Making a Difference - by Morton H Halperin (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A memoir of power, war, diplomacy, and dissent from a longtime participant in US national security policymaking.

From the Pentagon Papers to the Nixon White House, from Vietnam and nuclear arms negotiations to civil liberties battles at the ACLU and diplomacy in the Clinton administration, Morton H. Halperin spent more than half a century involved in many of America's most significant political and foreign policy debates. In Making a Difference, Halperin takes readers inside the institutions where major policy decisions were made, working alongside figures such as Robert McNamara, Henry Kissinger, Clark Clifford, and Madeline Albright during the Cold War and after.

A young Harvard scholar who entered government expecting to stay only briefly, Halperin instead became a participant, critic, and observer in a series of influential policy debates and national security crises. Halperin recounts internal disputes over Vietnam strategy, secret bombing campaigns, nuclear arms control, Okinawa reversion, the Pentagon Papers, government surveillance, civil liberties, and the role of American democracy in international affairs. He examines how policy is shaped through bureaucratic processes, political relationships, competing priorities, and institutional conflict.

This account of Washington during a period of political and international upheaval traces Halperin's evolution from academic to policymaker while exploring his long-standing concerns about democratic accountability and constitutional rights. It offers an insider's perspective on the development of American foreign policy and the challenges faced by those involved in shaping it.

Review Quotes

"Morton Halperin, as Making a Difference demonstrates, has made extraordinary efforts to make US policy more transparent, responsible, and effective. He offers thoughtful and practical recommendations to strengthen the world's democratic trajectory makes people's lives better."--George Soros, philanthropist.

"Few people have seen Washington from as many angles as Mort Halperin. From the inside, he helped launch the study that became the Pentagon Papers and designed the NSC system Kissinger ran. From the outside, he sued the administration that wiretapped his phone and worked with lawmakers in both parties to make the US government more open and more serious about civil liberties and human rights. This memoir is a clear-eyed, humane account of how policy is really made, and an indispensable guide for anyone who wants to move the US government rather than simply complain about it."--Mike Abramowitz, former president of Freedom House and Washington Post reporter

"Morton Halperin has had an extraordinary career. While often challenging established orthodoxies, he served as a high official of the Defense Department, the State Department and the National Security Council. He helped shape public policy on the Vietnam War, arms control, and America's relations to Japan, Cuba and Haiti. He has also been an effective advocate on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union in preventing an amendment to the Bill of Rights, extending freedom of information, and limiting the death penalty. His memoir provides close-up pictures of his interactions with the likes of Robert McNamara, Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright, and President Clinton; and how he won and lost the many battles he fought to advance causes and principles that matter. It is a riveting story."--Aryeh Neier, former executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, founding executive director of Human Rights Watch, and president of the Open Society Foundation.

"Mort Halpern is a genius who, while working with the most powerful people in the world, was able to make a difference because he possessed the rarest of skills in Washington, DC: the ability to convince politicians to do the right thing. While reading Making a Difference, you will constantly be tempted to say out loud, "Wait, Mort Halpern did that?" Yes, he did. Just a remarkable life told with remarkable wit by a remarkable man."--Nell Scovell, journalist and author

About the Author

Morton H. Halperin is one of America's foremost experts on national security, civil liberties, and foreign policy. Over a distinguished public career spanning six decades, he served in senior positions in the Johnson, Nixon, and Clinton administrations, including roles at the Department of Defense, the National Security Council, and the State Department. A former director of the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department and longtime leader within the American Civil Liberties Union, Halperin played a central role in debates over Vietnam, nuclear arms control, government secrecy, surveillance, and human rights. He also taught at Harvard University, worked closely with leading Cold War thinkers including Thomas Schelling and Henry Kissinger, and authored numerous influential books on bureaucracy, national security, and democratic governance.