Presidents often try to shape history’s view of themselves. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon relied on secret tape recordings, tapes that eventually became public with disastrous effect. Bill Clinton is finishing up his memoirs, probably realizing that most readers will turn first to the part about Monica Lewinsky.

President George W. Bush selected a Washington Post reporter, Bob Woodward, as his Boswell, giving him unprecedented journalistic access to 75 key figures in the buildup to the Iraq war and permitting 3 1/2 hours of interviews with the president and three hours with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Mr. Woodward’s book, “Plan of Attack,” was held in close secrecy until yesterday’s publication date. Its inside story of the march to war made it an immediate bombshell. It sparked consternation in the Bush administration with its detailed account of Secretary of State Colin Powell’s resistance every step of the way – until he finally volunteered to support the president in his war plan.

Mr. Bush’s secret war planning began Nov. 21, 2001, the book reveals, when the president told Secretary Rumsfeld he wanted the old on-the-shelf plan for war with Iraq brought up to date. He wanted it done quickly and silently, and he wanted Gen. Tommy Franks, just winding up the combat phase of the Afghanistan war, to take charge. For months, Gen. Franks kept bringing revised versions of the new plan to the president – at the White House, at Camp David, and at the presidential ranch in Crawford, Texas.

From the start, Mr. Powell displayed skepticism. When Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense, suggested starting things off by using a small force to grab control of Iraq’s southern oil fields, Mr. Powell kept saying, “This is lunacy.'” Mr. Powell was similarly skeptical about the intelligence reports that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, in a reported meeting in Vice President Dick Cheney’s office when CIA Director George Tenet assured everyone: “don’t worry, it’s a slam dunk.” Mr. Tenet later told associates that he and the CIA should have reminded the president that they had only low or moderate confidence in their conclusion.

Mr. Cheney comes through as the point man for war, always arguing against United Nations involvement and pressing for an early invasion, while Mr. Powell was the voice of caution.

Another prominent figure in the account is Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington. He is shown as nervous as a cat for fear Mr. Bush will let Saddam Hussein off the hook at the last minute. To mollify him, Mr. Rumsfeld gave assurances, Mr. Cheney said, “Prince Bandar, once we start, Saddam is toast,” and President Bush backed them up. The prince was in on much of the planning and was shown a top-secret war map marked “NOFORN,” meaning not to be seen by any foreign national. He tried unsucessfully to take the map but had to settle for taking notes and later drawing his own map.

Mr. Woodward includes an intriguing suggestion that Prince Bandar promised to manipulate the world oil price downward to lower the price of gasoline as the U.S. presidential election approached.

Local bookstores are prepared for heavy sales of the book. It is must reading for the politically and militarily minded and for anyone interested in an inside look at the way the war started.