The Commanders
Chapter One
Wednesday, November 9, 1988. Powell, then a three-star
general and the national security adviser to President
Reagan, stepped briskly along one of the narrow, carpeted
hallways in the West Wing of the White House. He
was heading toward his spacious corner office, perhaps
the second-most prestigious in the White House, and
a nerve center formerly inhabited by the likes of Henry
Kissinger.
It was about 4 p.m. Vice President George Bush was in
the hall outside his own small West Wing office. The day
before, Bush had been elected President. A Rose Garden
ceremony welcoming him back to the White House as
President-elect had just ended and he was in the corridors
saying hello and shaking hands, all jittery enthusiasm. He
spotted Powell.
"Come on in here," Bush said. "I want to talk. Let's talk."
Powell said Bush must be busy.
"Tell me what's going on," Bush insisted, drawing Powell
into the vice presidential office. By both title and temperament,
Powell was information central ... read full excerpt from: The Commanders ebook
