Collect DC Confidential: The Controversial Memoirs Of Britain's Ambassador To The US At The Time Of 9/11 And The Run-up To The Iraq War Sketched By Christopher Meyer Issued As Textbook

have to assume that a book by a senior and experienced diplomat will give an accurate account both of the objectives of a diplomat and the process of trying to meet those objectives.




As usual in trying to understand how we go about conducting ourselves overseas, I found the experience revelatory and disturbing.
Washington is an important area of influence for the UK and it is essential above all to relate well to the Americans and to have the ability to understand their way of life and how it differs from ours then, importantly, to accept that their way may be better.
It is also important to work easily with whatever government the electors of this country put into office,



Meyer to me finds it difficult to come to terms with both of these areas, American "Get up and Go" and technical excellence together with the different outlook of Labour politicians do not sit easily on his shoulders.
When this is coupled with his resentment over not being invited to the major meeting between Bush and Blair over post/Iraq we move into a troubling antagonism and speculation replaces carefully chosen language.
Started off a bit dry and the writing style takes some getting used to but it was an interesting read and provides some really interesting insights into the political relationship between the US and the UK.

Meyer's memoirs provide a picture of British Foreign relations with Clinton and Bush administrations, Don't expect great depth from this book, It does seem to

scratch the surface, Yet Meyer does give us his impressions of notables including Clinton, Bush, Blair, Powell, Cheney, Rice, and Rove, What is his take on the road to war in Iraq
, Regime change was on Clinton's agenda so perDubbya,
. Blair was not Bush's poodle but did not succeed in using leverage to the desired extent e, g. full UN support.
. Neoconservatives Rove, Cheney and Rumsfeld strongly disagreed with multilateralism, Bush sympathetic with their view but political enough to appreciate multilateralism,
. Powell was the victim of White House staff subterfuge, Rice was an obedient and faithful servant of Bush,
. Blair, Cook, and Straw rightly wanted and urged full UN route however frustrating it may have taken,
. Neither Bush nor Blair wanted war no matter what it would take they recognised the inevitability,
. US planners were ill prepared for political challenges of regime change, Poor thinking of what postSadam would look like,
. Meyer isn't clear, in my reading, whether there was or wasn't WMD, All he does say is: there was no deliberate misleading on the part of Bush and Blair, Very interesting read from a very connected man, Meyer's sympathies clearly lie to the right of the spectrum while his impressions of the Democrats are fair, his portraits of American Republicans are hopelessly optimistic.
Nothing in the book backs up his assertion that Bush was not the empty vessel of European satire, and he splits so many hairs on whether the US/UK were adamant/decided about going to war in Iraq inand still leaves the reader unmoved.
But the book, gossipy without being catty and with enough detail to keep one interested throughout, is a good read and an interesting look back at the period.
One thing really stood out at no point in the entire book did Meyer once mention or mention others considering the wishes, lives and opinions of the Iraqi people themselves, before or after the invasion.
Truly chilling. For a former diplomat, Sir ChristopherMeyer is deliciously indiscreet, DC Confidential is an account of his fiveandahalf years as Britain's ambassador in Washington, The period covers the/attacks on the World Trade Centre and the buildup to the second Gulf war,

The insight into the private and public lives of some of the world's most powerful men and women is a skilful mix of political analysis and behind the scenes revelations.
The author's perception of the elder George Bush, and his relationship with Tony Blair,is particularly interesting, And it insane the worse for an account of a dinner st the Bush Ranch where the entertainment's provided by a highly successful country and western group known as Kiky Freedan and the Western Jew Boys.


A chapter added to the later paperback edition argues cogently if not completely convincingly that
the second invasion of Iraq could have been handled better but was not a blatant act of aggressive machismo.

Interesting but I wouldn't call them controversial, I was expecting so much more from this, I was expecting truth or at least a bit insight, Instead we get him moaning about everyone he's ever worked for apart from the Americans and absolutely terrible jokes, I persevered with it hoping it would come good but it didn't : This was a good book, overall, It's quite entertaining because of his honest depiction of everything, which is the angle publishers also took to sell the book, Thinking this was a review of the building up to the Iraq War following/I was a little disappointed by how much he focused on his own career.
So be aware that this is a personal memoir of a high level diplomat from the UK, It was fun to read overall, he covers everything from flirting with his second wife in the embassy and staring at her legs to getting custom made boots visavis Karl Rove in Texas.
He only has maybe four chapters out of the twenty or so that actually cover post/events, Overall it was fun to read a british diplomat's perspective on everything America and Western diplomacy, I don't know if it at all could be entertaining enough for the casual reader, at least not forpages, But, if you are interested in diplomacy at all you might find it interesting, I thought it was good, the switch from Major to Blair was interesting, the aspect of Catherine and her children in Germany, Jonathan Powell's behaviour was astounding.
The time around/, the fair mindedness around Blair's reactions, It was a good read, Wasn't sure why I picked this up considering I am neither interested in nor understand politics, These are the memoirs of the British ambassador to the US at the end of the nineties and beginning of the noughties, I found his writing style quite amiable and enjoyed reading about his personal experiences but the political stuff kind of lost me, Disappointingly, there was no mention of Ferrero Rocher : Showed how foreign policy is sometimes dictated by accident, The author did not appear to like new labour and I think the feeling was mutual, George W Bush comes across completely different to the western media portrayal, but then so does Tony Blairs,

Recommend but only if you are interested in politics of foreign affairs, I picked this book up on a whim and then put off reading it based on my perceptions of the genre, I always expect political books to be dry and boring, going into details that I am not interested in in too much detail and skipping over the things I am interested in.


This was not the case with this books, Meyer has written an interesting and witty book that held my attention throughout, At times he seemed to wander off topic but that made it seem like you were in a conversation with him and something that he said triggered another memory.
I found that it help the book rather than hindered it,

I think that this is an interesting and informative read for anyone on either side of the 'pond', It gives great insight into how politics and diplomacy are done on both sides, I think that there are negative things that Mayer says about both the British and the Americans, If you are very sensitive to insult you may not want to read it, He is very fair about it though and his comments are not blind stabs just to insult but reflection of what he has seen and heard.


If you are going to read this just for information on the Iraq war then you are going to be disappointed as this is covered only in the last couple of chapters.
I actually found these to be the least interesting chapters, There is more coverage of/and the aftermath though,

I found it to be a balanced view of a very interesting period of time, I think it is one of the least biased of course not completely unbiased views of the time by someone who was present and observed much of what happened.
There is no way to know if this view is correct though and I have not read much on the subject before,

Before reading I read a few reviews about the book and would like to comment on them, The first review that I read said that it was a book that should not have been written as it was too revealing 'a tell all'.
I did not find this to be the case at all, Yes it was revealing but certainly not in a tabloid way, I actually found Meyer to be quite discrete and he avoided being too negative about people and did not name many of the people he was talking about.


The second review said that Meyer was completely anti Labour, Once again I did not find this to be the case, He actually seemed to be very positive about some of the people in New Labour, Yes he did have major issues with them but he explained the situation well and I think that had those things happened to me I would have been much more negative.
.