All the Presidents' Wars: Twenty-Five Years of America’s War on Terror

by Peter L. Bergen

From the New York Times best-selling author, a tragic history of the United States’ war on terror across four presidential administrations.

2026 is the twenty-fifth anniversary of 9/11, the most devastating attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. The resulting war on terror cost trillions of dollars and thousands of lives. And yet despite its blunders, this campaign has kept America safe from foreign attack. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews, All the Presidents’ Wars focuses on critical decisions of four successive presidents―Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden. One of the few journalists to interview Osama bin Laden and have unparalleled access to the US intelligence community, Peter Bergen explores the birth of ISIS; the many terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups; the rise of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, largely responsible for the Iraqi civil war in the mid-2000s; the ascendence of Iran; and the resurrection of Afghanistan’s Taliban. All the Presidents’ Wars is essential reading for understanding the devastating history of America’s war on terror and for avoiding the mistakes of the past.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, War, Terrorism, Politics, Military Fiction, Middle East

384 pages, Hardcover

First published August 11, 2026

About the author

Peter Bergen (born 1962) is an American born, England-raised print and television journalist, author, and CNN's national security analyst. Bergen produced the first television interview with Osama Bin Laden in 1997. The interview, which aired on CNN, marked the first time that bin Laden declared war against the United States to a Western audience. Bergen has written several books including: Holy War, Inc., The Osama bin Laden I Know, and The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict Between America and al-Qaeda (Jan. 2011).

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

How have I never read one of Peter Bergen’s books? His ability to explain the decisions of each president and their administration on actions taken in the Middle East since 9/11 is so digestible. I was thrown with some of the findings that were put forth in this book that even as someone who was in their early thirties when 9/11 happened and was following along with what our government was reporting was upsetting news to me. All the President’ Wars does a deep dive in the real reason we attacked Iraq and how there were so many missed opportunities by every president to end the war. From the first drone strike that actually killed three of our own because of human error to Trump only negotiating with the Taliban and then leaving it up to Biden who basically pulled the rug right out from under the Afghanistan people when he announced while his team was trying to negotiate with the Taliban that the US was 100% leaving the country. Once that was said, any hope of leverage was gone, the Taliban took control. The number of casualties from military, civilians, hired fighters over these 25 years are just incredible.

What is really upsetting and frustrating is the ability to be lied to and manipulated into believing we had a purpose and a plan. Peter Bergen really knows what he is talking about and I now have a huge backlog of his books that I need to read. I feel like I have a better understanding of the last 25 years having read All the Presidents’ Wars.

Thank you, W.W. Norton & Company and Peter Bergen for providing this e-ARC via NetGalley for review.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I interviewed the author and wrote a review for The American Conservative

"No one can forget seeing the Twin Towers collapse and the Pentagon burn. We were glued to televisions and radios before the advent of smartphones. We were terrified, confused, wounded, and, as the initial shock began to subside, vengeful. Our collective sense of safety from foreign attack was shattered not by an invading army but by 19 hijackers, mostly Saudis who had entered the country legally.

In a surreal sequence of events lasting about two hours, the suicide pilots murdered 2,977 people in New York, Washington, and a Pennsylvania field.

But against whom to direct our wrath? In a stirring address to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush correctly identified the jihadist organization al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden as the perpetrators. Yet the coming war, Bush made clear, would not be confined to striking bin Laden’s remote Afghanistan base. It would be global—but morally simple—as the president divided the world into two camps.

“Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make: Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,” Bush declared. The Taliban, Afghanistan’s fanatical Islamist rulers, were up first: Hand over bin Laden or be destroyed...."

https://www.theamericanconservative.c...

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the most frustrating books to read not because of the writer but because of subject matter. Mr Bergen does an amazing job blending together the tactical and strategic logic of the GWOT and the countless mistakes that were made. It is frustrating that after 25 years a clearer picture has come to light that the impact of these decisions. I really appreciate Mr. Bergen documenting these decisions, the rationale behind things, and impact. Throughout it all, I also appreciated that Mr. Bergen also called out that there hasn’t been a large scale 9/11 style attack on the US homeland in the last 25 years. As time moves forward, we have to reckon with the impact of these wars of choice.

[Julian Pritchard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of the War on Terror