Brandon Friedman is a writer, entrepreneur and former Obama administration official. He is the CEO of The McPherson Square Group. Previously, he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. His memoir, The War I Always Wanted, was named by the Military Times in 2010 as one of "The Best Military Books of the Decade."
Friedman began his career as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division. In March 2002, he led a rifle platoon into Afghanistan's Shah-e-Kot Valley to engage Taliban and al Qaeda fighters as part of Operation Anaconda—a battle later written about by journalist Sean Naylor in Not a Good Day to Die. A year later, Friedman commanded a platoon during the invasion of Iraq. He led troops during combat and counterinsurgency operations in Hillah, Baghdad, and Tal Afar. Friedman left active duty in 2004 after spending the latter portion of his Iraq tour as a rifle company executive officer. He was awarded two Bronze Stars for his service in Afghanistan and Iraq. From 2007 to 2009, Friedman was a Vice Chairman and spokesperson for VoteVets.org, a political action committee and non-profit 501 which has spent over $15 million on more than 40 TV and radio ads in 30 states aimed at getting veterans elected to public office. In 2009, Friedman accepted a role as the first Director of Digital Media at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C. In that position, his job was to both "revolutionize how the VA interacts with veterans on the Internet" and oversee VA's "burgeoning social media empire." In 2011, AOL Government noted that VA was "becoming a model for other agencies." Friedman's office and staff were the subject of cover story profiles in The Washington Post, The Federal Times, Stars and Stripes, and other publications. After leaving VA in 2012, Friedman joined the global public relations firm FleishmanHillard as a vice president. In March 2014, Friedman was appointed by the Obama administration as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Friedman left HUD in July 2015 and launched The McPherson Square Group, "a full-service PR and communications firm."
Publications
Book
The War I Always Wanted is a non-fiction memoir that details Friedman's experiences in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. The book was released in July 2007 to generally positive reviews. While Publishers Weekly gave The War I Always Wanted only faint praise, other reviews were more favorable. Wesley Clark called the book "compelling and moving," going on to say that "among the many excellent war memoirs by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, Brandon's stands out as the best." Steven Pressfield called Friedman's work "outstanding non-fiction" and described it as "ris at numerous points to the level of literature." Newspapers and journals reacted in similar fashion. The Baltimore Sun stated, "You'll want to read parts aloud," while the Mobile Press-Register described The War I Always Wanted as being "rendered with more literary flair and sophistication than even the accounts by bigwigs," calling it "an elegant meditation on his loss of innocence." In the military community, the Military Times described Friedman's memoir as "vivid, frank, precise and dramatic," while Military Review, the journal of the United States Army Combined Arms Center, concluded that The War I Always Wanted was "tragically compelling" and that " work is fresh, angry, cynical, and riveting." The War I Always Wanted was recognized in 2010 by the Military Times as one of "The Best Military Books of the Decade" and by Daily Kos as one of "The Best Books of the Decade."
Media
Friedman's writing has been featured in The New York Times, TIME, The Guardian, The Huffington Post, and elsewhere.
In the media
Friedman has been profiled by the Washington Post, PR Week, Stars and Stripes, and Government Executive magazine and he has been quoted in the media hundreds of times since 2007. In October 2007, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh called Friedman a liar on his live national radio show and accused Friedman of "smearing" him and "trying to destroy his character."
