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Powell's most prominent patrons were Ronald Reagan and George Bush, but many readers with an eye on 1996 will pay closest attention to what he says about Bill Clinton. Even before Clinton took office, Powell had a couple of feelers--nothing more than that--about leaving his post as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and joining the Clinton team. In May 1992, Washington lawyer Vernon Jordan, a good friend of both men, visited Powell. "Your polls are running off the charts,'' Jordan told him . "Are you interested in running as Clinton's V.P.?" Powell dismissed it out of hand. "Vernon, first of all, I don't intend to step out of uniform one day and into partisan politics the next. Second, I don't even know what I am politically. And third, George Bush picked me [as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff] and stuck by me. I could never campaign against him.'' On Nov. 1, two days before the election, Powell dined at Jordan's home, and this time his host asked, "Are you interested in State or Defense?''Again Powell said no
When Powell finally did meet the President-elect for the first time, on Nov. 19, he came away impressed: "Clinton was self-assured, smart, curious, likable and passionate about his ideas.'' Powell never wavers far from that initial assessment (in the book, at least), but he offers a devastating critique of the Administration's modus operandi. National security meetings "meandered like graduate-student bull sessions ellipse Backbenchers sounded off with the authority of Cabinet officers. I was shocked one day to hear one of [National Security Adviser] Tony Lake's subordinates, who was there to take notes, argue with him in front of the rest of us."
Bosnia absorbed much of the Administration's time, with Powell delivering his "constant, unwelcome message": the U.S. "should not commit military forces until we had a clear political objective.'' In one particularly heated debate, Powell recalls U.N. Ambassador Madeleine Albright asking him in frustration, "What's the point of having this superb military that you're always talking about if we can't use it?'' As Powell relates it, "I thought I would have an aneurysm. American G.I.s were not toy soldiers to be moved around on some sort of global game board...I told Ambassador Albright that the U.S. military would carry out any mission it was handed, but my advice would always be that the tough political goals had to be set first. Then we would accomplish the mission.''
According to Powell, David Gergen, presidential counselor, sounded him out about staying on for a third two-year term as Chairman, but Powell retired in September 1993 as he had planned. Then, on Dec. 18, 1994, Powell got his most serious job feeler yet: Clinton invited him to the residential quarters of the White House and told him Warren Christopher wanted to leave. Would Powell like the post? Powell politely declined, citing the need to finish the book and his desire to spend time with family. "Left unspoken were my reservations about the amorphous way the Administration handled foreign policy,'' Powell writes. "I did not see how I could fit back into this operation without changes so radical that the President would probably have difficulty making them.''