Patrick E. Tyler is an author and formerly chief correspondent for The New York Times. He is the author of four books: Fortress Israel: The Inside Story of the Military Elite who Run the Country -- and Why They Can't Make Peace, A World of Trouble: The White House and the Middle East from the Cold War to the War on Terror, A Great Wall: Six Presidents and China, a history of United States-China relations since the 1972 opening by President Richard Nixon, and , a history of the United States nuclear submarine program under Admiral Hyman G. Rickover.