As he describes the Clinton team's evolution from relative impotence in Bosnia during its early months to dynamic involvement in 1995, Mr Halberstam gives a sympathetic hearing to the foreign-service officers who protested strongly because America seemed tobe condoning Serb atrocities, about which the United States, with its signal and satellite intelligence, was uniquely well informed.
The Senators who voted 96 to 0 to oppose his plan protested vehemently that it would be an unconscionable blow to people who had already made plans to retire within the next year.