative named Humam al-Balawi duped agents in Afghanistan and Pakistan into believing he was going to be a double agent, detonating himself at Camp Chapman and killing several CIA officers. This loss deeply affected Panetta and he names every killed officer and recounts meetings with their families. Oddly, he says that Isaiah's calling in Isaiah 6 "perfectly" sums up the call the CIA officers were responding to.

Panetta recounts meetings with his Russian counterpart and dealing with other Cold War-related issues like North Korea. Revisiting the Cold War seems out of place both in the book and to Panetta. He clearly had no background in those particular issues. He details how Bin Laden was killed and his role in those decisions. Congress was briefed along the way and much to the Obama Administration's surprise there were no leaks. There was nothing, oddly, about leaking that it was Seals who performed the raid. For a budget guru, there was notably nothing in the book about the CIA's budget.

As Defense Secretary, Panetta inherited all the budget battles that Bob Gates had fought. He was chastised for reaching out to agency heads during the Obama administration's battle with Congress that eventually led to sequestration and a $487 billion cut to the Pentagon's budget over 10 years. There is some in the book about how that is pragmatically handled. Nothing in how much the little wars like Libya cost. Panetta utilized Gates' previous strategic review to figure out what missions they could and could not do under the new budget. He also was tasked with redesigning the Defense Department with a pivot toward Asia. Panetta writes of his difficulties in handling the widespread sex abuse in the military, an ongoing problem. As SecDef, the cost to taxpayers were higher although he reimbursed what he was supposed to personally under law.

One criticism of the White House was its lack of effort in negotiations with Iraq about leaving a residual force. The White House, Panetta writes, "managed but did not lead," and Panetta writes that ISIS' rise and capture of Iraqi territory could have been avoided had the Administration done a better job. He reveals that Israel really was thinking very hard about hitting Iraq in 2012. He defends the Administration against critics over Benghazi, pouring evidence on conspiracy theorists who claim that security and defense agents were told to stand down. Panetta writes in the end that Obama is "pragmatic and realistic" but sometimes does not lead with passion and complains too much. Obama "vacillated" on Syria, and Panetta had a problem with that.

Panetta concludes by looking at the budget battles of the '80s and 90s versus the sequestration debacle of today. In the old days during budget fights no one got everything they wanted, but the deal got done. Sequestration, however, was a failure of congressional leadership. Republican leadership, who knew better, "sat, as if powerless, and let it happen." Politics is trumping governance and that irks an old Eisenhower Republican like Panetta.

In all, I give this book 3 stars out of 5. It's useful for recounting the budget fights of the 80's-today but not a whole lot of insight into the CIA or Defense Department or the Obama Administration today. There is criticism of Obama, for certain, but it is tempered with much respect. There is little-to-no criticism for anyone named Clinton. ( )

This isn't a bad book. It's isn't a particularly great one either.

Leon Panetta is a character, larger than life. He is famous for being one of the most gregarious, fun-loving, earthy people in politics. His laugh makes a room happy, and his wit is very sharp. He's clever and profane. Sadly, not much of this personality comes through in this book.

Panetta used a ghost writer of course, given full co-authorship credit. Jim Newton is a competent writer, and you will learn a lot about Panetta's years of service in a quite readable style. It's just not Panetta's style, at least not the verbal and conversational style we've seen over the past four decades of his public life, the one that makes us like him so much. The voice that I was hoping to hear in this memoir.

The book is also marred more than a bit by something that neither Panetta nor Newton can do much about. This book, like all books of personnel writing about events that have classified elements, had to be reviewed and cleared by government authority. Given that Panetta was both CIA Director and Secretary of Defense, his level of classified knowledge doesn't get much higher. Especially given that Panetta has been so critical during his tours of former employees either not submitting to such review, or managing to get some material deemed classified through the process, he really has no choice but to be as scrupulous as he can be in this area.

But this leads to many exciting events that read as much more boring than they should be. In many instances in this book, Panetta and Newton obscure important elements of the stories even though many more details have been written elsewhere. Several times I found myself saying, "I know who wrote about this 'anonymous' person", and went to my bookshelf to read about the same incident in another book - only with names and details that Panetta just really can't include.

Panetta also, understandably, greatly simplifies many important debates, and glosses over, sometimes using footnotes, areas that don't paint him in the best light (such as him mentioning the name of the Seal Team 6 shooter of bin Ladin at an event where not everyone present had a clearance, well before this person revealed his identity).

Still, not a bad book. 2.5 stars, not 3. ( )

WORTHY FIGHTS by Leon Panetta is an excellent read. The writing apparently by Jim Newton is very good. Panetta comes across as an exceptionally talented executive. Admittedly it is he who is writing the book but I think that is a fair assessment. He had success is every major task he undertook. I take argument with some of his issues such as Benghazi where he seems to exonerate everyone from responsibility as if they did what they could in the time available. But at no time does he give thought to what they could have done before to insure that our diplomatic operations had adequate protection. It seems it did not in the case of Benghazi. Who is responsible. There are more such incidents in the book but I highly recommend it. It is worth the detour. ( )

Leon Panetta reads his own audio book and his sincerity and devotion to the country shine through. However, so does a bit of arrogance that seems to be hiding under a cloak of humility. He never seems to believe he is quite up to the task offered, but always accepts it. Born to Italian immigrants, in a family of modest means, he grew up helping in the family’s Italian Cafe and than on the family farm in California. He became a lawyer, enlisted in the army and then began a career as a public servant.
He began his career as a Republican, working for a Senator and then assistant to Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He then moved on to become the Civil Rights Director in President Nixon’s administration, a position he was eventually forced from when he had a conflict of interest regarding Nixon’s policy. He then worked for Mayor John Lindsay, after which he switched parties and ran for and won a Congressional seat in California, as a Democrat. He morphed over the years into a Liberal Democrat and he became much more involved in politics in the Clinton and Obama administration at the highest levels of the government. It is hard to know if his change of political parties was caused by a change in his beliefs (possibly due to being spurned by the Republican Party), or a change in the career opportunities he was offered, or a combination of both. However, he was always interested in the health and welfare of others and worked tirelessly to advance the cause of civil rights wherever he perceived a need, in education, in health services, in the armed forces, in the work place and in the military.
As years passed, he morphed into the Director of the OMB and the Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton. Then in President Obama’s administration, he was the head of the CIA and the Secretary of Defense. He has held many highly respected positions throughout his career. He has been intricately involved in many avenues of the government from finances to security and has sat in on the highest level of briefings. He was involved in sorting out many of the scandals in both the Clinton and the Obama Presidency and in solving many of its security problems in the Middle East. He is well versed in the way our country operates and was a highly qualified and dedicated public servant for his entire career. He has been loyal to those he served, working in government in some capacity for almost his entire career, except for a brief stint when he worked with his brother in a law practice.
The book is really his memoir, a worthy read for those who know him and those who want to learn more about this dedicated member of the group of elite men and women who serve us all. It is not a tell-all, there are no major “aha” moments. He does reveal the aspects of government with which he disagreed in the various administrations in which he worked, but for the most part, I found the book highly supportive of President Obama and President Clinton. If it is a “cheerleading” attempt to prop up Hilary Clinton for her Presidential run, as some say, it is not over the top. However, he fails to explain many of the governmental gaffes that were under her purview, and he does not fully explain many of Obama’s. I did not find it to be a very negative judgment of his governing style and decisions, as implied by his critics.
I found the book a bit disingenuous. He brushed off Nancy Pelosi’s attempt to justify her lie about not knowing that there were enhanced interrogations during the Iraq war and allowed her to get away with it. He blows off the supporters of the soldiers who felt that they could have done more in Benghazi to save Ambassador Stevens, and he implies that anyone disagreeing with the government’s assessment is lying and making false statements about the circumstances. In actuality, it was the government that lied, insisting that “the uprising” was caused by a video rather than what it was, a planned terrorist attack on our embassy. It was not a casual riot and the President doubled down on that lie and supported it. News media actually twisted some of his statements to say that he supported the idea of terrorists in his Rose Garden speech, when that speech referred to 9/11/01, not the Benghazi 9/11 attack. Panetta basically brushed off the criticisms of Obama and Clinton’s decisions at that time, as well as the false statements made by National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, for which she has never apologized. I, for one, tend to believe the boots on the ground more than the words coming from the administration, since by now, there have been many more instances of announcements that have proven to be false.
Although Panetta disagrees with some of Obama’s policies in the Middle East, he explains away his culpability with the Arab Spring, the decline of all the gains in Iraq and the uprising in Syria. He does not mention his lack of support for our allies and greater support for our enemies, with more than a brief stroke of his own pen. He does hold Obama’s feet to the fire, however, regarding the rise of Isis and the fall of Iraq.
The book is already obsolete in terms of its politics with the outbreak of Ebola in our own country because of a flawed CDC policy, and the enormous success of Isis in the Middle East, which in retrospect is highly suspect because of the flawed decisions and policy of Obama’s administration. Obama was warned about the anticipated problems but he would not listen. He describes a President who takes credit for getting Bin Laden, but he does not talk about the fact that his loose lips might have caused the downing of the plane with 22 Navy Seals on board, six of whom were involved in the operation, and he dismisses it as an almost accidental effort by the enemy. Perhaps he does not wish to elaborate because this President may take too much credit for his accomplishments and too little responsibility for his failures. Obama is great at giving speeches from a teleprompter, wonderful at inspiring and rallying those around him, but he prefers his own counsel to that of others, most often disregarding the advice of his advisors.
I found that Leon Panetta was often a bit hypocritical, working to protect the environment and the coast of Monterey but not concerned about putting windmills on Cape Cod. As an environmentalist, he wanted to protect his “own” environment in terms of view and optics, preventing oil drilling anywhere near there, but didn’t mind wind energy which would blight the Hyannis harbor with monstrous windmills and a constant underlying hum. He often sounded like an idealist, rather than a realist and I found him to be more of a politician in the end, showing his Democratic operatives far more leeway and treating them with far more respect in his comments than he did the Republicans, especially when it came to remarks about the Tea Party and the leaders of the Republican Party. He used words that were unflattering, bordering on insulting, unnecessarily showing his bias.
In essence, the book is just more politics, treating the hypocrisy of the Democrats as acceptable and worthwhile, while calling the hypocrisy of the GOP destructive. At the same time, he is all the while propping up his own worthy reputation. The book is a detailed presentation of the history of events during the almost five decades he was in the government’s employ and will be an enjoyable read for his family members and those that are his close friends. For the average reader, the information presented already exists on Wikipedia. ( )