The Permanence of Books

Fifty, one hundred years from now, historians will be writing books about the Iraq War, and they will use whatever reference materials they have available, the pieces of the puzzle that they will organize into the full picture. On Monday, George Tenet's piece of the puzzle will be made available, his recollections that will enjoy the permanence of the printed page.

After Mr. Tenet resigned from his position as CIA director, the 24-hour news cycle began slicing and dicing the post-George Tenet era. Making the rounds of the Sunday morning political talk fests, White House spokespeople have taken a seat and put forth the official line about who is to blame for what. Thrown under the bus, abandoned, this has been the fate of Mr. Tenet. Verbally, over the airwaves, the former CIA director was showered with much of the blame for poor intelligence gathering and thus the chaos of the current situation. So many fingers pointing his way, and who wants that to be the permanent record of one's career?

Yet history is not written as it happens, it is written well after the fact. George Tenet's memoirs are about to be released, and he has set his personal record straight, a hard copy of the events as he witnessed them. And all those who savaged him on television will get savaged right back. Long after the plasma screens have gone dark, Mr. Tenet's skewering will remain, to form the backbone of the historical record. What happened in the days following the terrorist attack, the historians will ask, and Mr. Tenet's At the Center of the Storm will provide many of the answers, the insider's expose of the White House.

President Bush supported Tenet publicly, awarded him the Medal of Freedom, and is said to enjoy a reciprocal embrace in Tenet's book. Much will be made, however, about what Mr. Tenet has to say about the cast of characters that surrounded the president at the time of the attack, and it will not be complimentary. According to a report in today's New York Times, Tenet accepts blame for shoddy intelligence gathering prior to 9/11, but he also criticizes Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz for having their own agenda and ignoring Mr. Tenet's input when the invasion of Iraq was debated. Colin Powell, Condeleeza Rice, they're all in there as well, to go down in history as seen by George Tenet.

The book will be laid down on Monday, and thanks to early publicity and well-placed leaks, it will fly off the shelves and do very well for publisher HarperCollins. Whether or not readers will discover anything new, or find assertions that they heartily disagree with, will be fodder for discussions at the office or the play group. The material in At the Center of the Storm will provide an interesting read now, but its importance will come later, when the historical record is distilled from the many ingredients that make up the past. The spoken words will be largely forgotten then, while the words put down on the pages of a book will remain.