Worthy Fights - by Leon Panetta & Jim Newton (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The New York Times-bestselling autobiography of a legendary political and military leader

It could be said that Leon Panetta has had two of the most consequential careers of any American public servant in the past fifty years. His first career, beginning as an Army intelligence officer and including a distinguished run as one of the most powerful and respected members of Congress, lasted thirty-five years and culminated in his transformational role as budget czar and White House chief of staff in the Clinton administration. But after a brief "retirement," he returned to public service in 2009 as the CIA director who led the intelligence war that killed Osama Bin Laden and then became the U.S. secretary of defense, inheriting two troubled wars in a time of austerity and painful choices. Like his career, Worthy Fights is a reflection of Panetta's values. It is also a testament to a lost kind of political leadership that favors progress and duty to country over partisanship.

Leon Panetta calls them as he sees them in Worthy Fights. Suffused with its author's decency and common sense, the book is an inspiring American success story, a great political memoir, and a revelatory view onto many of the defining figures and events of our time.

Review Quotes

"Very readable, with the frank descriptions of personalities and events that distinguish this genre at its best." --David Ignatius, The Washington Post

"Young people searching for the role model of a public servant will find few as good as Panetta. . . . A playbook for how to behave with integrity in a city with limited virtue." --Leslie H. Gelb, The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Leon Panetta served as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2009 to 2011 and as secretary of defense from 2011 to 2013. An Italian American Democrat, he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993, the director of the Office of Management and Budget from 1993 to 1994, and President Clinton's chief of staff from 1994 to 1997. He is the founder of the Panetta Institute for Public Policy and has served as professor of public policy at his alma mater, Santa Clara University.

Jim Newton is editor at large of the Los Angeles Times and the author of two critically acclaimed biographies.