The book made a number of scandals at the time, due to the blunt language it used to describe different figures from the political leadership of Israel at the time, and especially due to a description of Shimon Peres, Rabin's political rival, as "an indefatigable subversive" (or "tireless schemer," Hebrew: "החתרן הבלתי נלאה"), a nickname that stuck to the latter.

Journalist Nissim Mishal first revealed the information from reading the book in draft form, on the eve of its publication.

For example, historian Michael Bar-Zohar (considered a supporter of Shimon Peres) said that "the chapters in which [Rabin] talks about Operation Entebbe, he simply wrote things that do not correspond to the truth.

[...] personal feelings are allowed to be expressed in an autobiography, but when you're not precise with the facts about an important event like Entebbe, to say the least, it's just not fair".

The first English edition was a translation from the Hebrew Service Notebook [he], written with Peretz Kidron and published in 1979 by Little, Brown and Company.