“War”: Behind the Scenes of Power with Bob Woodward

Photo: Anna Moneymaker Getty Images via Agence France-Presse “Washington Post” reporter Bob Woodward takes notes during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on February 15, 2023 in Washington, DC.

Benoit Valois-Nadeau

Published at 15:53 Updated at 19:28

• United States

After the fire and the rage: the war. The renowned American journalist Bob Woodward is publishing these days the fourth volume of his series devoted to post-Obama American politics.

Following on from Fear (2018), Rage (2020) and Peril (2021), Waris the story of the Biden presidency in light of the major international crises that have marked it (Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza), with the maneuvers deployed by Donald Trump to keep control of the Republican Party and regain his throne on November 5.

Here are four things we learned from reading this 23rd book by the famous journalist.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have kept in touch

During his presidential term, Donald Trump never hid his admiration for the strong men of world politics and his connections with Russian President Vladimir Putin. What we learn in War is that the two men have remained in contact since the Republican left the White House.

Trump and Putin reportedly spoke on the phone several times (“seven times,” according to one of Woodward’s sources) between 2021 and 2024. During the height of the pandemic, Trump also reportedly arranged for the Russian president and his entourage to receive COVID-19 test kits. Claims that have been denied by the 45th president of the United States’ entourage since the book was published.

The nature of the Trump-Putin relationship remains mysterious, however, even for the journalist who, with Carl Bernstein, uncovered the Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon’s resignation.

“It's a conundrum and it hasn't been solved until now,” admits Dan Coats, Trump's national intelligence director, in the book, who suggests that a form of blackmail could exist between the two.

We narrowly avoided nuclear war

War takes us behind the scenes at the White House at the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and during the first months of the conflict.

Thanks to the American secret services, which seem to have a real gift of ubiquity, we learn that Moscow is seriously considering using nuclear weapons on the Ukrainian front. Very seriously.

Woodward reports that in September 2022, President Biden’s team of security advisors estimated that there was a 50% chance that the Russian military would use tactical nuclear weapons.

Such a use would have led to increased US involvement in the conflict, or even to a direct confrontation between the two superpowers that would have had all the appearances of a third world war.

This catastrophic scenario would have finally been avoided thanks to a tough conversation between the American Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu. A chilling dialogue reconstructed by Bob Woodward.

“If you do that, all the constraints to which we have submitted in Ukraine would be reconsidered. “That would isolate Russia on the world stage to a degree that you Russians cannot fully comprehend,” Austin told Shoigu.

“I don't like to be threatened,” Shoigu replied.

“Minister,” Austin retorted, “I am the head of the most powerful military in the history of the world. I don't make threats.”

Joe Biden Has a Loud and Salty Word

When the book came out, several American media outlets took great pleasure in listing all the insults and churchy words attributed to Joe Biden.

Indeed, behind closed doors, the American president does not mince his words when talking about his enemies, or his allies, for that matter.

“Son of a bitch”, “asshole”, “bastard” (loose translation): according to Joe Biden's closest advisers, he does not lack words when it comes time to vent his anger towards Putin or Benjamin Netanyahu, among others.

All this could be anecdotal, but in Woodward's writing, this colorful language is revealing of the strong character of the Democratic president, who plays a central role in most of the book.

Woodward does not hide his goodwill for Biden, whose leadership qualities and sincere commitment to peace he praises at the very end of the volume. This clear respect does not prevent the author from speaking frankly about the president's cognitive decline, which, we learn, manifested itself as early as 2023, well before his disastrous performance in the first presidential debate.

Bob Woodward has lost none of his touch

At a healthy 81 years old, Bob Woodward is still at the top of his game. Each of these books is awaited by the Washington intelligentsia, but also by a horde of readers curious to discover the next shocking revelation.

How to describe the Woodward way ? A gripping story (almost too much at times) mainly driven by dialogues, supported by solid research and hundreds of hours of interviews with the highest decision-makers. If Donald Trump and Joe Biden refused to be interviewed, the old hand at the Washington Post still had access to the inner circles of American power. Woodward, like few journalists, has his contacts in the upper echelons of world capitals. His fame probably has something to do with it, but the reliability of the statements he reports and his way of (almost) never making his speakers look bad probably also have a role to play.

Of course, one could criticize him for having his nose too stuck to the hot news, his too close proximity to his sources, the way he reduces international politics to questions of personality or even his Americanocentrism. But why deprive oneself of a book that is as enlightening as it is entertaining, which reveals from the inside the workings of American diplomacy with a dose of suspense and truculence ?

War

Bob Woodward, Simon&Schuster, New York, 2024, 448 pages