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Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a book due out later this month, describes President Obama as "a man of personal integrity" who nonetheless was skeptical of his administration's "surge" strategy in Afghanistan and openly distrustful of the military leadership, 

 report Tuesday.
The newspapers obtained copies of 

, scheduled for release under the Knopf imprint on Jan. 14. In it, Gates, 70, who has served every president since Nixon, with the exception of Bill Clinton, and was widely seen as an even-tempered team player, acknowledges that under the surface he was frequently "seething" and "running out of patience on multiple fronts" during his time in the Obama White House.
"All too early in the [Obama] administration," he writes, according to the 

 Bob Woodward, "suspicion and distrust of senior military officers by senior White House officials — including the president and vice president — became a big problem for me as I tried to manage the relationship between the commander in chief and his military leaders."


Gates accuses Vice President Joe Biden of "poisoning the well" against the military leadership.

He says Obama didn't feel ownership of the war in Afghanistan and was anxious to exit the conflict. "I never doubted Obama's support for the troops, only his support for their mission," Gates writes.

In a September 2009 meeting with advisers to discuss Afghan policy, "I was deeply uneasy with the Obama White House's lack of appreciation — from the top down — of the uncertainties and unpredictability of war," he recalls.


"I came closer to resigning that day than at any other time in my tenure, though no one knew it," Gates writes, according to the

Gates said he made his desire to step down known to the president at the end of 2010 but was persuaded to stay until he 

Update at 6:08 p.m. ET. White House Response: 

NSC Spokesperson Caitlin Hayden sent this response to reporters regarding Gates' book:

Politics and Government News

Scott Neuman

Author

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in a book due out later this month, describes President Obama as "a man of personal integrity" who nonetheless was skeptical of his administration's "surge" strategy in Afghanistan and openly distrustful of the military leadership.

Gates takes aim at Obama in new book

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