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A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times by [Mark T. Esper]

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Mark T. Esper

A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times Kindle Edition

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INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Former Secretary of Defense Mark T. Esper reveals the shocking details of his tumultuous tenure while serving in the Trump administration.

From June of 2019 until his firing by President Trump after the November 2020 election, Secretary Mark T. Esper led the Department of Defense through an unprecedented time in history—a period marked by growing threats and conflict abroad, a global pandemic unseen in a century, the greatest domestic unrest in two generations, and a White House seemingly bent on breaking accepted norms and conventions for political advantage. A Sacred Oath is Secretary Esper’s unvarnished and candid memoir of those extraordinary and dangerous times, and includes events and moments never before told.

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749 pages
Language

English
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Publisher

William Morrow
Publication date

May 10 2022
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22114 KB
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“To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.”
Highlighted by 74 Kindle readers
We had a sacred oath to the Constitution, after all, not to the president or a party. It was about the country and our values.
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“A Sacred Oath pulls no punches. It depicts Trump as unfit for office and a threat to democracy, a prisoner of wrath, impulse and appetite. Over 752 pages, Esper’s Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times are surgically precise in their score-settling. This is not just another book to be tossed on the pyre of Trump-alumni revenge porn. It is scary and sobering.” — The Guardian

“Mr. Esper details the all-consuming task of managing America’s largest and most vital cabinet department—instructive reading for those unfamiliar with what operationalizing national security policy decisions involves. Time and again, he shows how presidential inattention, ignorance, incuriosity, duplicity and unwillingness to take responsibility for hard decisions all put the United States at risk…. A Sacred Oath is not a gratuitous tell-all. It is a work of history. Mr. Esper has his perspectives, to which he is entitled, but his willingness to go on the record at length is invaluable. Look forward to the reaction from Mar-a-Lago.” — Wall Street Journal

“A damning portrait of a chaotic, inept administration that posed countless dangers to the nation and the world.” — Kirkus Reviews

--This text refers to the hardcover edition.

About the Author

Mark T. Esper served as secretary of defense from 2019 to 2020 and as secretary of the Army from 2017 to 2019. A distinguished graduate of West Point, he spent twenty-one years in uniform, including a combat tour in the 1991 Gulf War. Esper earned a Ph.D. from George Washington University while working on Capitol Hill and at the Pentagon as a political appointee. He was also a senior executive at a prestigious think tank, at various business associations and commission, and at a Fortune 100 technology company. Esper is the recipient of multiple civilian and military awards, and currently sits on several public policy and business boards.

--This text refers to the hardcover edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09MD7SMPL
Publisher ‏ : ‎ William Morrow (May 10 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 22114 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 749 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0063144336

Best Sellers Rank: #196,893 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #307 in Political Biographies (Kindle Store)
- #406 in Historical Military Biographies (Kindle Store)
- #411 in Military Biographies (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.4 824 ratings

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4.4 out of 5

824 global ratings

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4 star		21%
3 star		9%
2 star		3%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from Canada

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Joan Macleod

Good Info Shared.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 20, 2022

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It's nice to know that there were actually people in the White House that stopped Trump from pulling off all his insane ideas and cared more about the country and constitution than blind loyalty to a man who never should have President.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

The work behind the position!!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 14, 2022

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i was fascinated with this book. I am so in awe of what a Secretary of Defense must know and execute daily. What a job!! Made all the more difficult with Trump as the President. This theme is not , however, the overriding story in the book. It tells the reader how precarious government and democracy is in this day and age and if the right people are not in the right positions how the world could be in trouble. An excellent read.

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Matt Pechey

Esper is Stunningly Honest!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 3, 2022

Always eager to get another glimpse behind the curtain of what was the Trump Administration, I gladly picked up this book by Mark T. Esper, the former Secretary of Defense. The book is a mix of revelations, insights, and explanations about how things worked in the Administration, as well as the decisions made that shaped America’s defence strategy for a time. Esper pulls no punches, though is also not overly harsh, while educating the reader about all that took place on his watch. Eye-opening at times, Esper seeks to educate on a vast array of subject, succeeding throughout this intriguing tome.

While many of the books I have read about the Trump Administration focus greatly on life within the West Wing, Mark T. Esper’s book offers a different perspective, which presents a ‘bigger picture’ of how things were done and the decision-making process. Esper gives some background on his life and how he rose through the ranks, before being asked to serve as Secretary of the Army and eventually at Defense. While it was surely an honour to do so, Esper makes clear that there were some really big shoes to fill and some concerns to address throughout the time he served in the Cabinet.

Esper lays the groundwork for some interesting discussions about how the Secretary of Defense and those under him serve the country and the president. While many would likely presume it is all wars and tank fighting, as well as rallying the troops before they head into battle, Esper explains that a great deal went on stateside to keep Defense running smoothly. There were troop deployments and the state of military families that needed to be handled, as well as some of the issues around base protocols and permissions to run things in a certain way. This theme comes back throughout the book, particularly when Esper was forced to make some strong policies that clashed with Trump and his ability to appease a raucous base of supporters. Two of the greatest clashes that receive much print related to flying the Confederate flag on military bases and using the military to quell protestors during some of the heightened clashes about race and police brutality. While Esper held firm, many could see that this pushback would not bode well for his long-term employment.

Esper also speaks at length about some of his work on the international scene. Throughout his tenure at Defence, Esper handled a number of situations where Iran found itself in the crosshairs. Esper sought to work with Trump and others in the Cabinet to come up with strategic, diplomatic, and military options to handle some of the Iranian issues. However, there were also issues on a higher level with China, which Esper discusses throughout the tome. China’s technological and financial power could not be ignored by the US, which Esper translated as being a strong threat to world peace and a balance on the Asian continent. Other players and allies, such as Japan, South Korean and India, also noticed China’s power in the region, something Esper tried to handle through diplomatic men’s as best he could. His insights offer the reader a better idea of the strategic games played by both sides to keep the peace and yet not miss possible moves that could significantly change the political scene.

Mark T. Esper offers a great perspective for those who seek to better understand the inner workings of the Trump Administration, not only from a West Wing perspective. He tackles tough issues related to his being Secretary of Defense, offering statistics and ideas about how America faced some of its enemies and allies through a tough time period. Esper pulls no punches in his easy to digest narrative, but does not seek to create a tell-all book to smear Trump or his sycophants. My interest is piqued to learn a little more about some of the other actors who played impactful roles. Esper presents his views in well-paced chapters and fills each with information key to better understanding the situation and those who played a role, especially Trump and some of the military actors who would run things for Defense. Esper does not come across as bowing down to Trump, but also knew when to challenge over biting his tongue. While i knew little about the man before reading this book, I have a new-found respect for him and how he tried to steer the country away from clashes at a time when the Commander-in-Chief was anything but leadership material.

Kudos, Mr. Esper, for a wonderful exploration of your time within the Trump Administration. I can only imagine what else you might have to say, should it not have to be vetted for publication.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on June 12, 2022

Couldn't get past the first few pages. Read and re-read paragraphs to try to understand what the author was saying. It seemed as if there missing words or something. Just to make sure, I read passages from further in the book. They weren't much better. This book is badly written.
By the way, I am not a Trump supporter.

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Top reviews from other countries

conjunction

For this Limey, Well Worth the Effort

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 22, 2022

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I am 72 years old, British, and I don’t think I have ever voted Tory in my life. I have nearly always voted Labour. So you might think why am I reading the memoirs of Mark Esper, a loyal Republican who for 18 months up until being fired by Trump just after his election defeat was Secretary of Defense, ie the guy in charge of the Pentagon, in charge of the entire US military.

I read it because a review I read in the Guardian suggested it offered a better perspective on Trump than other books exposing the goings on in the White House because of Esper’s integrity and how his commitment to the apolitical nature of his post, running the military meant that his loyalty was to the American Constitution and not necessarily the President.

In fact most of this book is not really about Trump at all but about what he considers he achieved in terms of maintaining and reordering the US military, and his reasons for his actions. Also like one or two other books about US politics and history I have read over the years it offers a very clear understanding of the structure of US government especially the relations with the Chairman of the Chief of (military) Staffs, with the State Department, the National Security Council and so on. However compared to other books I have read you feel Esper is writing for an American audience who would naturally already have a basic understanding of these things, he doesn’t spell it all out.

Of course as an English person there are a lot of things I don’t understand about contemporary US politics, especially the breakdown of bipartisan politics and Esper doesn’t go into the political scene in general. This is strictly a personal memoir about the role of the Department of Defense, and his role as Secretary, and his relationship with Trump and Trump’s henchmen especially Robert O’Brien and Mark Meadows. Interestingly Mike Pompeo and especially Bill Barr come out pretty well here. And Bolton too.

The book offers a very clear picture of how Trump would often be reasonable and charming and without warning lurch into red-faced anger in which he would ignore a series of policies he had recently agreed with, and that had been worked out laboriously in conjunction with several US Departments of government. At other times he could be thoughtful and constructive, but sometimes it seemed to be all about his own position, especially as the election approached. And as we know, he hasn’t gone away yet.

The most important areas of conflict between Esper and Trump were around Trump abrogating proper procedure and trying to get decisions made about committing the US military to a variety of actions at home and abroad without any proper planning or consideration of the consequences. Esper worked very hard with certain colleagues to gently get Trump to consider other options and this in itself was a fulltime job. The biggest issues in terms of difficulty were the responses to the disturbances over the murder of George Floyd and the increasing craziness in the White House in the run up and the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election. Esper was fired by Trump a few days after the election. Esper restricts his comments to the period he was Secretary for Defense, (and before that Secretary of the Army), so he doesn't comment on the storming of the Capitol, he restricts his comments of that of which he knows.

The book is not difficult to read except in that there is a lot of detail about all the matters he had to consider so for a Limey it takes some concentration, but for this Limey it was well worth the effort.

One person found this helpful

Evelyn W

Not as controversial as the description - one for army buffs

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 3, 2022

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Not really 'shocking details of his tumultuous tenure while serving in the Trump administration' this is a detailed description of Esper's job as Secretatry of Defence with detailed military tactics and defence strategy and how he and his team, including General Milley, built up the US Army. Many missteps or irregularities by Trump (his short attention span during meetings, his irrational, often illogical, change of plans are downplayed & Esper tries to put the best slant possible on them, sometimes trying to justify them by comparing them to a move by Obama. Trump's inditement for his call to ask Ukraine to find dirt on Biden's family was mentioned almost in passing as an indictment for calling his Ukranian counterpart, as if it was just a normal conversation with no reason for an indictment. Meanwhile as the reader,we can see that he and Milley worked furiously behind the scenes to avoid a full‐scale war, often while abused by Americans from both parties and avoiding Trump using the US army as his own private army for his own ends. Hidden in the narrative is the part where America leaps to the defence of Saudi when Iran launched an attack on a Saudi oil refinery. Esper justifies this saying it would affect global oil prices but the mutually lucrative personal connection of Trump to the Saudi Prince is not mentioned. His occasional snipes against Democrats gave a sour note, especially when they repeated false propoganda (Fauci's change of advice about mask early in the Covid pandemic, before we knew it was airborn) Esper comes across as intelligent, hardworking & sincere, and with Mark Milley managed to prevent Trump making the military his personal army which was my main takeaway. I found some bits of this book boring only because I'm not interested in Army strategy but there was plenty to discover about what went on behind the scenes at the Whitehouse, even behind the rosy veil to concern all. Army buffs, especially those in command, will be engrossed.

perry smith

Best book yet on Trump Presidency

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 10, 2022

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I have read 16 books on our 45th president and his four years in office. Some of these books are excellent. But A Sacred Oath by West Point graduate and former Secretary of Defense (2019-2020) Mark Esper is the most valuable for five distinct reasons.
1. Explains in detail key events in the Trump presidency when Esper was in the presence of Trump. Unlike journalists, psychologists and historians, Esper had many first-hand experiences dealing with the enigmatic Donald Trump.
2. Highlights people of substance who helped hold Trump in check. Best example—Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley.
3. Explains how Attorney General Bill Barr, General Milley and others stood tall when our constitution was in grave danger
4. Helps the reader understand the inner workings of the Pentagon during a crucial time.
5. Shows how close relationships among the top officials within the Department of Defense can enhance good policy making, planning and decision making.

For purpose of full disclosure, I should state that served in the Pentagon for six years and worked, for a time, as a military assistant to the Deputy Secretary of Defense. Also, I am the author of a substantive book on the Department of Defense, Assignment Pentagon---now in its 4th edition.

231 people found this helpful

Kindle Customer

Trash

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 11, 2022

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The very worst political book I've ever read. Self serving at it's worst.
Not worth the money, waste of time.

36 people found this helpful

patty y

Great book ....Everyone should read it!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 13, 2022

Verified Purchase

I write this is as a registered Republican and someone who voted for Donald Trump in 2016. While I thought Trump was brash, and kind of obnoxious, I agreed with a lot of his policies. I never thought he would cause as much divineness as he did in this country. Thank goodness Mark Esper was the Secretary of Defense during such a tumultuous time. I appreciate his dedication to the country and the constitution. I totally understand why he did not resign, and am thankful he did not. We are very fortunate to have good, honorable people who choose to serve, in spite of the circumstance - especially in the position of Secretary of Defense. This book is an important part of our history, so I highly recommend it.

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A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times Kindle Edition

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