THE Book: ’A Promised Land’

Review by Bill Doughty

Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land” (Crown, 2020) is THE book to read this month.

Supremely self-aware and filled with empathy, Obama weaves his own life experiences –– as a son, grandson, husband, dad, and friend –– with his career, focusing especially on early 21st century history and the first two years of his presidency.

Obama’s experience growing up in Hawaii, living in Indonesia, having grandparents from Kansas, and working in Chicago helped him develop a wider perspective –– outside looking in. Introspection is part of his very being: “As an African American, I’d experienced what it was like not to be fully seen inside my own country.”

Books captivated him at an early age. Mohandas Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and James Baldwin informed his world view. Later, Elie Wiesel became a big influence. “Reading his books," Obama writes, "I’d found an impregnable mortal code that both fortified me and challenged me to be better."

Philosophy, humor, and pathos mix with a practical but lyrical narrative in this captivating book, the first in what promises to be two volumes. (I won’t be surprised or disappointed if it becomes three.) It is dedicated "To Michelle –– my love and life's partner and Malia and Sasha –– whose dazzling light makes everything brighter."

CJCS Adm. Mullen and President Obama at 9/11 ceremony at Pentagon, Sept. 11, 2009.

Dozens of characters appear on history’s stage in “A Promised Land,” including Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mike Mullen, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and businessman Donald Trump. Obama writes them into the story with deft pen strokes. He admits in the book's preface that he composes first by hand on yellow legal pads.

Obama’s mindfulness, self-awareness, and critical thinking are the tools he uses to weave together this tapestry of his history. That history includes confronting the economy debacle of the previous administration, dealing with the H1N1 pandemic, facing the BP Deep Water Horizon oil drilling catastrophe, approving Navy SEALS’ mission to rescue Richard Phillips from Somali pirates, and many other crises and achievements.

For Navy Reads readers “A Promised Land” provides invaluable insights into nuclear disarmament efforts, a first-hand perspective on hunting Osama bin Laden, various commander-in-chief challenges, and a deep reverence for military service and sacrifice and about the nature of true patriotism. Obama writes extensively about his visits to meet wounded warriors and their families.

“How those men inspired me! Their courage and determination, their insistence that they’d be back at it in no time, their general lack of fuss. It made so much of what passes for patriotism –– the gaudy rituals at football games, the desultory flag waving at parades, the blather of politicians –– seem empty and trite. The patients I met had nothing but praise for the hospital teams responsible for their treatment –– the doctors, nurses, and orderlies, most of them service members themselves, but some of them civilians, a surprising number of them foreign-born, originally from places like Nigeria, El Salvador, or the Philippines. Indeed, it was heartening to see how well these wounded warriors were cared for, beginning with the seamless, fast-moving chain that allowed a Marine injured in a dusty Afghan village to be medevaced to the closest base, stabilized, then transported to Germany and onward to Bethesda or Walter Reed for state-of-the-art surgery, all in a matter of days.

“Because of that system –– a melding of advanced technology, logistical precision, and highly trained and dedicated people, the kind of thing that the U.S. military does better than any other organization on earth –– many soldiers who would have died from similar wounds during the Vietnam era were now able to sit with me at their bedside, debating the merits of the Bears versus the Packers. Still, no level of precision or care could erase the brutal, life-changing nature of the injuries these men had suffered. Those who lost a single leg, especially if the amputation was below the knee, often described themselves as being lucky. Double or even triple amputees were not uncommon, nor were severe cranial trauma, spinal injuries, disfiguring facial wounds, or the loss of eyesight, hearing, or any number of basic bodily functions. The service members I met were adamant that they had no regrets about sacrificing so much for their country and were understandably offended by anyone who viewed them with even a modicum of pity. Taking their cues from their wounded sons, the parents I met were careful to express only the certainty of their child’s recovery, along with their deep wells of pride.

“And yet each time I entered a room, each time I shook a hand, I could not ignore how incredibly young most of these service members were, many of them barely out of high school. I couldn’t help but notice the rims of anguish around the eyes of the parents, who themselves were often younger than me. I wouldn’t forget the barely suppressed anger in the voice of a father I met at one point, as he explained that his handsome son, who lay before us likely paralyzed for life, was celebrating his twenty-first birthday that day, or the vacant expression on the face of a young mother who sat with a baby cheerfully gurgling in her arms, pondering a life with a husband who was probably going to survive but found no longer be capable of conscious thought.”

President Obama visits a wounded warrior for a Purple Heart presentation at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Oct. 10, 2011. (Pete Souza)

Obama’s many visits to Bethesda/Walter Reed, as well as his participation in dignified transfer ceremonies at Dover Air Force Base informed and inspired him about the nature and cost of war.

“I was never more clear-eyed than on the flights back from Walter Reed and Bethesda. Clear about the true costs of war, and who bore those costs. Clear about war’s folly, the sorry tales we humans collectively store in our heads and pass on from generation to generation –– abstractions that fan hate and justify cruelty and force even the righteous among us to participate in carnage. Clear that by virtue of my office, I could not avoid responsibility for lives lost or shattered, even if I somehow justified my decisions by what I perceived to be some larger good.”

Vaclav Havel speaks to U.S. Congress in 1990.

Those visits informed him, as well, of the importance and value of affordable health care on a national scale.

This book is filled with nuggets of wisdom, such as:

• Hearing this wisdom from Vaclav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic: “‘Today, autocrats are more sophisticated. They stand for election while slowly undermining the institutions that democracy possible. They champion free markets while engaging in the same corruption, cronyism, and exploitation as existed in the past.’”
• Thinking about the roots of autocracy, whether from communism or religious fundamentalism: “Abstract theories and rigid orthodoxy can curdle into repression.
• Speaking to WWII Veterans at Normandy: “Our history has always been the sum total of the choices made and the actions taken by each individual man and woman. It has always been up to us.”
• Questioning political opponents for their fear-filled petty castigation after he bowed to the Japanese emperor, as called for by diplomatic protocol: “I wondered when exactly such a sizable portion of the American Right had become so frightened and insecure that they’d completely lost their mind.”
• Reflecting about the aftermath of 9/11: “President Bush had done some things right, including swiftly and consistently trying to tamp down anti-Islamic sentiment in the United States –– no small feat, especially given our country’s history with McCarthyism and Japanese internment –– and mobilizing national support for the early Afghan campaign.”
• Experiencing the joy of coaching his daughter’s basketball team: “Every parent savors such moments, I suppose, when the world slows down, your strivings get pushed to the back of your mind, and all that matters is that you are present, fully, to witness the miracle of your child growing up.”

While accepting the Nobel Peace Prize early in his presidency, Obama spoke to an international audience about the need at times for righteous war, such as when the United States joined with the Allies and confronting and defeating fascism and imperialism in World War II.

Near the end of “A Promised Land’s” 700-plus pages, Obama reflects on war again: “The truth is that war is never tidy and always results in unintended consequences, even when launched against seemingly powerless countries on behalf of a righteous cause.”

This is THE book to read now during Black History Month, in honor of America’s first African American president. It is also a book to read for years to come for anyone interested in understanding the cost of war, the need to preserve peace, and the demand to prevent the rise of autocracy and tyranny –– and achieve greater unity.

Navy Reads looks forward to reading the next volume.

ABOVE: President Barack Obama tours the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., with Sara Bloomfield, museum director, and Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Holocaust survivor, April 23, 2012. (Pete Souza) 

TOP PHOTO: President Barack Obama delivers his remarks to about 3,500 Sailors, Marines and other service members. Obama thanked them for their service during a rally held at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Oct. 26, 2009. (MCC Anthony Casullo)