Richard Haass, head of the Council on Foreign Relations, has written his memoir of two Iraq Wars titled War of Necessity, War of Choice. With this work, he asks, “When should the United States go to War?” – the most important foreign-policy question any president ever has to answer. Here, Haass provides a firsthand look from his own experience working for Colin Powell and in the two Bush White Houses. He notes that the Gulf War and the Iraq War may seem similar, but they’re not. The first was a war of necessity; the second a war of choice. Mr. Haass is married to publishing giant Susan Mercandetti.

Felix Rohatyn has written Bold Endeavors: How Our Government Built America, and Why It Must Rebuild Now. Felix is the finance genius from Lazard Frères. Before he left that world he was already warning that something drastic was amiss and needed to be fixed. But here he goes “historical” on us and this book is a delight. He offers the stories of controversial and amazing dedication in the past, which led to our doubling our country by making the Louisiana Purchase, then building the Erie Canal, opening a water route to the West. He shows us Lincoln’s support for a transcontinental railroad, the idea of Land Grant colleges, the Homestead Act, the building of the Panama Canal and details of FDR’s policies to bring electricity to rural America, as well as the Reconstruction Finance Act. Also the miracle after World War II that became the G.I. Bill.

All of these were difficult and expensive endeavors, controversial in their time, but they made America great. Felix seems to be endorsing President Obama’s vision of improving our infrastructure, building green energy and making thousands of new jobs. He and his wife, Liz, were two of our best contributions in representing the U.S. at our Embassy in France. She also did yeoman work for the New York Public Library.

Pete Peterson is a visionary philanthropist who, when he reaped a life’s hard work for Blackstone finance, immediately plunged his profits into a foundation to improve America via health care, social security, education and opportunities for sustaining the American dream.

His book, The Education of an American Dreamer, tells in an informal manner of his rise from his Greek family’s diner in Nebraska to the corridors of power. He was the secretary of commerce under Nixon, co-founder of the Blackstone Group, is the chairman emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and founding president of the Concord Coalition.

Mr. Peterson is one of my best pals – engaging, delightful and super brilliant. His life story is really one for the books. Don’t miss it! (And Pete just happens to be married to one of the creators of “Sesame Street,” Joan Ganz Cooney, a wowOwow.com woman who has the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Strobe Talbot has such a great name for an author. His work The Great Experiment: The Story of Ancient Empires, Modern States, and the Quest for a Global Nation came out in 2008. Now a large paperback edition boasts a new conclusion titled “Yes, We Must.” He is president of the Brookings Institute, founded the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization and was deputy secretary of State from 1994 to 2001. He is a brilliant writer who dishes up the history of nations, the why and wherefore, how we started, where we are now, where we might go. I learned more reading the first half of this great book than in my four years studying history at the University of Texas.

His wife is Brooke Shearer. She has worked with Hillary Clinton and is a distinguished mover and shaker in Washington, DC.