The Russia Hand: A Memoir of Presidential Diplomacy

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A Memoir of Presidential Diplomacy During the past ten years, few issues have mattered more to America's vital interests or to the shape of the twenty-first century than Russia's fate. To cheer the fall of a bankrupt totalitarian regime is one thing; to build on its ruins a stable democratic state is quite another. The challenge of helping to steer post-Soviet Russia-with its thousands of nuclear weapons and seething ethnic tensions-between the Scylla of a communist restoration and the Charybdis of anarchy fell to the former governor of a poor, landlocked Southern state who had won national election by focusing on domestic issues. No one could have predicted that by the end of Bill Clinton's second term he would meet with his Kremlin counterparts more often than had all of his predecessors from Harry Truman to George Bush combined, or that his presidency and his legacy would be so determined by his need to be his own Russia hand. With Bill Clinton at every step was Strobe Talbott, the deputy secretary of state whose expertise was the former Soviet Union. Talbott was Clinton's old friend, one of his most trusted advisers, a frequent envoy on the most sensitive of diplomatic missions and, as this book shows, a sharp-eyed observer. The Russia Hand is without question among the most candid, intimate and illuminating foreign-policy memoirs ever written in the long history of such books. It offers unparalleled insight into the inner workings of policymaking and diplomacy alike. With the scope of nearly a decade, it reveals the hidden play of personalities and the closed-door meetings that shaped the most crucial events of our time, from NATO expansion, missile defense and the Balkan wars to coping with Russia's near-meltdown in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. The book is dominated by two gifted, charismatic and flawed men, Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin, who quickly formed one of the most intense and consequential bonds in the annals of statecraft. It also sheds new light on Vladimir Putin, as well as the altered landscape after September 11, 2001. The Russia Hand is the first great memoir about war and peace in the post-cold war world.

Reviews

A dexterous . . . engrossing account.The New York Times

The best sort of political memoir.Foreign Affairs

A unique document, by turns racy, scholarly, personal, and always of our time. We shall not read its like for a long while.John le Carr

Excellent.Time

Fascinating and compelling readingthis book is at once a serious political-science text and a work of high comedy. Strobe Talbott has given us a marvelous window on a rare moment of important and delicate diplomacy between the United States and Russia and, more important, those two most unlikely partners, Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin.David Halberstam

A savvy insiders account of the diplomatic twists and turns of U.S. Russia relations in the 90s, Talbotts anecdote-stuffed book is a treasure trove for Russia specialists. But it will also fascinate anyone with an interest in the personal dynamics of statecraft.BusinessWeek

The Russia Handis easily one of the best memoirs of presidential diplomacy ever written. With his great command of history, gift of language, sense of detail and eight years at the center of American foreign-policy making, Strobe Talbott has brought us a fascinating, often surprising account of a historic and pivotal period.The Russia Handshows us what a complex and impressive achievement it was for the United States to build a lasting relationship with its old enemy of half a century. When historians begin to assess the presidency of Bill Clinton, this book will be basic and mandatory reading.Michael Beschloss

A fascinating portrait of diplomacy as it really works (and sometimes doesnt), written with clarity and grace by a wise man.Evan Thomas

Once again Strobe Talbott has written an important and insightful diplomatic history. This richly crafted book, the first authoritative inside account of President Clintons personal diplomacy with Russian presidents Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, could have been written only by Talbott, with his reporters eye for the telling anecdote, his deep knowledge of Russia and his intimate personal involvement in the events he describes.Hendrick L. Smith

I read [The Russia Hand] as if it were a detective novelI was unable to put it down until late in the night, picked it up again first thing in the morning, and didnt stop until I had finished.Anne Applebaum,Slate

Readers will . . . relish Talbotts intimate portraits of the two leaders, down to the challenging task of maneuvering around Yeltsins flagrant alcoholism.Salon

Talbott . . . is a keen and insightful observer as well as a key player in the story. Anyone interested in U.S.Russian relations will find his new book a source of riches.BookPage

Talbott brings to the task his abundant reportorial skills, producing voluminous previously undisclosed details on the management of our relations through multiple crises, from NATO expansion to the war with Serbia over Kosovo.San Jose Mercury News

Author Bio

Strobe Talbott was the architect of the Clinton administration's policy toward Russia and the other states of the former Soviet Union. He served as deputy secretary of state for even years. A former Time magazine columnist and Washington bureau chief, he is the translator-editor of Nikita Khrushchev's memoirs and the author of six books on U.S.-Soviet relations. He is now director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. From the Hardcover edition.