Knight's Reading List IV: April 2007

During the month of April, 2007, I finished reading these books:

Robert Gates, From the Shadows, 1996. 604 pages. Begun March 13, 2007 and completed April 5, 2007.

This is Robert Gates’ memoir of his years with the CIA and the National Security staff that led to his becoming Director of Central Intelligence under President George H. W. Bush. Gates shows flashes of humor and a greater willingness to admit mistakes than I have found in the memoirs of many political leaders.

I discovered from this book that Gates and I were both in Algiers, Algeria, in early November of 1979. In fact, we may have met, though I do not recall meeting him, and I’m sure he wouldn’t remember me. Gates was then working for Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s National Security Advisor, and had accompanied Brzezinski to Algiers to represent the United States on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Algerian revolution. I was working at the American Embassy in Algiers, and went to the Aurassi Hotel, with several other embassy staffers, to meet Mr. Brzezinski.

I do not, at this remove, recall exactly why we went to see Brzezinski, but I have a recollection that I carried his tennis gear to the car, as he set off to play against our Ambassador, Ulrich Haynes. From comments Gates makes, I suspect that we in the embassy heard nothing of the results of the game because Bzrezinski won handily.

Of far more importance than my moment in the presence of the great and powerful, was that it was during the Algerian anniversary celebrations that a mob seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran. Because of the presence of both Mr. Brzezinski and high Iranian officials in Algiers, the Algerians provided some facilities for opening communications between the two sides. I understand that Algiers continued to play a role in the hostage drama until its end on January 20, 1981.

On January 20, 1981, I was with my three-year-old son on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., where we watched the inaugural parade bearing Ronald Reagan to the Capitol to become the 40th President of the United States. Mr. Reagan’s victory was due in part to his predecessor’s failure to resolve the hostage crisis in a favorable sense.

Those events, and the way in which the participants, and their successors, view them, have continued to mark U.S.-Iranian relations. We continue to see the Iranians as violent extremists, in part because their action in attacking the Tehran Embassy was such a grave violation of international law and the principles that govern relations among nations. They continue to believe that our interference in their internal affairs, conducted from that same embassy, was both inimical and illegitimate. And each side has continued to try to manipulate the politics and policies of the other, mistaking at times parochial interests for universal principles.

Robert Jordan, The Conan Chronicles, 1995. 510 pages. Begun April 1 and finished April 12, 2007.
Conan the Invincible
Conan the Defender
Conan the Unconquered

Jordan collects several novels in the sub-sub-genre of the Conan pastiche.

John Kaufeld, Access 2002 for Dummies, (2001). xxii + 234 pages. Begun March 2, 2007 and completed April 9, 2007.

Good as long as you need answers to the questions Kaufeld asked.

John Katzenbach, The Analyst, 2002. 424 pages. Begun April 6 and completed April 28, 2007.

Quiet, retiring shrink becomes the target for revenge for a former patient. Death Wish by way of a 12-step program.

Jonathan Kellerman, Flesh and Blood, 2001. 371 pages. Begun April 6 and completed April 20, 2007.

This is another in the Alex Delaware, shrink-wrapped detective series. Past misdeeds always return to haunt us.

John G. Miller, QBQ! 2004. 115 pages. Begun April 17 and finished April 25, 2007.

Miller’s idea of getting to the Question Behind the Question makes for a pretty good example of the inspirational management book. The best thing about it may be that Miller doesn’t try to carry a huge tome on the back of his slender idea; this is a fast and easy read. The idea? Ask questions that begin with “what” or “how,” rather than with “who” or “why.” This is Miller’s way of saying that it is more important to fix the problem, provide the service, or satisfy the customer, than it is to assign blame.

That’s true enough, to a point. It is also true that, whatever you mean by the question, your listeners tend to become adopt a defensive posture as soon as they hear “Why?” It took me a long time to learn that my innocent “why” questions were often perceived as a form of attack. I would say, “Why was this report so late?” I would mean, “What was the chain of events that caused the report not to be finished until after the due date?” They would hear, “Who screwed up?” People do not give helpful answers to the question “Who screwed up?”

Miller also encourages a positive, forward-looking attitude. This is also usually good. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to look at the reasons for deficiencies and improve the processes, the inputs, or the personnel.