really fair book. thank you, sir. thank you. [ applause ] but you all should read this thing. even though we re out of time, go ahead. they re all your helicopters. i do want to ask one thing because the central legend is that bush 41 didn t think you should go into iraq in 2003. right. i m asked this all the time. i m going to ask you to read something. okay. good. called a role reversal. okay. good. camptown ladies sing this song yeah.
sure this is it? okay. it s on age 571. he admitted, however, that iraq was one issue where i wanted to know what he thought. that s me. you. let me set up the context. so spent a lot of time talking about how much did president bush 43 ask president bush 41 for advice? president bush 43 often said not much. he said, send your briefers. i did a line-by-line read of decision points, the bestselling presidential memoir in american history including u.s. grant. if we want to make this the presidential biography that meets that, that would be fine. but what i also found is that actually there was a lot, particularly on personnel questions, that you all did talk a little bit more. i said to president bush, i think you down played sometimes how much you talked to your dad about some things because you didn t want people thinking you
son s feelings about it. this is what donald rumsfeld said. bush 41 is getting up in years and misjudges bush 43 who i found made his own decisions. well, these comments were made over a period of four to five years of interviews from 2008 forward. i took everything that was said about secretary rumsfeld, about vice president cheney, about president bush 43, to them. all their responses are here. secretary rumsfeld declined to comment. president bush 43, this book is immeasureably better because bush 43 gave me gift of time an insight of his father. he wrote a biography of his father. basically the message is, that president bush 41, i think broke his silence about the 43 years because the son s presidency was ending, he wanted to make the point that force and diplomacy are not competitive with one another but are complimentary.
and one of the ironies is that about where bush 43 ended up in the second term. he, what president bush 4 is was uncomfortable with not necessarily the substance of the policy but the style. and bush 43 wonderfully said, that his rhetoric could get pretty hot. president bush 41 didn t like the phrase, axis of evil and bush 43 said, well that might be true but they understood me in midland. they are different men governing in different times. that is part of the complexity here. president to president is complex enough. throw in fact they are father and son and love each other deeply, i m convinced that george w. bush and jeb bush are in politics in part because it s a way to pay homage to the most remarkable man they have ever known. they adore their father. their father adores them. it s a great story of family love and affection.
never expressed thoz opinions to him. he said, i am quoting, i am proud to have served with dick cheney and donald rumsfeld. i was fortunate to have him by my side throughout my presidency. don rumsfeld ably led the pentagon. i am grateful to both men for their good advice, selfless service and to our country and friendship. donald rumsfeld had this stonro response. bush 41 misjudges bush 43 who i found made his own decisions. this are hundreds of memos that represent advice d.o.d. gave the president. i m joined by our chief national correspondent, john king, and our chief political analyst, gloria borger. gloria, this is pretty unusual, to see this exchange going on right now. well, it is. when you have a biographier who is as good as jon meacham, who