Reading a new Steve Berry novel is like visiting an old friend. No matter the plot line the reader immediately reaches a comfort level with the knowledge that the author is a master of historical fiction who has the ability to capture your attention and take you for an educationally thrilling ride. He has the ability to create believable scenarios involving new and returning characters performing in a pseudo-historical thriller at a high level. In the eleventh iteration of his Cotton Malone series, THE 14TH COLONY Berry meets expectations by producing a searing plot that evolves slowly and more importantly developing a realistic storyline which could have actually taken place.
Berry begins the novel with the June 7, 1982, meeting between Pope John Paul and President Ronald Reagan at the Vatican. The topic was Poland and the threats and oppression meted out by the Soviet Union. At the time the Kremlin’s hold over its Eastern European neighbor was weakening even as they tried to crush the Solidarity labor movement which emanated from Gdansk. The two men had recently survived assassination attempts, one by a man obsessed with a Hollywood actress, and one by a Bulgarian assassin in the pay of Moscow. The two men spoke in conspiratorial tones to undo the February 1945 Yalta Agreements concerning Poland and help diminish Soviet control of its Eastern European satellites. Reagan’s approach was a massive Pentagon rearmament which he knew the Soviets could not afford and the goal was to have them spend themselves into oblivion. Berry’s description of the meeting and other historical events throughout the book relies on a certain amount of conjecture, but also a solid grounding in historical accuracy, which he clearly explains in his writer’s note at the end of the book.
(St. John’s Church, Washington, DC)
The scene swiftly shifts to the present day with a Russian surveillance plane flying over Lake Baikal in southern Siberia with Cotton Malone aboard which will soon be brought down by a SAM missile. Berry lays out Malone’s mission which was to learn about the machinations of a former KGB agent, Alexsandr Zorin and Vadim Belchenko, an old archivist for the KGB’s First Directorate. The agenda of the two men was clear – revenge against the United States for the destruction of the Soviet Union. Zorin, in particular, was apoplectic about events from 1989-1991 when he moved to southern Siberia where he was joined by like-minded people setting up their own community. It appears that the Kremlin was split between hardliners who supported a mission against the United States and those who did not.
Berry reintroduces a number of important characters from previous novels. Stephanie Nell, the head of the Justice Department’s Magellan Billet has been fired as a new president is about to replace Danny Daniels. Cassiopeia Vitt, Malone’s former lover, whose relationship redevelops throughout the novel. Luke Daniels, a Malone protégé and nephew to President Daniels also plays a major role. New characters aside from Zorin and Belchenko include SVR agent, Nikolai Osin who had requested American help and lays out for Nell what she is up against in the closing hours of her time in office. Jamie Kelly, an American who spied for the Soviet Union for decades and had in his possession important intelligence information. A number of officials from the Society of the Cincinnati, a fraternal society created by General Henry Knox, our first Minister of War after the American Revolution to look after revolutionary officer’s interests, even after the army was dissolved. Zorin’s girlfriend and SVR agent, Anya Pedrova, plays a limited role as do a number of others. Berry also includes historical figures like Pope John Paul, Ronald Reagan, and former KGB head and Soviet Premier Yuri Andropov.
(Author, Steve Berry)
Zorin was convinced of a US plan called “Forward Pass,” supposedly agreed to by Reagan and John Paul to destroy the Soviet Union. He believed it was implemented creating chaos and allowing oligarchs to steal the resources of the Russian people and create a criminal mafia that controlled his homeland. His revenge would be based on a plan developed by Andropov in 1984 to decapitate the American government.
Berry carefully lays out his plot as Zorin’s obsession plays out. His vehicle is Andropov’s plan which was based on the location of “suitcase nuclear weapons,” or RA115s, five of which were disseminated in the early 1980s in the event of nuclear war with the US. The question was whether the weapons were still operable after twenty-five years and how would they be employed. A second plot line that rests on a good deal of historical fact is How the Society of Cincinnati’s held documents outlining an American plan to invade and seize Canada called the l 14th colony which Berry ties into Russian resentment which is left for Malone and his cohorts to dig up and solve.
(War of 1812 map)
It is a race against time as intelligence showed that the Kremlin was fixated on a number of documents. First, Andropov’s plan to assassinate the American leadership; secondly the “zero amendment” which refers to the 20th amendment of the US Constitution that deals with presidential succession, and lastly the Tallmadge Journal written by George Washington Chief of Intelligence. Andropov dies in 1984 so his plan cannot be implemented, but Zorin and company have resurrected it for the January 20, 2009, inauguration of the new president Governor Warner Scott Fox, an intelligence and foreign policy neophyte who along with other members of his new administration where skeptical about to accepting advice from a soon to be former President Daniels, Stephanie Nell, or Cotton Malone.
As in most spy thrillers time is of the essence, and it becomes a race to negate what the assassins hope to achieve. As per usual, Steve Berry has concocted an absorbing thriller in creating THE 14TH COLONY where he explores flaws in our Constitution and the presidential succession act, the secrets (both real and made-up) of America’s oldest fraternal organization, the Society of Cincinnati, and our sometimes contentious relationship with our northern neighbor. The book engages the reader from the outset and keeps them in a vise-like grip until the conclusion of the novel. In addition to the breakneck speed, character development is just as well-developed as in previous Malone thrillers, with each character having their own set of demons as well as long held grudges that are plaguing them. Some might argue that the book is a little drawn out with the violence that is interjected, but for me it is just about right.
Every so often a historical monograph produces a heated debate that places the author on the defensive for his or her views. In our current world the term “wokeness” has worked its way into discussions of what should be taught and explored about our past. The general view of those who are champions of this line of reasoning is that anything that disturbs our view of the past, places whites in an unfavorable light, and explores issues such as slavery, anti-immigration, possible racism, misogyny, etc. should not be taught in our schools. This has led to book banning, violence when school boards meetings, and politicians who like to raise the woke agenda as a tool to gain or retain political power.
In this environment enters Nigel Biggar’s new book, COLONIALISM: A MORAL RECKONING which supports the idea that the British Empire was not fundamentally racist, unequal or shamelessly violent. Bigger argues the Empire had the capacity to learn from its errors and correct them. Further, as the Empire evolved it became motivated by a sense of Christian altruism intent on preparing those who they colonized to assume self-government as liberal democracies. Progressive historians are appalled by this view of history, and it is hard to classify Biggar’s argument on a wokeness scale. Should his ideas be banished because they support a thesis that most find unacceptable, or should it be taught and discussed because of its support for the positive aspects of empire, which in the case of England outweighed any negative components.
Sadly, in the United States we live in a society that is in the grip of educational experts who support the woke agenda, individuals such as Ron DeSantis, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and others who appear in the media daily offering their convoluted viewpoints. For them the College Board which oversees AP courses must adapt their curricula, i.e.; AP African Studies to avoid criticizing whites and exploring slavery. Further books that they find offensive must be banned, and if a school board does not conform to their views they are met with threats and at times violence.
(Author, Nigel Biggar)
Whether we are exploring the past by American or British historians on topics that place their perspective pasts in a positive or negative light, academic freedom and intellectual curiosity should be the gold standard of education. In both societies many feel threatened by the study of slavery, genocide against native populations, and prejudice that led to violence against non-white ethnicities. If we accept the premise of the wok curriculum our future will become distorted as we refuse to honestly evaluate our past as a means of avoiding mistakes as we prepare for the future.
Professor Biggar who possesses a Ph. D in Christian Theology from the University of Chicago finds himself in the midst of the wok debate. His new book encompasses the errors and positives as he perceives the impact of the British Empire on history. Whether you agree with his thesis or not, he deserves the right to be published and read by those who wish. Biggar’s call for a moral reappraisal of colonialism has not been met with open arms, but he argues historians have made people feel much too guilty about Britain’s colonial past. He further argues that we must recognize the good and bad related to empire and his book is an attempt to create a moral balance sheet as we study the past.
The book itself had a rocky road to publication as one publisher stalled publication for months then withdrew Biggar’s contract. Finally, when published it has entered the wokeness debate. Biggar asks eight questions which he addresses throughout the monograph:
(1) was the imperial endeavor driven primarily by greed and the lust to dominate; (2) should we speak of colonialism and slavery in the same breath, as if they were the same thing; (3) was the British Empire essentially racist; (4) how far was it based on the conquest of land; (5) did it involve genocide; (6) was it driven fundamentally by the motive of economic exploitation; (7) since colonial government was not democratic, did that make it illegitimate; and (8) was the empire essentiallyviolent and was its violence pervasively racist and terroristic.
(Commissioner Lin Zexu)
As Biggar answers the questions he presents what seem to be reasonable arguments, though some are difficult to absorb. He begins by arguing that we should not judge the past by the present as circumstances from previous centuries often vary from our own therefore it is difficult to morally judge the past. Once Biggar explores the concept of motivations for empire he argues there was no main British motivation for empire. But, he then argues that in many cases it was a protective tool against an enemy. For example, England had no choice but to go after Spanish colonies to protect itself as Philip II sought to destroy Protestantism. If we accept Biggar’s thesis it is clear that all territory England conquered in North America and the Caribbean was due to encroachment by foreign powers like France but in reality the motivation existed apart from protection of its own territory – the motivation was profit and money be it from the fur trade, natural resources, textiles, areas to place recalcitrant citizens etc. Biggar needs to examine the concept of trade in greater detail if we are to accept his argument. One cannot tell me that the East India Company was altruistic and were not motivated by profit. Everything they did be it improving education or health rested on the bottom line profit. One can argue that native people were backward and therefore superior civilizations had the right to rule them. But as Ruth Benedict, the noted anthropologist and mentor to Margaret Meade has argued that “all cultures are equally valid, as long as they meet the needs of the existing culture.” It is clear that certain cultures are backward according to “British” standards, but does that give them the right to oppress in the name of uplifting them for profit?
Biggar does admit that “motives can be corrupted by vices, of course, and we have already seen evidence of greed and impudence. Yet some degree of moral corruption is an invariable feature of human affairs infecting even the noblest of endeavors. Moral malice or weakness is universal, but it need not be central or systematic.” The author cannot have it both ways.
In discussing slavery Biggar argues that the British should be praised for abolishing the slave trade in 1807 and slavery in general in 1834. Hurrah, but what of the 150 years of slavery that existed previously in which they were a practitioner? What of the African slave trade or the fact that slave owners were compensated for lost slaves to the tune of 20 million pounds. Interestingly, in Africa British slave traders played rival chieftains off against each other to further the trade or the fact that freed slaves were given little once they were freed, many of which stayed with masters as a means of survival. British altruism is clear as slaves had to work (or be apprenticed) for 40-45 hours per week over a six year period to be freed! Biggar seems to forget the legacy of slavery, its profitability for a century and a half, and the impact on the lives and families of slaves as they were separated at the slave auction, but as Biggar states “involvement in slavery was nothing out of the ordinary.”
A major accusation against proponents of Empire is that of racism and prejudice. Biggar argues that it was marginal as practiced by the Colonial Office and “the empire’s policies…were driven by the conviction of the basic human equality of members of all races.” There is a myriad of statements by British officials one can refer to like that of Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour that stated that it was unimaginable to equate a man from Central Africa as equal to that of a European or an American.
Biggar also argues that violence was never a major component of the Empire. I would point to the Boer War of 1899-1902 and the use of concentration camps as a tool to defeat their perceived enemy. The Opium Wars cannot be seen as nothing but violence against a government that sought to slow or eradicate the Opium trade. Commissioner Lin’s demands of 1839 may have been off putting for the British ruling class, but it was a plea, perhaps in wording that came off as superior, but it was designed to protect the Chinese people from drugs which the British used to gain a favorable balance of trade. What of the Sepoy Rebellion of 1857, was not that violent. Perhaps the Amritsar Massacre of April 1919 would come under the heading of extreme violence when British General Dyer ordered his troops to open fire on an unarmed crowd of men, women, and children trapped in an abandoned walled garden during a Sikh festival. I would also point to the Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s against British rule and oppression – the result was war crimes committed by both sides. What about the 1956 Suez War where the British attacked Egypt because Gamal Nasser, a nationalist Arab leader had the temerity to seize the Suez Canal. If one reads the comments of Prime Minister Anthony Eden and Foreign Secretary Selwyn Lloyd at the time they are more than just tinged with racism. Biggar has been praised for setting these examples in their proper historical context, but that does not take away from the British attitude towards those who disagreed with them and their use of violence.
(Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser)
For liberal imperialists, the “backwardness of non-Europeans, justified colonialism.” Liberty and equality were the prerogatives of the privileged societal elites. In addition, Biggar implies that the Empire was acquired by a series of accidents. Once achieved it was designed to civilize the colonies, and train them for self-government. If this is so why was the period of decolonization so bloody? The bottom line is that the study of British colonialism is morally complex, so why is his thesis so simplistic? I agree with Kenan Malik’s view of Biggar’s work which appeared in the February 20, 2023, edition of The Guardian where he argues “Biggar’s real concern is not with the past but with the present. Denigrating colonialism, he claims, is an ‘important way of corroding faith in the west.’ Yet, in seeking to challenge what he regards as cartoonish views of imperial history, Biggar has produced something equally cartoonish, a politicized history that ill-serves his aim of defending ‘western values.’ After all, to rewrite the past to suit the needs of the present, and to defend people’s rights only when politically convenient, is hardly to present those values in a flattering light.”
Just remember the old joke” “Why doesn’t the sun set over the British Empire?” “Because you can’t trust the British at night!”
A few weeks ago, former President Bill Clinton visited Northern Ireland in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that mostly ended the violence of the period known as “The Troubles” that had prevailed since the 1960s. Clinton’s administration helped negotiate a multi-party agreement between most of Northern Ireland’s political parties, and the British-Irish Agreement between the British and Irish governments. To this day the agreements have been held with a minimum of violence, but decades of ill-will between all sides and the January 2020 Brexit Agreement has created a series of obstacles which at times makes the situation tenuous.
For years, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and its splinter groups resorted to violence to achieve an independent republic free of British rule. One of the most violent attacks occurred on October 12, 1984, with an assassination attempt against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The attack perpetrated by the IRA is detailed in a new book by Dublin journalist Rory Carroll, THERE WILL BE FIRE: MARGARET THATCHER, THE IRA, AND TWO MINUTES THAT CHANGED HISTORY. The monograph offers an in depth account of the attempted assassination, as well as the manhunt it precipitated. Carroll’s work also presents insights into how the perpetrators behind the attack were caught.
Thatcher had been staying at the Grand Hotel in the English seaside resort of Brighton for the 1984 Conservative Party Conference when a timer bomb exploded in the early hours of October 12. While Thatcher and her Cabinet ministers escaped with their lives, five people were killed in the blast, and over thirty were injured.
(Patrick Magee)
The IRA claimed responsibility for the bombing the next day, threatening further assassination attempts in their statement: “Mrs. Thatcher will now realize that Britain cannot occupy our country and torture our prisoners and shoot our people in their own streets and get away with it…..Today we were unlucky, but remember we only have to be lucky once. You will have to be lucky always. Give Ireland peace and there will be no more war.”
The above quote according to Carroll rattled Thatcher who became convinced she would be successfully targeted in the future. It appears she was deeply troubled despite the aura of the “Iron Lady” that she tried to project.
At times Carroll writes like a novelist creating a political thriller. He takes the reader through each step that leads to the assassination attempt. He describes the important personalities involved, the background history that led up to the attempt to kill Thatcher, the process the IRA and it’s England Department went through in developing their strategy, the actual construction of the bomb, the explosion that destroyed the Grand Hotel, and the investigation that followed. In each instance Carroll writes clearly and is able to draw the reader’s interest as if the story were fiction, but as we know it actually occurred.
Thatcher deplored the Irish Revolution that sought a “free state.” Despite the approach by police against any Irish demonstration, treatment of prisoners, and an overall policy of discrimination, Thatcher focused on her plan to revolutionize the English economy and tried to ignore her Irish problem. Her view was that the IRA, Provos, England Department or anyone who supported the cause were criminals and should be treated as such. They were no longer political prisoners. The labeling of the IRA as “criminal” was hated by its leadership because they needed to be considered as a political problem for its own legitimacy against British colonialism.
(Gerry Adams)
The use of hunger strikes by the IRA became an effective tool to raise awareness of the cause. In October 1981 after a prison hunger strike that resulted in the death of Bobby Sands who was elected to Parliament while imprisoned, reflected public and worldwide support. Ten would starve to death and according to Carroll, Thatcher refused to budge. Three days after the hunger strike ended, the government granted de facto special status to H-Block prisoners, but it was too late as a boiling rage convulsed the republican movement. Marchs turned into riots and it “congealed into a hatred of Thatcher, a visceral, personal hatred no British leader had evoked since Oliver Cromwell centuries earlier.” For Republicans, Thatcher was a murderer and revenge was the operative word.
From this point on Carroll describes how the IRA/England Department went about trying to secure their revenge. In doing so he develops a series of mini biographies of the important characters. Of course, Thatcher is discussed from a number of angles with an analysis that takes the reader inside 10 Downing Street and her thought processes. Peter Gurney, a fifty year old “expo” of the Explosive Section of the Metropolitan Police Anti-Terrorist Branch provides insights as to how “bomb” experts went about tracking down a given bomb and how to defuse and use it in an investigation. David Tadd, the Head of Fingerprinting at Scotland Yard’s Anti-Terrorist Branch plays a key role in identifying the bomber. Joe Cahill, an IRA fundraiser who successfully raised money and equipment among American Irish gangsters like Whitey Bulger and Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi. He excelled at donor relations, fiscal management, and gun running. Patrick Ryan, a former Catholic priest was the linchpin of the IRA’s global supply network who laundered money and smuggled weapons that kept the Provos in business. Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader who tried to develop a political strategy along with the use of violence. A prominent character who Carroll can not reach a conclusion as to his culpability for the assassination attempt. Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Reece, the Head of Sussex Criminal Investigation was in charge of capturing the bomber was out of his league as his experience was crime and domestic issues, not terrorism and bombings. Lastly, Patrick Magee, one of the IRA’s best operatives and the man who put the bomb components together, planted the bomb at the Grand Hotel, and then escaped.
Carroll does yeoman’s work in setting the scene for the assassination attempt, describing in detail Magee’s bomb preparation. Further he explores Thatcher’s obsession with her speech at the Conservative Party Conference at the hotel, and the actions of numerous participants at the conference and what their expectations were.
(Peter Gurney)
Carroll’s reconstruction of the bomb blast and its path through the hotel detailing the impact and damage to people and property is surreal. Carroll goes on to recreate the investigation narrowing down leads and possible evidence which led to Roy Walsh, a.k.a. Patrick Magee employing a registration card and a palm print as the key to identification.
Carroll has written a meticulous account of the Brighton bombing. According to Sean O’Hagan in his The Guardian review the book is a “deftly constructed narrative punctuated by dramatic moments that often seem determined by the fickle hand of fate as much as by rigorous planning, intelligence gathering, and dogged adherence to a cause. Elsewhere, Carroll’s prose possesses the steady, accumulative thrust of a police procedural drama, particularly as the investigation into the bombing gathers pace and the search for the perpetrator intensifies. Magee was caught after a frantic pursuit through Glasgow and served 14 years in prison before being released under the terms of the Good Friday agreement. In an interview in 2002, he said: “I regret that people were killed; I don’t regret the fact that I was involved in a struggle.”
In the end Thatcher escaped death, most probably through fate and a great deal of luck. It is interesting to ponder what might have ensued had the assassination attempt been a success. Perhaps there would be no Brexit and England would not have tilted to the right domestically and economically, but we will never know for sure.
*Sean O’Hagan. “Killing Thatcher by Rory Carroll review – meticulous account of the Brighton Bombing, The Guardian, April 23, 2023.
(British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s press conference)
If you are a fan of Ken Follet and other practitioners of well-developed historical fiction in books that weigh a great deal then screenwriter and director John Sayles’ latest work THE RENEGADE’S JOURNEY: JAMIE MacGILLIVARY is one you should seriously consider. Sayles, the author of YELLOW EARTH and A MOMENT IN THE SUN now tackles the adventures of two fictional 18th century Scots – the main character is Jamie MacGillivary, a landless follower of Bonnie Prince Charlie, and Jenny Ferguson, a poor crofter’s daughter swept up in the avenging British against the Jacobite Rebellion. The two characters dominate and leave historical figures such as Generals George Washington, James Wolfe, Robert Monckton, James Braddock, and the Marquis de Montcalm in the background as Sayles captures the competing alliances of the mid-18th century and the horrors of war through the trials and travails of Jamie and Jenny.
Sayles frames his novel with the Battles at Culloden in Scotland and the Plains of Abraham in Quebec, Jamie and Jenny will find themselves imprisoned under demeaning conditions and sent into indentured servitude in the English colonies. From there their lives will diverge before they come together later in the novel.
However, Sayles will first engage the reader with the details of the Battle of Culloden, a nasty confrontation that saw the British rout a Jacobite* army of Highlanders, Irish, Scots in the French service and English deserters, a rather difficult group to herd together as a formidable force. The army was created to support the claims of Bonnie Prince Charlie, so named for his boyish good looks who was the grandson of the exiled English King, James II who was removed during the Glorious Revolution and was replaced by William and Mary on the English throne. His father, James III, known as the “Old Pretender” in exile and in September 1745 his son, the would be Charles IV landed with a small army on the west coast of Scotland and with 2400 men entered Edinburgh. Within two months with 5500 men, he crossed into England and headed toward London. However, on April 16, 1746, the third son of King George II, the Duke of Cumberland defeated this rag tag army at Culloden. The “Young Pretender” would escape by ship to France where he would continue to try and recover the English crown for his father and himself.
(Bonnie Prince Charlie)
The main protagonists will find themselves in desperate situations. Jamie was wounded and survived under a pile of bodies before being captured by the Redcoats, and later by Native-Americans. He would meet Jenny, who had been beaten and raped by British soldiers as they are separately sent to the English colonies. Sayles describes Jenny’s plight as she is sent to Martinique where she is purchased by a French artillery officer, Lt. St. Cyr who will take her under his wing as his lover and friend showing off a white woman in Creole society. Later, St. Cyr is ordered to Canada to fight the British, taking Jenny with him. Jamie finds himself a slave on the Georgia plantation of Jock Crozier, a nasty individual that results in Jamie and his slave cohorts escaping, only to be captured by the Lenape tribe where he is put to work. Sayles uses Jamie as a vehicle to explain the shifting alliances in Europe as Hapsburg Emperor Charles VI issues the Pragmatic Sanction to gain support for his daughter, Maria Theresa, to succeed him on the throne. At first, Frederick the Great of Prussia agrees then conquers Silesia, and the result is the beginning of the Seven Years War in Europe in 1756, a continuation of the French and Indian War in the colonies between France and England that began in 1754. The situation lends itself to Sayles’ entertaining phrasing as Native-Americans describe negotiations in Europe as “old men wearing other men’s hair while they dicker over a treaty across the great water.” (328) The key in the colonies is the Ohio Valley which the French and English desire for the Fur trade and military outposts. As English colonists in Pennsylvania and Virginia want to move west this presents the French with the opportunity to ally with Native tribes.
In telling his story Sayles has the marvelous ability to create scenes whereby it feels as if the reader has an intimate relationship with the main characters. His description of the Atlantic passage and enslavement in the Caribbean and the English colonies mirrors the historical record. It is clear that Sayles has engaged in prodigious research and travel to the sites he has written about which allow him to convey intimate details of battle, treatment of prisoners, life on a plantation, interacting with Native tribes, and how his characters experience misfortune and at times luck as Jamie realizes how lucky he is to be alive as he states, “a French invasion scuttled by storms at sea, a bullet made to cripple or kill him only passes through his flesh, the whim of a bewigged magistrate on the day before hanging – all seems more accident than design.” (243
Sayles creates a series of characters, but there are a number who are key to the story. Apart from Jamie and Jenny there is Macheod Lachlan, a bard whose mission in life is to amuse his clan brethren. His goal in life is to entertain all who come in contact with him. There is Keach, an evangelical Christian who spots the glories of God as he tries to convert everyone. Jamie’s brother Dougal, thought dead at Culloden, miraculously survives, and Ange, who develops a loving relationship with Jamie. Numerous characters come and go. Some disappear for hundreds of pages then all of a sudden reemerge.
(British Major-General James Wolfe)
Jamie must have passed through an identity crisis as at the outset of the novel he is portrayed as a Highland Scotsman fighting with the French against the British. He is captured and sold as a slave in Georgia. Later he is taken in by the Lenape Indians whose tribe he will eventually become a trusted member. Jamie’s life mirrors the wars that are described throughout. First, the British and French fight in Scotland. Then the fighting moves on to the Ohio Valley in the American colonies. As the fighting shifts across the Atlantic, both powers try to convince various Indian tribes to join their crusades. White settlers are seen by Native-Americans as squatters stealing Indian land resulting in extreme violence. Lastly, the French and British find themselves fighting different Indian tribes. As Sayles describes the many conflicts we witness guerilla and conventional warfare which at times produces modern weaponry such as long range artillery.
As the novel follows Jamie and Jenny through servitude, revolt, escape, and romantic entanglements — pawns in a deadly game other historical figures of the era appear – the devious Lord Lovat, future novelist Henry Fielding, the artist William Hogarth, a young and ambitious George Washington, the doomed General James Wolfe, and the Lenape chief feared throughout the Ohio Valley as Shingas the Terrible.
Sayles is an excellent wordsmith; however, it does take time to adapt to the Erse, a Scottish or Irish Gaelic language as well as the French phrasing which appears regularly. Sayles does this to create authenticity, but at times it detracts from the reading experience and makes it difficult at times to follow what is occurring.
*Jacobite’s were the supporters of James VII of Scotland and II of England. Jacobus is Latin for James.
(OSS headquarters during World War II, Congressional Country Club)
World War Two produced many larger than life figures. Perhaps no one fits this category more than Colonel William “Wild Bill” Donovan who built the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) the precursor to the CIA. Donovan, a Republican was a law school classmate of Franklin D. Roosevelt and after traveling in Europe and speaking with a Nazi general he urged the president to create a centralized intelligence organization to oversee the collection of intelligence abroad. Further, he wanted this organization to engage in espionage, sabotage, propaganda, and disinformation against America’s enemies. This would lead to his appointment as Coordinator of Information in July 1941, which by June 1942 had over 600 employees at the time when Roosevelt signed an order establishing the OSS with Donovan as its head.
Once Donovan got the OSS off the ground he approached a well-known industrial chemist, Stanley Lovell to oversee the development of dirty tricks by a group of scientists which forms the core of John Lisle’s first book, THE DIRTY TRICKS DEPARTMENT: STANLEY LOWELL, THE OSS, AND THE MASTERMINDS OF WORLD WAR II SECRET WARFARE.
Lisle, a historian of science and the American intelligence community tells a fascinating story of how Lovell and his colleagues invented many items including Bat Bombs, suicide pills, fighting knives, silent pistols, camouflaged explosives, in addition to many other interesting items. They would also forge documents for undercover agents, plotted assassinations of foreign leaders, and conducted truth drug experiments on unsuspecting subjects. Lisle’s account is based on impeccable research including newly released materials, archives, and interviews. The subject itself is important as Lisle delves into the dark legacy of one of the CIA’s most infamous programs; MKULTRA. However, despite the fascinating subject matter, at times Lisle’s account comes across as a mundane listing of one invention after another. Though there are a number of interesting vignettes, overall, the topic was not developed to its potential.
(General Willam “Wild Bill” Donovan, OSS head during WWII)
Lovell and many scientists faced a moral dilemma in the conduct of their work. It became a conflict between a Hippocratic obligation and patriotism to defend one’s country. What made Lovell an important contributor to Donovan’s programs was his unique combination of business and scientific acumen. Soon Lovell would become Vannevar Bush’s aid. Bush, headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II would convince FDR to create the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) which would coordinate scientific research and devise new weapons under the auspices of Harvard president James Conant. Further, Bush convinced FDR to develop the atomic bomb.
Soon, Donovan convinced Lovell to join the OSS as Director of the embryonic OSS Research and Development Branch with a mandate “for the invention, development, and testing of all secret and other devices, material and equipment.” Lovell would travel to England to glean “dirty tricks” from the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Upon his return Lovell, with the help of Bush’s scientists created a secret division to develop all of the weapons that a spy or saboteur could possibly need in their line of work called Division 19, known as the “Sandeman Club.” Lovell would appoint Harris Chadwell, a chemistry professor at Tufts University to head Division 19. Little has been written about the R & D Branch or Division 19, a void that Lisle attempts to fill.
(Stanley Lovell)
Lisle’s narrative is loaded with interesting characters and at times bizarre suggestions for “Dirty Tricks.” Quirky and bright inventors abound. William Fairbairn, a spritely individual who weighed about 160 lbs. but was an expert at “gutter fighting” developed in Asia worked with the SOE and American agents who he taught to defeat opponents applying any means necessary. Ernest Crocker, the so-called “million dollar nose” developed all types of “smells” from perfume to fecal matter in order to embarrass and defeat the Japanese. Ed Salinger applied psychological warfare to scare Japanese villagers and developed items included in “Operation Fantasia” taking advantage of Shinto religious superstitions to foster fear among Japanese soldiers by painting foxes white and drop them in areas soldiers frequented. “Jim, the Penman,” a federal prisoner convicted of forgery was released to assist in developing documents for secret agents, flooding markets with forged currencies etc. Another large than life figure was Carl Eifler, the head of Detachment 101, a group of men who would be used behind enemy lines. At one time General “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell, Commander of US forces in China asked him if he could assassinate Chiang Kai-Shek, the Kuomintang leader. Later he was asked if he could kidnap German scientist Werner Heisenberg. Of course, Eifler answered in the affirmative for both requests. Not all suggestions were implemented, but the people behind them were committed to their implementation. Lovell did support many eccentric ideas, but some went even too far for him. One interesting example finds Lovell entering the Oval Office and firing a suppressed .22 pistol into a sandbox while an unsuspecting FDR was at his desk to demonstrate the weapon suppressor’s effectiveness.
There are other interesting pieces of information. For example, Donovan would use the Congressional Country Club in Maryland, outside Washington as his headquarters and research facility. The golf course complex was retrofitted to bring in the necessary equipment to foster research and experiments. Laboratories and other facilities were developed to assist scientists, inventors, and various gadflies in their research from weapons, accoutrements needed by secret agents, misinformation, etc. The Research and Development Department was responsible for dreaming up covert ways to baffle, terrify, destabilize and destroy the enemy: poison pills, silent guns, gizmos to derail trains, invisible inks, truth serums, forgeries, exploding dough, disguises and camouflage were all developed for the use of O.S.S. agents operating behind the lines. Further, they would develop psychological ploys to get inside the heads of Axis decision makers.
(Colonel Carl Eifler and General William “Wild Bill” Donovan)
At the outset Lovell had moral qualms concerning the types of weapons and strategies that were suggested or being developed. However, as the war continued his doubts gradually diminished. For him everything was dependent on whether a new device would end the war sooner and prevent allied casualties. The development of diverse types of pills to induce suicide, assassination, sickness, and other results interested Lovell and he strongly supported their use to protect secret agents. Lovell ran into opposition when it came to the development of biological and chemical weapons. FDR and Donovan, at first opposed their advancement arguing they did not want to be the first to deploy such weapons. Lovell argued against them, and they would finally come around as it appeared the Germans and the Japanese had no qualms developing them. Admiral William D. Leahy, the most senior American military officer, who had tremendous influence on policy remained adamant against their use until the end of the war, even rejecting the dropping of poisonous gas on Iwo Jima to save the military from storming the island and saving the over 24,000 casualties and 8,000 American deaths when the island was finally stormed by US troops. The US would develop and stockpile the weapons but did not use them.
Ben Macintyre, the author of many books on World War II espionage and other topics is correct in his April 9, 2023 New York Times book review, writing; “A grim legacy of the wartime research into truth serums was the C.I.A.’s 1950s mind-control program, MK-Ultra, in which dangerous and sometimes deadly experiments were conducted on prisoners, mental patients and non-consenting citizens.”
This somewhat enjoyable book is alarming as it offers good reasons for maintaining careful oversight in dealing with intelligence services: “Spy-scientists tend to go rogue when left to invent their own devices.”
(OSS headquarters during World War II, Congressional Country Club)
George Santayana has stated: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” it is as true today as it has been at any time in our history. Catastrophic warfare, plague, racism, anti-immigration, political divisions bordering on violence are all present today, but it is not an aberration in American history. The purpose of this class is to explore a unique comparison between our current situation and a similar one that existed roughly a century ago. Subjects such as World War I, the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, anti-immigration attitudes resulting in violence, lynchings, political repression involving over 1000 arrests, people accused of treason etc., sound familiar? All will be compared to our contemporary life and how America emerged from this cataclysm a hundred years ago, and hopefully how can be reengaged and overcome what we face today. While lecture-based, the course will rely on a great deal of class discussion.
Classes:
April 19, 2023 1917-1921: Woodrow Wilson’s administration, World War I and its Aftermath,
and the Rise of Intolerance in American Politics and Society.
April 26, 2023 2017-2021: Donald Trump’s administration, the Bifurcation of America, and its
Impact for the Future.
May 10, 2023 Psychological Profile of Donald Trump
BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Abutaleb, Yasmeen; Paletta, Damian. NIGHMARE SCENARIO: INSIDE THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S RESPONSE TO THE PANDEMIC THAT CHANGED HISTORY
Akerman, Kenneth D. THE YOUNG J. EDGAR HOOVER, THE RED SCARE, AND THE ASSAULT ON CIVILIBERTIES
Alexander, Dan. WHITE HOUSE, INC.: HOW DONALD TRUMP TURNED THE PRESIDENCY INTO A BUSINESS
Avrich, Paul. SACCO AND VANZETTI: THE ANARCHIST BACKGROUND
Avrich, Paul and Karen. SASHA AND EMMA
Baker, Peter; Glasser, Susan. THE DIVIDER: TRUMP IN THE WHITE HOUSE 2017-2021
Barnes, Harper. NEVER BEEN A TIME: THE 1917 RACE RIOT THAT SPARKED THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Berg, Scott. WILSON.
Brands, H.W. WOODROW WILSON
Coben, Stanley. A. MITCHELL PALMER: POLITICIAN
Cooper, John Milton, Jr. WOODROW WILSON
Davis, Julie Hirschfeld; Shear, Michael D. BANNED: INSIDE TRUMP’S ASSAULT ON IMMIGRATION
Draper, Robert. WEAONS OF MASS DELUSION: WHEN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY LOST ITS MIND
Fleming, Thomas. THE ILLUSION OF VICTORY: AMERICA IN WORLD WAR I
Ginger, Ray. THE BENDING CROSS: A BIOGRAPHY OF EUGENE VICTOR DEBS
Guerrero, Jean. HATEMONGER: STEPHEN MILLER, DONALD TRUMP AND THE WHITE NATIONALIST AGENDA
Haberman, Maggie. CONFIDENCE MAN: THE MAKING OF DONALD TRUMP AND THE BREAKING OF AMERICA.
Heckshear, August. WOODROW WILSON: A BIOGRAPHY
Hochschild, Adam. AMERICAN MIDNIGHT: THE GREAT WAR, A VIOLENT PEACE, AND DEMOCRACY’S FORGOTTEN CRISIS
House Judiciary Committee. THE JANUARY 6TH REPORT
Isikoff, Michael; Corn, David. RUSSIAN ROULETTE: THE INSIDE STORY OF PUTIN’S WAR ON AMERICA AND THE ELECTION OF DONALD TRUMP
Johnston, David Cay. THE MAKING OF DONALD TRUMP
Krehbiel, Randy, TULSA 1921
Lee, Brandy, M.D. THE DANGEROUS CASE OF DONALD TRUMP
Lee, Phyllis Lee. EDITH AND WOODROW: THE WILSON WHOTE HOUSE
Lemire, Jonathan. THE BIG LIE: ELECTION CHAOS, POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM, AND THE STATE OF AMERICAN POLITICS AFTER 2020
Leonnig, Carol; Rucker. I ALONE CAN FIX IT: DONALD J. TRUMP’S CATASTROPHIC FINAL YEAR
Madigan, Tim. THE BURNING: MASSACRE, DESTRUCTION, AND THE TULSA RIOT OF 1921
MacMillan, Margaret. PARIS 1919: THE SIX MONTHS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
McAdams, Dan P. THE STRANGE CASE OF DONALD J. TRUMP: A PSYCHOLOGICAL RECKONING
McLaughlin, Malcom. POWER, COMMUNITY AND RACIAL KILLING IN EAST ST. LOUIS
Miller, Nathan. NEW WORLD COMING: THE 1920S AND THE MAKING OF MODERN AMERICA.
Murray, Robert K. THE RED SCARE: A STUDY IN NATIONAL HYSTERIA, 1919-1920
Okrent, Daniel. THE GUARDED GATE: BIGOTRY, EUGENICS AND THE LAW THAT KEPT TWO GENERATIONS OF JEWS, ITALIANS, AND OTHER EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS OUT OF AMERICA
O’Brien, Tim. TRUMP NATION: THE ART OF BEING THE DONALD
O’Toole, Patricia. WOODROW WILSON AND THE WORLD HE MADE.
Schier, Steven. THE TRUMP EFFECT: DISRUPTION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES FOR US POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
Schmidt, Michael. DONALD TRUMP: THE UNITED STATES: INSIDE THE STRUGGLE TO STOP A PRESIDENT
Stelter, Brian. HOAX: FOX NEWS AND THE DANGEROUS DISTORTION OF TRUTH
Unger, Craig. THE HOUSE OF TRUMP THE HOUSE OF PUTIN
Washington Post. THE MUELLER REPORT
Weissmann, Andrew. WHERE LAW ENDS: INSIDE THE MUELLER INVESTIGATION
The mental and physical wounds that emanate from the Vietnam War run very deep for the American and Vietnamese generation that fought. Today, countless veterans who were sent to Southeast Asia still suffer from their experiences. “Between 1962 and 1971, the U.S. sprayed an estimated 20 million gallons of herbicides in Vietnam, eastern Laos, and parts of Cambodia, usually from helicopters or low-flying aircraft, but sometimes from backpacks, boats, and trucks. Agent Orange alone accounted for more than half of the total volume of herbicides deployed. One of its key ingredients, dioxin, is highly toxic even in tiny quantities. Operation Ranch Hand deployed about 375 pounds of dioxin over an area about the size of Massachusetts, contaminating the entire ecosystem and exposing millions of people — on both sides of the conflict — to horrifying long-term effects, including skin diseases and cancers among those exposed, and birth defects in their children.”*
An example occurred when paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division sprayed more than 500,000 gallons of assorted chemicals (so-called rainbow herbicides, of which Agent Orange is the most notorious) into the A Shau Valley which was one of the strategic focal points of the war in Vietnam. Located in western Thua Thien province, the narrow 25-mile long valley was an arm of the Ho Chi Minh Trail funneling troops and supplies toward Hué and Danang. Further, the United States sprayed 750,000 gallons of chemicals on Quang Tri province along the Laotian border. The United States also unleashed more bombs on Quang Tri than were dropped on Germany during World War II. The best estimate we have is that 600,000 tons of bombs dropped on Vietnam failed to detonate, about 10% of the total by the Air Force’s account. As a result, by 2014 the Vietnamese government estimated that 40,000 people had died from unexploded ordinance and another 60,000 were injured.**
(Chuck Searcy)
The ecological, health, and legal issues created by the use of chemical defoliants during the Vietnam War are complex, internationally debated, and continue to the present day. U.S. military personnel who were exposed to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam have litigated the issue for decades, seeking compensation for medical care resulting from Agent Orange exposure. They have sued both the U.S. government and the corporations who manufactured the chemical compounds. Exposure to Agent Orange can cause many diseases, from 20 forms of cancer to Type 2 diabetes and serious birth defects like cleft palates and club feet.
Despite the fact that over 30,000 books have been written about Vietnam, the latest addition to that compendium, George Black’s THE LONG RECKONING: THE STORY OF WAR, PEACE, AND REDEMPTION IN VIETNAM is a superb addendum as he documents the effect of the war today, fifty years after the Paris Peace Accords that ended the fighting focusing on Vietnam’s Quang Tri and Thua Thien provinces along the Laotian border, home to a vital stretch of the Ho Chi Minh Trail – from the DMZ south into the A Shau Valley. Black begins his account by explaining the different factions within the North Vietnamese leadership as they approached how to unify their country with the south. Black introduces Ho Chi Minh, the founder of the Indochinese Communist Party and considered by many as the “father of the Vietnamese Revolution,” and General Vo Nguyen Giap, the military genius who engineered the victory over the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.
According to Black, Both men favored a protracted armed struggle combined with patient diplomacy and negotiations. They would be eclipsed in influence by two others, Le Duan, a member of the politburo, and Nguyen Chi Thanh, the head of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN). Le Duan and Nguyen Chi Thanh advocated bold acts of revolutionary violence that would trigger mass uprisings as the key to national liberation.
(Manus Campbell and children he has helped)
By the end of 1961 Thanh was made a five star general, and the Third Party Congress named Le Duan as General Secretary heading the Politburo. A third important figure introduced, Colonel Vo Bam, was placed in charge of working out the mechanics of creating what was to be known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail to funnel men, weapons, and supplies into the south. By 1963 South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem’s control of the country was unraveling and would soon be overthrown, an action supported by the Kennedy administration. By August 1964 Congress, pushed by President Lyndon Johnson passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and by March 1965, 184,000 American troops were in country.
Among Black’s focuses are two Americans who fought in Vietnam who are central to the narrative. The first was Manus Campbell who hailed from Bayonne, New Jersey endured the horrors of combat, first on the back roads that led east of the A Shau Valley to the city of Hue, then along the DMZ, and finally on a section of the Ho Chi Minh Trail where it crossed from Laos into Quang Tri province an area along with Thua Thien suffered the heaviest losses of American troops in the war. As Black points out, “it was his particular misfortune to serve in the most terrible combat zone in Vietnam and at the worst possible time.” Campbell struggled for decades with the traumatic aftermath of the war and returned to Thua Thien-Hue to confront his inner demons and help in modest ways to aid those he called “the invisible victims of the war—disabled kids and orphans, including those presumed to have been sickened by the toxic defoliant known as Agent Orange.” The second American, Chuck Searcy was from Thomson, Georgia worked in military intelligence and never fired a shot in combat. In November 1994 he returned to live in Vietnam and for the past twenty years he dedicated himself mainly to cleaning up the legacy of the war in Quang Tri, the most heavily bombed province in Vietnam. Through the experiences of these men Black is able to paint a picture of how they influenced the US government to take responsibility for the ongoing horrors caused by chemical weapons and unexploded munitions that still impact so many Vietnamese.
At the outset, the American government had few qualms about employing chemical herbicides to expose the enemy’s hiding places but applying them to food crops was a different matter. Black points out that the US decided to defoliate food crops arguing the military value outweighed the potential political cost. Initially, the Pentagon and some scientists downplayed the impact of chemicals on soldiers and peasants or anyone who was exposed, a flawed opinion that so many are paying for today. The American use of herbicides was in response to the intricate and ingenious way that the North Vietnamese went about building the Ho Chi Minh Trail despite American bombing including Laos. Black carefully lays out how the trail was constructed and concludes the course of the war was radically altered by its coverage of certain areas and the dedication of Vietnamese peasants.
(Lady Borton-with mic)
Campbell, age twenty, learned as did so many American soldiers that “ survival in combat was a matter of inches and feet and usually dumb luck.” Black employs Campbell’s experiences to understand what it was like to fight just south of the DMZ, how troops survived and did not, and the role of the Pentagon and politicians especially General William Westmoreland and President Johnson in decision making.
Perhaps one of Black’s most important chapters, “Tonight you are a Marine” is an excellent summary and analysis of what it was like for Vietnamese soldiers to fight the American war machine. Maneuvering along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, planning and carrying out the Tet Offensive, and the lack of supplies and food the Vietnamese soldiers had to deal with.
Roughly the first third of the book is devoted to the combat experience of the war and political decision making by both sides. Black zeros in through Campbell and to a lesser extent Searcy what it was like to be a “grunt” in the war. Black moves on to core of his narrative as he dissects American policy and its relationship with the Vietnamese government focusing on diplomatic recognition, research into the location and the effects of chemical warfare, unexploded ordnance, and the wounds and bureaucracies that prevented medical assistance to the victims that continued for decades.
Black delves into the lives of many Vietnamese and how they coped and survived. The families of Ngyuten Thanh Phu and Ngo Xuanhien provide an excellent example as they described the importance of scrap metal which was used in a myriad of ways to create items that they could not acquire including cannibalization to foster medical equipment. Further, they describe the many deaths suffered due to stepping on mines or unexploded ordnance. Their families lived in Quang Tri, an area where doctors discovered an alarming rate of children suffering from birth defects.
(Charles Bailey)
Black introduces a number of important characters who were essential to discovering the enormous medical and moral issues associated with the war. Jeanne Stellman, an occupational therapist, and her husband Steven, an epidemiologist conducted their own research in the mid-1980s and developed studies reflecting a clear correlation between exposure to Agent Orange and health problems. Their research showed that Center for Disease Control studies were controlled by White House political organs. The information needed for research was barred by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) until Freedom of Information requests secured their release. The research concluded that between 1961 and 1971 “more than twenty million gallons of herbicides were sprayed, covering as much as one-sixth of the surface area of South Vietnam…Agent Orange accounted for 60% of the amount…more than 3000 rural villages had come under the spray…at least 2.1 million people, and perhaps as many as 4.8 million-a figure that included only residents, not combatants or transients.”
The key individual who would help foster further research was Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt who was appointed head of the new cabinet level Department of Veterans Affairs by President H. W. Bush as by 1989 over 31,000 veterans had their claims for compensation rejected. Interestingly, Zumwalt’s son served in the Mekong Delta and in 1988 died of Hodgkin’s Disease and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Black carefully explores the research that went into finally proving American culpability in conducting massive chemical warfare and finally breaking the deadlock in negotiations between Vietnam and the United States. The work of Dr. Ton That Tung and his colleagues began their research in 1971 for Vietnam and they would soon learn of numerous still births, miscarriages, monster fetuses, birth defects, and liver cancer. Amazingly it was mother’s breast milk that passed on much of the toxins as women would drink from poisonous streams and lakes. Dr. Le Cao Dai, a Vietnamese researcher, and Dr. Arnold Schecter, a dioxin specialist from SUNY Binghamton corroborated these findings and continued to explore them further.
Black integrates the life stories of many important individuals in trying to rectify the atrocity of what remained for the Vietnamese people. Chief among them was Adelaide Borton, better known as Lady Borton, who began her journey in Vietnam in 1967 and would leave and return to live for many decades. She would write two books reflecting on her experiences and conveyed the stories of Vietnamese who poured their hearts out to her. In 1990 she came to live in Hanoi to work for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and “people joked that she was really Vietnamese disguised as an American.” Jacqui Chagnon and her husband Roger Rumpf went to Laos to head up the AFSC where they discovered the same issues that existed in Vietnam. Charles Bailey, an agricultural specialist headed the Ford Foundation’s efforts in Hanoi which eventually raised $47 million to ameliorate the situation. Senator Patrick Leahy who was the motivating force for Washington to fund cleanup sites and assist those who suffered birth defects from the war including in Laos. At the same time these individuals impacted the plight of the Vietnamese and Laotians, Searcy developed and enhanced existing prosthetic programs along with working on the unexploded ordnance problem.
(General William Westmoreland)
Two Canadian scientists played a key role in the process, Chris Hatfield and Wayne Dwernychuk who founded a consulting firm, and they would dive into the problems described when the United States still in 1999 refused to devote the proper resources to assist the American vets and the Vietnamese people. They would apply Canadian resources and develop a strong working relationship with the Vietnamese governmental body called the 10-80 Committee. When 60 Minutes released a segment on what had occurred in the A Luoi Valley through interviews by Christiane Amanpour and evidence of birth defects in the children of American veterans it was difficult for Washington to ignore the problems. Hatfield’s work and the 10-80 Committee transformed the debate on Agent Orange in Vietnam.
More and more the work of Veterans, Scientists, pacifists, and some politicians interested in looking forward than looking back, chipped away at painful obstacles to normalize relations with Vietnam-first over POWs and MIAs, then prosthetics for the disabled, then the removal of unexploded ordnance, and lastly the legacy of Agent Orange. It took until 2018 for Defense Secretary James Mattis to promise an allocation of $150 million in Pentagon funds to clean up the toxins Americans had left behind at the Bien Hoa air base outside Ho Chi Minh City, one of many untreated “hot spots.” It was the first time the Pentagon openly admitted responsibility for the legacy of Operation Ranch Hand,” the code name for the defoliation campaign. For Laos it took until 2022 for the Senate to approve $1.5 million to help treat Laotian children who suffered from birth defects thanks to the work of Senator Leahy. Through the work of so many people like Searcy, Campbell, Bolton, Hatfield and a motley militia of private volunteers pursuing their own penance working with their Vietnamese counterparts’ intensive work would be done that needs to continue today.
It is clear that many individuals and their work described by Black had a tremendous impact on the lives of the Vietnamese people. It is a story that needs to be told to improve American-Vietnamese relations and help combat veterans from both sides understand what had occurred to them during the war and how to deal with the demons it fostered in their lives for decades. Black should be commended for his work publicizing the issue and bringing attention to many moral and ethical issues. Black is correct when he states, “the truth of all wars is that they never really end.”
Exceptional historical fiction should exhibit a number of important characteristics. First, is the story believable. Second, does it accurately blend historical fact with fictional characters in developing its plot? Third, are there multiple storylines within the larger narrative that come together in a rational and seamless manner? Lastly, the writing style that maintains the reader’s interest. If this was a checklist for successful historical fiction then Steve Berry has met all the criteria in his Cotton Malone series. Berry, along with his wife Elizabeth are founders of History Matters, an organization dedicated to historical preservation, and an emeritus member of the Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board along with being a New York Times bestselling author. Berry has written eighteen Cotton Malone Novels and to this point I am up to number ten, THE PATRIOT THREAT. As in the previous nine Berry has written, Malone has been thrown into a situation where international threats dominate. The book is fast-paced and should appeal to non-history buffs in addition to those who enjoy a complex mystery with many moving parts.
THE PATRIOT THREAT returns a number of characters from previous books. Chief among them is Malone’s old boss from an elite intelligence division within the Justice Department called the Magellan Billet. Stephanie Knell, his old boss contacts Malone who is retired and running a bookshop in Denmark and asks him to locate a rogue North Korean who may have acquired some top secret Treasury Department files that could be detrimental to American national security.
Berry begins his tale in the White House of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936 as former Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon is summoned. Their conversation is contentious as both men despise each other, particularly when the Internal Revenue Service has found that Mellon has cheated on his taxes for over $ 3 million. Mellon offers to donate the money that will result in the National Art Gallery to offset what he owes and as he leaves he presents FDR with a piece of paper with the picture of a newly printed dollar bill connected to make a pentagram. What does it mean, and from this point Berry has peaked the reader’s interest to continue to read on.
(Smithsonian Museum, Washington, DC
Berry immediately takes the reader to Venice where Malone finds himself hanging from a helicopter in a situation that has gone out of control. Berry then switches to Atlanta, GA at Magellan Billet Headquarters as Stephanie Nell discovers a breach in the security system, supposedly involving a Treasury official.
Berry has created a number of scenarios that will cause the reader to wonder how they will all fit together. The first involves Kim Yong Jin, a son of North Korea’s “Great Leader” who was first in the line of succession until what was viewed as an indiscretion removed him from the family hierarchy and forced him into exile. His younger half-brother assumed his position as next in line to succeed his father. Kim’s anger and jealousy knew no bounds. He created a playboy image so he would not appear to be a threat, unbeknownst to his brother he was plotting to seize power.
The second scenario involves the American Secretary of the Treasury, Joseph Levy who is trying to recover department documents which he believes posed a significant threat to the US economy. This pitted him against the Justice Department which employed the Magellan Billet. The missing documents dealt in some way to the passage of the 16th amendment and the right of the federal government to collect income taxes.
The third scenario involves a historical character named Haym Salomon who loaned the American government $800,000 to finance the American Revolution and was never repaid. The family tried for years to gain repayment, but they were never compensated. In 1925 then Secretary of the Treasury blocked any payment, and probably took the Salomon repayment documents which showed that the family was owed close to $330 billion. In 1937 FDR ordered an investigation over the validity of the claims and Mellon’s role. In the end the Salomon family never received any repayment.
The fourth scenario centers on a self-published book by a tax cheat who had fled the United States during his tax evasion trial named Anan Wayne Howell, who wrote THE PATRIOT THREAT which lays out the argument against the 16th amendment. The question is how does this all fit together and what role did Andrew Mellon and Franklin Roosevelt play in the process.
Malone’s role begins rather benignly. Hired by Stephanie Knell to observe the transfer of $20 million to “Dear Leader,” the money is a target of his brother. The situation deteriorates and Malone finds himself knee deep in something he doesn’t quite understand.
Berry provides many insights into life in North Korea. The poverty, malnutrition, ill health, lack of electricity, lack of freedom is on full display. Berry explores in detail through Hana Sung, Kim’s daughter, what life was like in North Korean labor camps where people are worked to death, executed, or both. Life in the north is harrowing and anyone deemed a threat to the regime is immediately removed to a labor camp or is shot on the spot.
Berry poses an interesting question as to whether the federal income tax is legal. In doing so he integrates historical characters like Haym Soloman, George Mason, Andrew Mellon, Robert Morgenthau, Franklin Roosevelt, and Philander Knox and a number of fictional ones. The book is classic Berry leaving the reader to continually ponder what will be the next turn in the novel and how everything, no matter how disparate comes together. The next novel in the series is THE 14TH COLONY which has a strong Cold War bent and involves the possibility of Canada as part of the United States.
This week I have tackled Peter Baker and Susan Glasser’s exceptional account of the Trump administration, THE DIVIDER: TRUMP IN THE WHITE HOUSE, 2017-2021. As I was reading the book I tried not to pay attention to the news of an impending indictment of the former president, but it was impossible. Baker and Glasser’s narrative are almost encyclopedic in its detail and as I pushed on words describing the Trump presidency kept going through my mind; scary, unimaginable, unprecedented, unbelievable, inconceivable, overwhelming, mind-boggling, etc. Today I find myself comparing events and comments related to the Trump presidency with the barrage of racist, anti-Semitic tropes that the former president is currently bombarding the airwaves and it seems he is willing to foster violence and say or do anything that will protect him. It is the Roy Cohn playbook on steroids and there is no daylight concerning Trump as president and Trump as a possible defendant in the Maro-Lago documents case, the Georgia election obstruction case, the special prosecutor’s investigation into January 6th, and the hush money paid to a porn star grand jury in New York. All the descriptive words mentioned above apply.
After reading THE DIVIDER one should not be surprised by Trump’s current behavior. The authors dig into all aspects of the Trump presidency, be it how the White House was run, domestic policy, foreign policy, and of course Trump’s behavior. The cast of characters is long, and concerning based on how people were chosen for government positions and how frequently they were fired or left based on their own concerns. The authors repeatedly point out that people like James Mattis, Rex Tillerson, John Kelly, H. R. McMaster and numerous others took positions in the administration and remained long after they wanted to as a means of protecting the country, but all would be gone within a year. The authors point to March 2018 as the watershed moment as Trump relieved himself of anyone who could control him and now was able to do as he pleased, not necessarily for the betterment of the country, but for the betterment of Donald J. Trump. It is clear, no matter what your opinion of Donald Trump is, America has never experienced such a presidency and post-presidency.
Baker and Glasser’s narrative can easily be framed beginning with Trump’s “American Carnage” speech given at his inauguration on January 6, 2021 encouraging his followers to march on the capitol and overturn his election defeat. The authors base their work on assiduous research culled from over 300 interviews, private diaries, contemporaries notes, emails, texts, along with personal access to many of the players inside and outside the Trump administration. For Baker and Glasser Trump was a rogue president who took the country closer to conflict with Iran, North Korea, and to the brink of blowing up NATO even as Russia prepared to use force to redraw the map of Europe. His erratic behavior and belief in his own instincts saw him vindictively pullout thousands of troops from Germany because he was mad at Angela Merkel who refused to kowtow to his ego. He tried to buy Greenland after a billionaire friend suggested it to him. He secretly sought to abolish a federal appeals court that ruled against him. He privately expressed admiration for Hitler’s generals, while calling his own generals “fucking losers,” and subjecting them and others to racist rants that made it clear his “shithole countries” commentary was not an aberration.
(Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster shakes hands with President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida)
Trump was consumed by his own image on television and twitter and both forms of communication dominated his presidency. Whether dealing with FOX “news” and their minions, a daily barrage of tweets, Trump needed to dominate the airwaves with his worldview. From the outset of the administration people like Jared Kushner, Reince Priebus, Steve Bannon, Steven Miller, and Kellyanne Conway fought for control of the White House. The polarization based on constant lies and personality conflict dominated policy decisions. In addition to exploring these personalities and others, Baker and Glasser delve into the Trump family. It is clear that Ivanka and Melania had no love lost for each other, Donald Trump had no use for his son Don, Jr. until after the 2020 election defeat, and it appears that a dysfunctional family greatly contributed to a dysfunctional presidency, a White House in chaos.
From the outset the announcement of the Muslim “travel ban,” the hiring and firing of Michael Flynn as National Security advisor, the firing of James Comey to avoid an investigation into Trump ties to Russia, Trump’s obsession with destroying any remnant of the Obama administration, the role of FOX “news” and Rupert Murdoch, and threatening to withdraw from NATO are on full display. The authors spend a great deal of time discussing “the Axis of Adults,” Mattis, McMaster, and Tillerson who worked to achieve some sort of normality reassuring overseas allies that things would work out, but at the first NATO summit Trump refused to reaffirm Article 5 of the alliance, a portent of the future.
Reading this book was like reliving a nightmare, particularly the chapter dealing with Roy Cohn who mentored Trump in New York and whose playbook of “take-no-prisoners approach to business and politics would define the 45th president.” Trump admired Cohn’s underhanded ways and educated Trump into the “netherworld of sordid quid pro quos” that defined Cohn. The authors describe a president who was his own worst enemy as he pursued self-destructive policies. A case in point is firing FBI head , James Comey because he would not stop his investigation of Russia’s role in the 2016 election and pay fealty to Trump. Advisors begged him not to do it abruptly, if at all, but they could not control him and by doing so he obstructed justice by interfering in a federal investigation.
(General James Mattis, Secretary of Defense)
The authors put forth numerous examples of Trump’s self-destructive approach whether backing racist, incompetent candidates for office, condemning the American intelligence community in Helsinki in front of Vladimir Putin, his bromance with Kim Jong-un, withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear deal, and of course his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. For Trump it was all about wielding power and promoting his support for autocrats worldwide – perhaps his own jealousy of the power employed by the likes of Putin, Orbán in Hungary and Erdogan in Turkey was the reason he wanted to create an image of the all-powerful ruler.
Baker and Glasser have the knack of integrating comments by important characters into their narrative which are shocking and at times bizarre. A good example is their discussion of Mike Pompeo’s quest to be Secretary of State. Using his perch at the CIA, Pompeo attached himself to Trump’s hip and finally was able to gain the appointment. According to one American ambassador who worked with Pompeo, he was “like a heat-seeking missile for Trump’s ass.” Another example pertains to the convoluted relationship with Senators John McCain and Lindsay Graham. McCain, a war hero, despised Trump and could not get over the fact his close friend, Graham “sucked up to him.” The story has been told many times how McCain got even with Trump over the Obamacare vote and the exclusion of the president from the family funeral, however the account of Trump’s refusal to put federal flags at half staff after McCain’s death further reflects the depths of Trump’s inhumanity and insensitivity. Trump’s comments went public, “What the fuck are we doing that for? Guy was a fucking loser.” Trump would finally give in, but not before he stated to John Kelly, “I don’t know why you think all these people who get shot down are heroes but do what you want to do.” Perhaps one of the most demented remarks uttered by Trump to John Kelly as he grew tired of “his generals” taking principled stands against him; “You fucking generals, why can’t you be like the German generals…..Which generals?….The German generals in World War II.” This was the model he craved. Trump’s audacity knew no bounds, pressuring Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize! Baker and Glasser’s inclusion of conversations/arguments was priceless as Nancy Pelosi confronted Trump at their last meeting; “all roads lead to Putin, you gave Russia Ukraine and Syria.”
(CIA Head and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo)
Perhaps the second important watershed period for Trump was following the 2018 congressional elections when the Republicans lost control of the House of Representatives. According to Baker and Glasser, Trump felt liberated and believed he could move on and do what he saw fit. This would lead to the final firing of John Kelly as Chief of Staff and replacing Attorney General Jeff Sessions with Bill Barr. Further he would replace Joe Dunford as head of the Joint Chiefs with Mark Milley and make it so intolerable that James Mattis would resign. Next, Mick Mulvaney became Chief of Staff, and his approach was simple and disastrous, “Let Trump be Trump.” This would become a disaster for democracy and the rule of law.
(Joint Chiefs of Staff Head, General Mark Milley)
The dive into the Russia investigation is fascinating. It is clear that Putin worked to undermine Hillary Clinton’s run for the White House seeking and gaining revenge for her approach as Secretary of State dealing with Crimea and sanctions among other grievances. Baker and Glasser unearth many interesting aspects of the probe including the fact that White House Counsel Don McGahn was feeding the Mueller investigation a great deal of information and Mueller’s belief that he could not prove in a court of law a Trump-Russian conspiracy. However, they did believe that they could gain a conviction over obstruction of justice, but Justice Department protocols against indicting a sitting president disallowed such an action.
Baker and Glasser devote a considerable amount of attention to the conduct of American foreign policy under Trump. The dysfunction of the administration in the national security realm is on full display with the arrival of Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State and John Bolton as National Security advisor. Though both men had similar views theirs was a relationship that was bound to fail. Trump’s “love affair” with Kim Jung-un is well told as are the machinations within the White House, State and Defense Departments over policy.
(Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump)
By February 2019, Bolton began implementing his agenda by arranging the withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, one of the last remnants of Cold War agreements. Further he laid the groundwork to pull out of the Open Skies Treaty of 1992 and pushed Trump to quit the United Nations Human Rights Council. Bolton continued his onslaught by pushing for regime change in Venezuela replacing General Nicolas Maduro with opposition leader Juan Guaido. The initiative would fail no matter how hard Pompeo and Bolton pushed. If this was not enough Iran was clearly in their sights. In June 2019, the Iranians shot down an American drone over the Gulf of Hormuz. What followed was the usual Trumpian bluster resulting in the canceling of a major American response as Trump could not make up his mind. Throughout the infighting and dysfunction reflected an administration which was incompetent in the conduct of foreign policy.
Ukraine would reemerge as an issue as Rudy Giuliani convinced Trump that Ukraine had interfered with the 2016 election not Russia. This was another flashpoint for Trump because any questions surrounding Russian interference in the election delegitimized his victory in 2016 and his presidency. Baker and Glasser take the reader through attempts to blackmail Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky over American military and economic aid linking the Biden family to corruption in Ukraine, and the firing of American Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch. This would culminate in the “perfect phone call” between Trump and Zelensky and the former president’s first impeachment trial which the authors carefully detail including the various personalities and why they pursued the course they did.
The result, by following the “Clinton playbook” from the nineties of deny, deny, deny worked well, despite the fact that Trump released a transcript of his phone conversation with Zelensky which was direct evidence of a quid pro quo in return for an investigation of the Bidens. For Trump foreign aid was a normal cudgel to be employed to get what he wanted from foreign leaders. He had done it with the Palestinians, Pakistan, Central American countries, and of course Ukraine. The fact it was illegal was immaterial, especially for Republicans.
The authors do not shy away from the successes of the Trump administration. They spend a good amount of time discussing Jared Kushner’s accomplishments in achieving the Abraham Accords that brought recognition by Arab states for Israel and left open the possibility of Saudi Arabia joining later. Kushner was able to take advantage of fears of Iran and disenchantment by certain Arab states with the Palestinians. The vaunted Trump tax cut that was geared toward the rich, the renegotiation of NAFTA, and a few other successes are detailed.
The Covid-19 crisis gets a fair hearing and a number of important points are presented. The Trump-Fauci falling out was due to the former president’s jealousy of Fauci’s popularity and his constant advice that Trump disagreed with. Though nothing discussed is new the emphasis on treating the pandemic in the context of his reelection and looking tough led to a further bifurcation of America culture over the use of masks, vaccines, and shut downs. Deborah Birx, the White House response coordinator has said there was little the United States could have done to prevent the first 100,000 deaths from Covid, but the next 900,000 certainly would have been much lower had the Trump administration followed a rational path. Trump’s lack of empathy for those who passed and his laser vision on reelection ultimately cost hundreds of thousands of American lives.
(January 6, 2021)
Baker and Glasser rehash the details of Trump’s election defeat, his refusal to concede, his war on election denials leading to the January 6th insurrection, and the final impeachments of Trump. Each issue is covered with the same detail and sourcing as other topics in the book and the ultimate conclusion is that as even certain Republicans and administration members stated, Trump was “crazy” and was destroying democracy. That may have been the case, but the Kevin McCarthys and Lindsay Grahams of the world found it easy to return to the good side of the Napoleon of Mara-la-go.
It is a credit to the authors that they manage to include the culture wars, corruption, demagogy, autocratic-love, palace intrigue and public tweets, the pandemic and impeachment in one well written volume. THE DIVIDER reconstructs all aspects of the Trump White House and the impact of decision-making and events. What is clear is that Trump may have left office in January, 2020 but his legacy of obstruction, promoting violence and hatred still plays out each day.
On June 14, 1940, the German army marched into Paris beginning an occupation that would last for four years. The arrival of the Germans was the culmination of a six week invasion that saw French forces melt away in defeat and the French government agreeing to an armistice on June 22, 1940. The French government would move to Vichy in the south where they set up a collaborative regime under World War I hero, Marshal Philippe Petain. The new government would defer to the Nazis who set up their occupation regime in the north, beginning a period of limited freedom for Parisians, greatly reduced food supplies, and an overall sense of fear as to what would come next.
With the occupation serving as a backdrop British author Chris Lloyd who held a lifelong interest in World War II, including resistance and collaboration in occupied France has embarked on a series of novels centering on French Investigator Eddie Giral. The first in the series is THE UNWANTED DEAD set in Paris which earned the HWA Gold Crown Award. Giral would spend the war trying to navigate the occupation, seeking a road between resistance and collaboration, all the time transforming himself into becoming who he needs to be to survive.
Lloyd begins the novel with the arrival of the German army in Paris on June 14. Immediately the German High Command orders all French citizens to be disarmed and to remain in their houses for the next few days. Giral, has other concerns as a sealed railway car is discovered with four dead bodies probably killed with chlorine or some other gas. Giral decides it is his obligation as a “French cop” to investigate the deaths and determine who was responsible. The four dead bodies turn out to be Polish refugees, one of which is from the Polish village of Bydgoszcz. The situation becomes even more complicated when Fryderyk Gorecki, another Polish refugee from the same village jumps from the roof of his home with his young son Jan committing suicide as the Nazis enter Paris.
(Jewish quarter of Paris, 1941)
For Giral the smell of the gas returns him to the trenches of World War I and introduces a character reminiscent of the late Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther, oozing with attitude and a conflicted morality that powers a complex, polished plot. At the same time Lloyd develops the Giral character he successfully frames the French experience under the Nazis. The Germans who have just conquered most of Europe in a few weeks mostly are haughty, arrogant, and have little respect for the French. Lloyd accurately conveys the internal politics of the Nazi occupation including the competition between the German army, the Gestapo, and SS for controlling Paris. The duplicity and infighting among the Germans is on full display in Lloyd’s rendition of the early Nazi occupation and it appears quite accurate.
The Parisian ambiance is clear as Lloyd takes the reader into the underside of Paris and the conflicting feeling of the French many of whom are right wingers like Detective Auban who works with Giral that believe the French government was weak and led them astray fostering a deep respect for German efficiency and in some cases racial beliefs leading to French collaborations to the detriment of the French resistance.
The desperation of the French people is evident through suicides, attempts to escape the city, locking themselves in their homes, and abandoning their previous lives by fleeing the Germans. As the Germans arrive 2/3 of Parisians flee the city, leaving only the poor, the old, and the police. As Giral puts it, “Paris was still there, but it was no longer Paris.
Lloyd has created an interesting character in Giral, a man with tremendous personal baggage dating back to WWI. Giral survived the war but did not survive the metal anguish of life in the trenches. Unbeknownst to him he develops post-traumatic stress disorder which will destroy his family as he leaves his wife, Sylvie, and their five year old son Jan-Luc to survive on their own. Giral is also guilt ridden because his parents blame him for his older brother’s death as he joined the French army in 1916 following in his brothers’ footsteps and was killed at Verdun. Lloyd integrates the year 1925, at times alternating chapters dealing with 1940 to dig into Giral’s personal issues which seem to percolate throughout the novel. For Giral, once a respected policeman, his methods and own baggage at times reduce him to a weak figure who in 1925 seeks refuge in an American jazz club and cocaine. Giral manifests his personal issues with a nasty habit of “putting his foot in his mouth” especially when it comes to his son who he is trying to protect from the Germans at the same time he is trying to make amends for deserting his family.
(Nazi Command Post at French Hotel, June, 1940)
Lloyd’s grasp of history is strongly exemplified by Giral’s conversations with former Black Harlem Hell fighters who fought for the United States in World War I. Giral is shocked that these men do not want to live in their home country, but he understands when they describe the racial situation in the United States and how they were better off in France. Another interesting example is Lloyd’s description of the French surrender to the Germans at Compiegne using the same railway car used by the allies in 1918. This time with Hitler present.
Lloyd’s plot lines are well conceived. What does the gassing of the refugees and the suicide of a man and his son have to do with each other. When American reporters become involved Giral’s eyes are opened to a larger issue – how to get across to the world the atrocities the Nazis have committed in Poland and other areas in order to convince the United States to join the war and for the Soviet Union to break its pact with the Hitlerite regime. More and more Giral becomes obsessed with learning the truth and balancing that truth with the larger goal of defeating the Nazis. In so doing an interesting series of characters become important. Major Hochstetter, an Abwehr Nazi officer who is the liaison to the French police who plays a duplicitous role throughout. Lucja and Janek, members of the Polish resistance whose main goal is to tell the truth to the world. Katherine Ronson, a freelance American journalist looking for a Pulitzer Prize. Hauptmann Karl Weber, an officer in the 87th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht, and a series of others.
How these diverse personalities and storylines come together make the novel an excellent read. For Giral how many sacrifices must he make as he navigates the Nazi obstacle course in his quest for the truth, while at the same time holding onto his moral compass and seeing the larger issues that may be more important than his own murder investigation. For Giral it is a constant question as to who he can trust. Journalists, colleagues, certain Germans, union workers, but in the end he must rely on his own instincts. The next book in the series is PARIS REQUIEM and I look forward to continuing to follow Eddie Giral’s career and life story.
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