Inside the Pentagon Papers (University Presses of Kansas, 2004, ISBN 0-7006-1325-0, $29.95). This volume contains the best reconstruction available of the creation of the Pentagon Papers, the definitive account of how President Nixon decided to go after the newspapers publishing the Papers (complete with transcripts of Nixon's phone conversations), a major analysis of exactly what secrets were at stake in the affair, accounts of the publication of the Papers and their impact on American politics. Hoodwinked: The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War (The New Press, 2004, ISBN 1-56584-902-7, $17.95). This book contains the key Bush administration documents in America's descent into war in Iraq, including the several Bush speeches in which claims were made regarding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the CIA reports that underlay those claims, the United Nations briefing by secretary of state Colin L. Powell, and other materials. All are annotated to show exactly how intelligence was manipulated in the presentations. I give detailed consideration to four key claims: those regarding Iraqi nuclear weapons, the Niger uranium sale, the question of unmanned aerial vehicles, and alleged Iraqi links with Al Qaeda. All of this is set within a narrative that shows how the Bush project for war became a political problem and required the administration to craft a campaign to build support for war by making these extravagant assertions, and then how the hoodwinking unraveled. This is an important interpretative effort to understand how America got into the Iraq quagmire. It is also a political commentary useful for the 2004 elections. The book is in paperback and ideal for course adoption in international relations, U.S. politics, Iraq war, or U.S. history courses. Back to OSG News June 2004 Table of Contents Back to OSG News List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by Operational Studies Group This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com