William J. Burns recounts some of the seminal moments of his career as a United States diplomat. Drawing on a trove of newly declassified cables and memos, he gives readers a rare inside look at American diplomacy in action.
[Burns'] His beautifully written book, rich in pen portraits, anecdote and description, is also a meticulous record of three and a half decades of diplomatic history ... The patriotism, steady nerves and logic-defying optimism that characterised Burns’s career have not left him.
Much like the author himself: thorough, measured, articulate, and, above all, diplomatic ... Burns’ front row seat at so many pivotal events in American foreign policy has an almost Forrest Gump quality. He was in the situation room when Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, and he flew from Benghazi back to Washington with the remains of Ambassador Chris Stevens ... Unfortunately, his portrayal of events often lacks compelling details. In the case of the bin Laden mission, he fails to describe his colleagues’ mood or reactions as they watched the drama unfold in the Situation Room ... succeeds in conveying the art and science of statecraft in very real terms.
... important ... The bulk of The Back Channel details the dramatic high points of Burns’ long career, but the clear animating force of the book is the author’s worry that all the behind-the-scenes labors of his friends and colleagues over the years have been summarily invalidated by an idiot in the Oval Office ... The stark nature of the warnings Burns issues about the Trump administration are the alarm-bells ringing in the background of an otherwise calm and personable memoir.
