A book like The Inheritance emerges from a lifetime of reporting, and reporting is a team sport. I have been privileged to work with the best—the most talented reporting and editing staff in the world, the women and men who turn out the daily miracle that is The New York Times.
Bill Keller and Jill Abramson, the executive editor and managing editor for news at the paper, granted me a leave to pursue this project and they poured on good ideas over breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Bill's ability to frame just the right question and Jill's investigative zeal—and her resiliency as Washington bureau chief during some of our toughest journalistic endeavors from 9/11 through the Iraq war—make them the kind of editors that reporters cherish.
Dean Baquet, the Washington bureau chief, repeatedly gave me the time and encouragement to get this book written. His predecessor, Phil Taubman, a veteran intelligence reporter, kept pressing for more and deeper reporting. So did Susan Chira, the paper's foreign editor, and Nick Kristof, our unparalleled op-ed columnist, who have lost none of the inquisitiveness and drive for news that drew us together in college three decades ago and led to many adventures together in Asia.
Bill Broad, my colleague since the days when we covered the investigation into the space shuttle Challenger in 1986, has been an indispensable partner on all things nuclear—from the investigation into the A. Q. Khan network to assessing Iran's capabilities to the story of the Israeli attack on Syria. Matt Purdy and Paul Fishleder, extraordinary editors at the Times investigations desk, turned our discoveries into stories.
Felicity Barringer, Warren Hoge, Mark Mazzetti, Helene Cooper, Steve Erlanger, Douglas Jehl, David Johnston, Steve Myers, Jim Risen, Sheryl Stolberg, Elaine Sciolino, and Steve Weisman have all been partners in peeling the onion of the Bush administration's national security policy. Thom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, two of the most persistent, inquisitive, and congenial reporters in Washington, were partners in covering the hardest stories of all—the overt and covert wars of the Bush administration.
There are few jobs in Washington more exhausting, frustrating, and ultimately rewarding than covering the White House, particularly in historic times. During my seven-year tenure as White House correspondent, I worked alongside two of the best: Dick Stevenson and Elisabeth Bumiller, astounding reporters with Kevlar skins and remarkable skills for getting to the ground truth. I learned as much from them every day as from any sources.
During my travels for this book, I had the benefit of help from many friends. In China, Joe Kahn, Jim Yardley, and James Fallows provided excellent advice and generously shared sources. Somini Sengupta unlocked India. In Pakistan, the brave duo of Jane Perlez and Carlotta Gall guided me through one of the world's most fascinating powder kegs. David Rohde was my coauthor in a lengthy examination of what went wrong in Afghanistan that formed the basis for a key section of this book.
Sources inside and outside the government generously provided guidance, critiques, and fresh thinking. They are too numerous to mention, and many would be embarrassed—or fired—if their names appeared here. A few tutors, however, require special thanks. Gen. Brent Scowcroft has brought both a sense of history and a delicious sense of irony to understanding the world of the Bush White House. Joseph Nye and Graham Allison of Harvard conducted their national security seminars on some of the best trout streams in America. Ash Carter, also of Harvard, was generous as always with his expertise. So were David Donald and Ernest May, two of the country's finest historians. Scott Sagan of Stanford and Gary Samore of the Council on Foreign Relations tutored me as an undergraduate, and are still at it a quarter-century later. Michael Beschloss, the most extraordinary presidential historian of our generation, was a constant source of good ideas and critiques. Glenn Kramon, one of the best newspaper editors in the business, read chapters and honed ideas.
The Center for a New American Security, a young think-tank filled with some of the brightest national security minds in Washington, gave me office space and support as a writer in residence. I thank Kurt Campbell and Michèle Flournoy, the center's founders and good friends, for their ideas, their advice, and their willingness to provide funding for this effort. Their staff of scholars and researchers were a great help, and great fun.
The Hon. Lee Hamilton, president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, along with Michael Van Dusen, the center's deputy director, and Robert Litwak, the director of international security studies, took me on as a visiting scholar as this project entered its last six months and provided wise counsel.
Three extraordinary young scholars made this book possible. Michael Zubrow, a 2007 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, was in on the ground floor of this effort and worked tirelessly, raising the right questions and constantly digging deeper. Laura Marie Stroh, a graduate student at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, combined her understanding of intelligence issues, her Arabic abilities, and her editing skills to make every page sharper. Theo Milonopoulos, a senior at Stanford University, joined us for the summer of 2008 and contributed deep insights. I was privileged to have the chance to work with all three of them; I fear they taught me a lot more than I taught them. Without them, you wouldn't be holding this book in your hands. As they head off into bigger things in the world, America is lucky to have their talents.
My agent and friend, Michael Carlisle of Inkwell Management, turned inchoate ideas into a real project and went far beyond the call of duty by sticking with each chapter along the way. At Harmony, I learned why John Glusman has a reputation as one of the best editors in the business, one who knows what's news, knows what's missing, and knows when to spare the reader. Amy Boorstein, Linnea Knoll-mueller, Nancy Field, David Wade Smith, Rachelle Mandik, Anne Berry, and Kate Kennedy cheerfully created order out of the chaos of the bookmaking process. Shaye Areheart, the publisher of Harmony, and Jenny Frost, the president of Crown, championed this book from the beginning.
As always, I am thankful to my parents, Ken and Joan Sanger; my sister, Ellin Sanger Agress; and brother-in-law, Mort Agress, for their support and love.
The biggest thanks go to the love of my life and my best editor, Sherill, who not only shaped chapters but took on the uncelebrated burdens of parenting while I was buried behind a computer screen. Her talent and grace remind me every day how lucky I was to find her. Our sons, Andrew and Ned, kept us laughing throughout the process and joined some of the reporting—from the snowy depths of the New Hampshire primary to hikes along the Great Wall. In a troubled world, they are sheer joy.