DEFENDING JACOB by William Landay

May 31, 2014szfreiberger Mystery/Thrillers Leave a comment

I began reading William Landay’s DEFENDING JACOB early in the morning and by nightfall I had finished it. It is rare that a book can keep my interest that long without putting it down, but in this case Landay’s novel trapped me in my recliner and I just kept reading. The plot is a complex one, but a story that touches a nerve as it unfolds. Jacob is a teenager living in Newton, MA and he is accused of killing a classmate who had been bullying him. His father a District Attorney in Middlesex County is forced to recues himself from the case, and his mom is a typical suburbanite mother. The story has many unique twists and turns that keep the reader completely absorbed and as courtroom strategy and the effect of the legal system on a family life is explored Landay raises many points that in real life we are forced to confront but never really think about.

In any criminal trial prosecutors are faced with human suffering, but in order to carry out their legal tasks they must keep their feelings at a distance, particularly dealing with a violent crime. Landay provides in depth analysis of the prosecution and defense approaches to the trial. Using Andy Barber, Jacob’s dad as the narrator is a very effective tool. It is very interesting to think about how Andy reacts and deals with the arrest of his son and it puts into focus how parents deal with the death of children, particularly when their own child is accused of murder. Landay does a credible job describing what the parents of the deceased child and the accused must go through. The acts of sympathy on the one hand and the vilification on the other are difficult for all to deal with. In addition, employing Andy Barber as the narrator, Landay provides an interesting critique of the legal system and the strategies employed by all involved.

Perhaps the most important legal issue that emerges is that of privacy, in particular the role of the internet in our society. It is difficult for some to imagine the “foot print” that each person uses when they use email, Face book, and the internet in general. What you write or say can never be totally deleted and things cannot be hidden. Having taught for many years and been involved with students who were constantly reminded that what they put on the internet can affect their lives, I experienced a number of interesting situations where students had no clue that they could be caught saying and doing certain things. Landay lays out this societal problem well and integrates its ramifications on the criminal justice system throughout the narrative.

The possible use of a “propensity to violence gene” is also explored by tracing the Barber family tree from a violent great grandfather, to “Bloody Billy Barber, Jacob’s grandfather, to his father Andy. Though some might argue there is such a gene, it just raises the nature v. nurture arguments once again. Landay explores this issue in detail and it is interesting to contemplate what it might mean if this were actually true.

The relationship between Jacob and his parents is well thought out. Issues of unconditional love for one’s child can make parents blind to their actions as it appears in the case of Jacob. But if one listens to the news were parents are shocked by the actions of their children one can see this is very common in our society. For the Barbers it would appear very simple, was their son a burgeoning psychopath, or a boy just being a boy. The theme of victimhood is also a major component of the novel. Who is the victim here? Is it the Barber family or the parents of the deceased boy? How does anyone ever recover from being placed in this type of situation? Was justice actually served by the legal process Landay described? What of the Barber family, who once Jacob is accused, stood to lose everything; their sanity, careers, home etc? The book raises the issue that we all might be damaged in some way, and if we are how one does cope? DEFENDING JACOB is not the typical murder mystery as it goes beyond the “who dun it” approach by raising many complex personal issues that seem to appear in the media each day. The book has many twists and turns that will surprise the reader and I recommend it highly and look forward to reading Landay’s other two murder mysteries in the near future.

THE LINCOLN MYTH by Steve Berry

May 24, 2014szfreiberger Historical Fiction, Mystery/Thrillers Leave a comment

In 2009 Governor Rick Perry of Texas told a Tea Party Rally that “We’ve got a great union. There’s absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb its nose at the American people, you know who knows what might come out of that. But Texas is a very unique place, and we’re pretty independent lot to boot….When we came into the nation in 1845, we were a republic, we were a stand-alone nation….and one of the deals was, we can leave anytime we want. So we’re kind of thinking about that again.” The remarks created a furor that Perry was suggesting that Texas had the right to secede from the United States. Perhaps Steve Berry thought about Perry’s comments when he was developing his new novel, THE LINCOLN MYTH, as the main theme of the book surrounds the concept of secession and whether the Founding Fathers may have supported the idea that the union of the United States was not a perpetual one. Employing Cotton Malone, a former Justice Department intelligence operative as his main character as he has done in his previous books the scenario runs something like this; Brigham Young, the leader of the Mormon church in 1854 predicted that the Civil War would occur and that would end the persecution of Mormonism. Berry calls this the “White Horse Prophecy” and Young struck a deal with Abraham Lincoln that allowed the north to defeat the confederacy. To show their seriousness Young and Lincoln traded important information. Young informed Lincoln where Mormon gold was stored, and Lincoln provided a document, signed by the Founding Fathers, that said individual states possessed the right to leave the union. A Utah Senator who was next in line to become the prophet of the Mormon Church along with a few other plotters to foster Utah’s secession from the union as a precursor to the creation of Deseret, the new Mormon nation. Once Utah would secede other states would follow once the Lincoln document was made public and the Supreme Court overturned the 1869 Texas v. White decision that ruled unilateral secession by any state unconstitutional. According to Harvey Tucker, a professor in the political science department at Texas A&M University, “among scholars, the consensus is that the Civil War settled all these issues, and Texas does not have the right to secede.”

(Brigham Young, 19th century Mormon Leader)

Whether the issue of secession has been put to bed or not, Berry has created an interesting yarn that has some basis in history, but as is the case in the author’s Cotton Malone series he takes historical license and creates many primary documents to further his narrative. In terms of legitimate history Berry does make the case that Mormonism played a much larger role in American history than many have given it credit for. The argument put forth is whether the Founding Fathers created a perpetual union at the constitutional convention that precluded any state from seceding once it ratified the constitution. Scholars argue that the constitution was a contract that could not be broken. The information presented dealing with Lincoln’s ideas are somewhat cherry picked by Berry, but he is totally accurate when he presents the Great Emancipator as a president who fought the war to maintain the union, and freeing the slaves was not the most important thing on his agenda. According to Utah Senator Thaddeus Rowan, “Lincoln fought the Civil War not to preserve an indivisible union. Instead he fought that war top create one, conning the nation that the union was somehow perpetual.” Rowan argues accurately that the Declaration of Independence was an act of secession that violated British law and the Constitution was an act of secession from the Articles of Confederation. For Rowan it is clear that Lincoln violated his executive power by conduct during the Civil War. Historians have debated whether Lincoln overstepped the bounds of executive power during the struggle between the states and in some areas he did. But Berry takes it a step further through Thaddeus Rowan’s character who argues that what Lincoln had done was taken away the “natural and inalienable rights” of all Americans, and he intended to restore them.

The novel itself is very suspenseful, but at times predictable. The documents that Berry creates are somewhat believable and are employed to support the “Utah type coup” that is the core of the novel. Berry brings back characters from previous novels such as Cassiopeia Vitt, the historical preservationist, and now a love interest of Cotton Malone, and Stephanie Nelle, Malone’s old boss at the Magellan Billet, a Justice Department Task Force. In addition to Rowan we have Josepe Salazar, a Spanish elder in the Mormon Church who in line to be the prophet and leader of Mormonism. Whether you accept that Lincoln believed a constitutional contract among the states was irreversible, or you support the ideas of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison who believed the opposite is not the issue for Berry. He has created an interesting plot line that has overtones in today’s political world of partisanship which seem to be on steroids. To assist the reader in ascertaining the true historical record, Berry includes a ten page chapter at the conclusion of the book identifying what areas are historically accurate and what aspects of the book he created on his own. If you enjoyed Berry’s previous “Cotton Malone” novels, I would suspect that you would enjoy THE LINCOLN MYTH. But keep in mind, what Berry alludes to as his plot line, currently is circulating in certain political circles.

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr

May 21, 2014szfreiberger Historical Fiction Leave a comment

(Saint-Malo, Brittany, France where much of the novel takes place)

Among the many wonderful things that a fine novelist can achieve is to create characters whose traits and thoughts embody people like Marie-Laurie Leblanc, the heroine in Anthony Doerr’s new novel, ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE. The story involves an intricate plot surrounding Marie-Laurie, a blind girl who by 1940 is thrust into the whirlwind of World War II. Her father is a locksmith at the Museum of Natural History in Paris and as the war unfolds he is given possession of the “sea of flames” diamond, a gem attached to the myth that the person who possesses it cannot die, but also those in close contact with the owner of the gem may suffer greatly, which is sought by a Nazi gemologist, Reinhold von Rumpel. The story that Doerr’s weaves is much more than a search for the missing gem. It is a tale that follows the relationship between Marie-Laure, who loses her sight at the age of six and her father. Their relationship is a tender one as he keeps his daughters spirits high by creating wooden “puzzle boxes” that she must figure out in order to obtain the gift inside. Further, to assist his daughter, the locksmith creates a small wooden replica of her Parisian neighborhood so she can employ her other senses to gain some autonomy. Doerr organizes his novel by taking the reader back and forth in time as the war progresses and he alternates chapters depending on which major character he is presenting. The story revolves around Marie-Laurie and her travails, but other individuals emerge that are central to the book’s theme. Werner Pfenning, a fourteen year old orphan who is an electronics whiz finds himself in an elite Nazi school and then is attached to the German army to try and locate “partisan” communications throughout Europe. Another strand revolves around Marie-Laurie’s great uncle, Etienne, a man who seems to suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome because of his experiences in World War I. Once Marie-Laurie’s father is seized by the Nazis, she lives with her Uncle Etienne in Saint Malo, a small village in Brittany that is controlled by the Germans.

Doerr weaves a fascinating story as he intertwines the lives of his characters. Werner, the electronics expert hears transmissions with his sister Jutta while living in an orphanage, Etienne is the source of the transmissions, and later the two will come across each other as Etienne transmits for the French resistance during the war, while Werner seeks to find him. The fluidity and care that Doerr crafts each sentence enhances the readers’ experience as the story unfolds through constant time changes. Each character has its own development. Through Werner’s experience Doerr takes us on a journey were a young man has his sense of decency tested by the school commander’s destruction of his friend Frederick, and then he must survive as a boy among men in the German army as he witnesses the hunt for and death of partisans who fight against the Nazis. Uncle Etienne suffers from extreme PTSD symptoms dating back to World War I where he survived and his brother did not. He locks himself away in his room repeatedly and hears voices. Finally with the death of his housekeeper and the Nazi seizure of Marie-Laurie’s father he is presented with two life altering opportunities. First, he must care for his niece. Second, he employs his radio transmitter as “the nexus of a web of information” by transmitting codes to partisans to prepare attacks against the Nazis. As Doerr describes Etienne; “when he’s opening the tiny scroll in his fingers, (containing the necessary codes) lowering his mouth to the microphone, he feels unshakeable; he feels alive.” (331) Etienne is seen by others as having mental problems, but as R.D. Liang and Thomas Szaz have hypothesized, people who supposedly suffer from mental illness are really using it as a mechanism to cope with an insane world, which World War I and II certainly are.

There are a number of strands that Doerr seamlessly weaves together. Marie-Laurie who unbeknownst to her is in possession the of “sea of flames” diamond hidden in one of her father’s miniature houses. Werner who seeks a decent world that does not exist. Etienne who discovers a purpose for his existence, and finally, von Rumple who searches for the gem that will save his life. All of these characters come together in Saint-Malo, a village under German occupation that slowly becomes like the model that Marie-Laurie’s father has created, as Doerr describes Marie-Laurie’s fears as the “streets [are] sucked empty one by one. Each time she steps outside, she becomes aware of all the windows above her. The quiet is fretful, unnatural. It’s what a mouse must feel, she thinks, as it steps from its hole into the open blades of a meadow, never knowing what shadow might be cruising above.” (274)

The German occupation, allied bombing, day to day starvation and murder are all apparent as the savagery of war is presented through the lives of Doerr’s characters that are haunted by what they experience. It is a master craftsman that Doerr certainly is as a writer as he juxtaposes the book; TWENTY LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA by Jules Verne, that Marie-Laurie’s father gave her in Braille as a child with his own story. The narrative that Verne created is intertwined with the novel and its use by the author in providing another prism of understanding of the events and emotions that are on display throughout the narrative is remarkable.

Of all the characters in the book I find Etienne one of the most important, if not interesting, as he carries around the baggage of World War I’s devastation each day and is able to finally leave his home at 4 Rue Vauborel after twenty-four years of self-exile to care for his niece and at the same time deal with the demons that have haunted him. Throughout the book the theme of “what the war did to dreamers” dominates. (506) the reader will feel it on every page as each character tries to overcome the obstacles they are confronted with. The book concludes with a few chapters bringing the story to the present and trying to bring cloture for the lives the reader has spent hours with. What Doerr has done is create a gift that all who indulge it will certainly reap many rewards.

THE SIEGE by Helen Dunmore

May 14, 2014szfreiberger Historical Fiction Leave a comment

(Map of Leningrad, today called St. Petersburg)

On June 22, 1941 Adolf Hitler unleashed Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union. The Germans surprised the Russians who suffered enormous casualties and retreated into the interior. The Russians had been warned by the British of Nazi intentions, but Joseph Stalin ignored the British, reasoning that London wanted to create another front in its war against Germany. Stalin did expect Hitler to break the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August, 1939 but he believed he had more time to prepare. Stalin was in such shock as German troops marched through Russia that he disappeared for ten days, probably fearing that why would the Russian people support a murdering dictator, but the reality was that Stalin, was their murdering dictator and Hitler was not! The support for Stalin and the “Russian Motherland” emerges in Helen Dunmore’s novel, THE SIEGE which takes place during the siege of Leningrad that lasted from September 1941 to 1944. As New York Times reporter, Harrison Salisbury labeled the events in Leningrad, “The 900 Days,” the title of his book about the city that suffered the death of over 650,000 people. Dunmore’s novel provides insight into the lives of every day Russians as they struggled through starvation, fear of German artillery shells and bombs, the lack of any bureaucratic relief by city officials, and the constant paranoia that they could not trust their own government. The reader is presented with a number of characters; the family of Anna, her younger brother Kolya who she raises after her mother died in child birth, and her father Mikhail, a writer and poet who has been rejected by the Soviet Writers Union because he has not adapted to the tenets of socialist realism, and Marina, an aging actress who comes to live with them. We are also exposed to Andrei; a young doctor who reports the horrors of the siege from Leningrad’s remaining hospitals, and other characters like Dimitri Pavlov, who is sent from Moscow to address the city’s food shortages. Pavlov realizes that Leningrad, a city mostly of islands, similar to Stockholm, is now a “stone island,” and “has got to depend upon its own resources” to survive. (198) what are those negligible resources? A government ukase suggests the nutritional value of wallpaper paste that once boiled can provide sustenance for those who are starving.

(Images of Leningrad during the siege by Nazi Germany)

The story is set when Mikhail’s wife Vera dies in childbirth, thrusting motherhood on her daughter Anna before the German invasion. The paranoia of Stalin’s Russia before the arrival of the Germans is readily apparent from the outset of the book. Anna, a nursery school teacher assistant, fears raising her voice at work as Kolya is play acting the Russian Civil War between the White and Red soldiers because she might be heard by her boss who she fears will denounce her. The Great Terror of the 1930s is in the air as it seems everyone is afraid that someone will denounce them to the authorities. Stalin has warned his people that “wreckers, traitors, enemies, and saboteurs….had infiltrated the Party itself, and were among the elite, masking themselves as irreproachable Party activists and committee members. But how could you ever prove it wasn’t a mask, Anna wonders. Only by ripping off your own flesh…” (21)

Dunmore provides a description of how Leningraders attempted to deal with the German advance through Anna’s eyes as she works on digging trenches and tank traps. The bombing of food warehouses and Leningrad’s geographical isolation make any defensive preparations useless in dealing with the siege. Leningrad’s citizens are urbanites who only know how to forage for food by queuing up at food centers, not by using what the earth provides. One might ask why Leningraders were able to survive as well as they did, probably because they had experience of starvation in the 1930s when Stalin’s collectivization policies created the lack of food. In a way Stalinist agricultural policies might be considered somewhat normal in the minds of Soviet citizens. The queuing before the war for food and goods created a mentality that was put to good use during the siege and created the false hope that food would soon be available. Leningrad’s main problem was its “impossible arithmetic” for a city with 3.5 million people with little food resources other than wallpaper paste and boiling leather to obtain fluid to make soup. Leningrad is a city of “a million flailing hands” as people constantly reach for food. (146)

(Russian prisoners of war taken by the Germans during the summer of 1941)

To best understand Leningrad’s plight I would recommend that the reader place a map of Leningrad in front of them to understand how difficult it was to supply the city. Lake Ladoga to the east was useful once it froze during the winter months, but the Germans made it very hazardous for any truck convoys as they continued to bomb the ice. The result is the grim process of the black market that Anna has to deal with to obtain anything. People become animals as they try to survive. In a way the best means of survival is sleep because it provides an escape from hunger. As Anna points out “you should never wake anyone once they’ve gotten away, deep into their dreams, where there is food.” (189)

The relationship between Anna and Andrei is a tender one that is developed nicely by the author. Considering the conditions one would think that love would have difficulty flourishing, but in this instance Anna and Andrei’s needs are such that their relationship becomes a life line for survival. Having survived the winter of 1941-1942, Leningraders were greeted by spring and improved food rations and supplies. Dunmore describes the scenes of people planting vegetables in city parks and the optimism that those who were still alive would survive the German siege. Dunmore leaves the reader in the spring of 1942, but for the remaining population of Leningrad the war would continue for two more years. If you find the time to read THE SIEGE, Dunmore’s sequel THE BETRAYAL will not disappoint. If you are interested in the history of the siege of Leningrad I would recommend Michael Jones’ LENINGRAD: STATE OF SIEGE.

THE BETRAYAL by Helen Dunmore

May 9, 2014szfreiberger Historical Fiction, Russian History Leave a comment

(The notorious Lubyanka prison in Moscow)

Helen Dunmore’s THE BETRAYAL brings to mind the works of Alexander Solzhenitsyn as she tells the story of a physician and nursery school teacher who get caught up in the Stalinist paranoia that existed in the Soviet Union following World War II until Stalin’s death in March, 1953. The chronological parameters of the book are the Nazi siege of Leningrad during the war culminating in the Doctor’s Plot where Stalin and his henchman dreamed up a conspiracy of Jewish physicians who were bent on killing the Soviet leadership as these supposed Zionists worked with the CIA to destroy the Soviet leadership. Thankfully Stalin died in the midst of this fantasy and many historians believe his death avoided a second Holocaust for the Jewish people. The novel concentrates in the year 1952 with flashbacks to the World War II siege. Immediately, Dunmore provides insight into the plight of the average Russian citizen following the war. There are references to the lack of husbands reflecting the massive death toll of Soviet soldiers during the war. Communal apartments reflect the lack of housing after the war due to the destruction from Nazi bombing. The paranoia of the Stalinist state is rampant as anyone can be destroyed and no one is irreplaceable as “anyone can go out of favor in the blink of an eye.” (11) When Kolya, a sixteen year old boy eats his food he wraps his arms around the bowl, exhibiting the fear that someone will steal his supper as occurred during the siege. Repeatedly as the story is developed characters express the fear that if one of them is arrested, the rest of the family is in danger as occurred during the “Great Purge” of the 1930s.

(Joseph Stalin)

In living our lives we believe in certain assurances; the sun will rise and set at the prescribed hour, we will not grow hungry; we will have shelter and be able to rest when needed. What life does not prepare us for is to live in a state of suspended animation were by we lose all control of our freedoms. In post-war Russia life is a riddle that the accused cannot solve. Innocent people become prisoners of this riddle like Andrei, a physician, and his wife Anna, a nursery school teacher. The riddle is played out as Andrei is manipulated into taking on a patient named Gorya, the son of a MGB officer named Volkov who is high up in the state security apparatus. Gorya, a ten year old boy suffers from cancer and after his leg is amputated the cancer spreads and his father needs a scapegoat, a Jewish doctor. Unaware of the coming Stalinist persecution of Jewish doctors Andrei, who is not Jewish gets swept up in the Soviet prison system, but first he has to untangle the riddle, a phone call he receives early in the morning from his hospital’s medical personnel, “I am to inform you that, with immediate effect, you are suspended from your duties, pending investigation of serious irregularities. You are to hold yourself available for investigatory interview without notice. You are not permitted to enter hospital precincts during the period of investigation.” (195) Andrei’s journey through the Stalinist legal system begins with that phone call and will culminate in his imprisonment in the Soviet Gulag. Along the way the reader becomes a member of Andrei’s family and a witness to Andrei’s imprisonment, interrogation, and beatings. The fears of his wife Anna and other characters are explored as we witness the world of Stalinist persecution that is right out of the works of Solzhenitsyn and the likes of the poet, Osip Mandelstam. For Andrei and Anna what is worse; the experiences of the siege of Leningrad with its starvation and constant death during the “great patriotic war,” or the very real fear that the loud banging on the door in the middle of the night will result in a trip to the Lubyanka prison in Moscow.

(The siege of Leningrad, 1942)

Dunmore does a remarkable job developing her story and plotline keeping the reader fully engaged. Her character development is impeccable and she posses a sound knowledge of Soviet history from the purges of the 1930s through Stalin’s death. If you have read Solzhenitsyn’s CANCER WARD or THE FIRST CIRCLE, Dunmore’s work fits that genre. If not and you are interested in reading a historical novel that you will become totally engrossed in and not be able to put down, THE BETRAYAL is an excellent choice.

(The Soviet Gulag and its victims)

I am listing a short bibliography for those who are interested in this period of history and might like to read further;

For books on Stalin see STALIN: THE COURT OF THE RED STAR by Simon Sebag Montefiore; STALIN by Adam Ulam; STALIN by Robert Service; STALIN by Edvard Radzinsky: STALIN AND HIS HANGMEN: AN AUTHOROTATIVE PORTRAIT OF A TYRANT AND THOSE WHO SERVED HIM by Donald Rayfield.

The purges of the 1930s see THE GREAT TERROR by Robert Conquest and EVERYDAY STALINISM, ORDINARY LIFE IN EXTRAORDINARY TIMES: SOVIET RUSSIA IN THE 1930S by Sheila Fitzpatrick;

For the Soviet prison system (Gulag) see GULAG: A HISTORY OF THE SOVIET CAMPS by Anne Appebaum; INTO THE WHIRLWIND and WITHIN THE WHIRLWIND both by Evgenia S. Ginzburg; THE TIME OF STALIN: PORTRAIT IN TYRANNY by Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko.

The Doctor’s Plot see STALIN’S WAR AGAINST THE JEWS by Louis Rapaport; STALIN’S LAST CRIME by Jonathan Brent and Vladimir Naumov.

For the siege of Leningrad consult LENINGRAD: STATE OF SIEGE by Michael Jones; 900 DAYS: THE SEIGE OF LENINGRAD by Harrison Salisbury; LENINGRAD: THE EPIC SEIGE OF WORLD WAR II, 1941-1944 by Anna Reid; THE FATEFUL SEIGE, 1942-1943 by Anthony Beevor; and Helen Dunmore’s previous novel, THE SEIGE.

for further reviews visit http://www.docs-books.com

STRAWBERY BANKE: A SEAPORT MUSEUM 400 YEARS IN THE MAKING by J. Dennis Robinson

May 6, 2014May 6, 2014szfreiberger American Social History Leave a comment

All photos from the neighborhoods of Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth, NH

A warning to readers of this review, I have just moved to the Portsmouth, NH area and I have immediately begun a love affair with the town of Portsmouth (I have shared these feelings with my spouse!) whose people are proud not to be considered a city! A town that has a population of about 20,000 people and 22,000 restaurant seats is a wonderful concept to be enjoyed each day. While wandering around the town I came across Strawbery Banke, the historic preservation of the Puddle Dock section of early Portsmouth. I was enthralled about what I witnessed and being a historian I needed to know more. The book STRAWBERY BANKE: A SEAPORT MUSEUM 400 YEARS IN THE MAKING by J. Dennis Robinson was the perfect vehicle for me to learn about Portsmouth and satisfy my curiosity about how it developed. The book possesses a well written narrative in two parts. First, the history of the Portsmouth region from roughly 1605 through the colonial period, the American Revolution, the 19^th century, to the post World War II era. The second half of the book is devoted to the creation and implementation of the Strawbery Banke historical site. The book contains numerous photographs of the different characters throughout the history of the museum as well as the architecture that was saved by Strawbery Banke. What sets Strawbery Banke apart from other historical sites, i.e., Williamsburg, VA or Sturbridge Village, MA is that the original buildings have been preserved and have not been recreated. The book follows the long journey of historical preservation that began in 1957 and is still, flourishing today.

Apart from the general history of the Portsmouth region, what I found most interesting about the book was its discussion of the individual houses that have been preserved and the fight to take a federal urban renewal project and convert it into a historical restoration that would rekindle and refurbish a section of Portsmouth and would be a vehicle to uplift and restore the entire town. One of my favorite mini-histories narrated in the book involves the Shapiro House that was home to Russian Jewish immigrants who left the Ukraine in the late 19^th century among many who sought to escape the pogroms and persecution that existed in Russia. What I found fascinating was that orthodox Jews would settle in Portsmouth as opposed to the majority of Jews who went to the lower east side of New York City. The Srawbery Banke site has the original Shapiro home with the accoutrements of a Jewish family displayed accurately in its different rooms, highlighted by a woman who role plays Mrs. Shapiro in early 20^th century garb. The other aspect of the book that was very surprising was how local and federal politics and the economic issues involved had to be overcome in trying to create Strawbery Banke.

Unlike Williamsburg there was no Rockefeller benefactor to fund the project. Strawbery Banke was funded by hundreds of local residents with some federal money and today is dependent upon donations, membership, and visitors for its survival. The book is a wonderful read for those who are interested in a different approach to America’s settlement story of John Smith and Pocahontas that is not generally known. The book narrates and analyzes the evolution of Strawbery Banke and the town of Portsmouth and how they have evolved into cultural centers that attract thousands upon thousands of visitors each year. To the author’s credit he tells the entire story, not just the triumphs. Throughout its development Strawbery Banke experienced a great deal of infighting over disagreements as to what the correct path for the “outdoor museum” should take. The disagreements are presented objectively, and Robinson also explores the less positive aspects of the museums’ expansion as over time certain neighborhoods were taken over resulting in the bitterness of those had to be relocated. Despite these negatives, the end product of the museum seems well worth it.

Portsmouth has a certain feel to it that makes it one of the most inviting towns I have ever experienced. It is worth a visit, and before you come read STRAWBERY BANKE, as it will be the precursor of a wonderful adventure. In addition, if you find historical preservation interesting the book explains how difficult and expensive it is to get one off the ground and maintain it in today’s economic environment.

COMMAND AND CONTROL: NUCLEAR WEAPONS, the DAMASCUS INCIDENT, and the ILLUSION OF SAFETY by Eric Schlosser

April 30, 2014szfreiberger Cold War, Military History Leave a comment

After reading Eric Schlosser’s COMMAND AND CONTROL: NUCLEAR WEAPONS, THE DAMASCUS INCIDENT, AND THE ILLUSION OF SAFETY, I felt a sense of wonderment that mankind has survived the Cold War and the nuclear age in general. Schlosser, who earned a Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for his work, has written a forceful indictment of American nuclear policy and a realistic assessment of what has gone wrong with the American nuclear program; including strategy, safety, and the lack of transparency and honesty that a democratic system of government is entitled. The book presents a general history of the development of nuclear weapons dating back to World War II through the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In reviewing the history of the nuclear age Schlosser narrates and analyzes the different approaches of each administration from Harry Truman through the first President Bush. In telling his story Schlosser intersperses alternate chapters dealing with the Damascus incident, an accident that took place on September 18, 1980 at a nuclear missile complex in Damascus, Arkansas that contained a Titan II missile armed with a nuclear warhead. The book reads like a fast moving suspense thriller as Schlosser takes the reader inside the Titan II complex and step by step leads you on various missions designed to defuse the crisis that resulted from a technician dropping a socket from a wrench inside the missile silo that pierced the Titan II rocket resulting in a fuel leak. The book is a sobering and yet fascinating narrative of the danger posed by the numerous examples of the mishandling American nuclear weapons.

The Titan II missile contained a warhead with a “yield of 9 megatons-about three times the explosive force of all the bombs dropped during the Second World War, including both atomic bombs.” (3) Though Schlosser concentrates a significant part of his thrilling narrative on the Damascus incident, another accident had taken place outside Searcy, Arkansas on August 9, 1965 involving a Titan II launch complex that resulted in the death of 53 men, and what is equally disturbing is that the same missile that had been in the silo near Searcy was involved in the accident in Damascus fifteen years later. After introducing these accidents, and providing the backgrounds of the individuals involved, Schlosser turns his attention from the discovery of the Titan II problem to July, 1945 and the assembly of the atomic bomb. A mini-history of the Manhattan Project and the scientists involved is provided as Schlosser blends the political and military history relating to nuclear research and strategy following World War II. The author reviews the contentious arguments between the military and civilian branches of government as to who should have ultimate decision making power over nuclear weapons. This is a theme that will be carried out well into the 1980s and the Reagan administration, even though the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 which the military sought to undermine, placed the weapons under civilian control. Schlosser offers the standard account of the causes of the Cold War and the development of the containment policy. There are no major breakthroughs offered, but the narrative is concise and thoughtfully dealt with. The inter-service competition among the military branches, particularly the Navy and Air Force over control and implementation of nuclear strategy are detailed, with particular emphasis on the role of General Curtis LeMay, who headed the Strategic Air Command following the Berlin Air Lift. Schlosser moves on to discuss the major issues of each administration turning to Eisenhower’s New Look, that relied less on conventional weaponry and more on the nuclear option as he trimmed the defense budget, as the administration called for “more bang for the buck.” Following the discussion of Eisenhower, under the leadership of John F. Kennedy we see a shift in nuclear strategy as the president was faced with two crises, one in Berlin and one in Cuba that almost resulted in a nuclear confrontation. Under Lyndon Johnson the war in Vietnam dominated and with the Nixon presidency the Soviets were confronted with Kissinger’s ideas of limited nuclear war with tactical nuclear weapons, and the use of the “madman concept,” based on the unpredictable nature of the president. In all cases the idea of “mutual assured destruction” (MAD) dominated our approach in that the Soviets would not launch an attack as it was fully aware of the consequences.

The concept that bothered me most about the book was the practice of employing mathematical probabilities to our nuclear strategies. What were then odds that an accident would take place under a certain scenario? What would be an acceptable amount of destruction and death if a certain sequence was introduced into our nuclear preparation, was 1 in 100,000 acceptable, or should the odds be better. Schlosser takes the reader through countless discussions in dealing with this zero sum game and as I read it I became very unsettled as I kept thinking about the B-52 bombers loaded with nuclear warheads that experienced numerous accidents since the plane was first put into service in the 1950s. Government officials put their dilemmas very clearly as they wrestled with two interconnected questions: “What was the ‘acceptable’ probability of an accidental nuclear explosion? And what were the technical means to keep the odds as low as possible?” (171) The countless accidents that Schlosser describes, makes it a wonder that a nuclear catastrophe has never occurred. As General George Lee Butler, who became head of the Strategic Air Command in 1991 has stated, “I came to fully appreciate the truth…we escaped the Cold War without a nuclear holocaust by some combination of skill, luck, and divine intervention, and I suspect the latter in greatest proportion.” (457)

The most wrenching aspect of the book is Schlosser’s detailed description of the events that led up to the Titan II accident at Damascus in September, 1980, and the way the event was treated by the military following the explosion that took place. Schlosser’s approach is worthy of the best suspense novelists. His narrative is very telling and puts the reader on the edge of their seat, i.e., “Kennedy reached the top of the stairs and stepped into the night air. It felt good to be out there. The cloud of fuel vapor was insane; he’d never seen anything like it. Kennedy was tired. He decided to sit for a moment on the concrete curb outside the access portal. It had been a hell of a night. Livingston switched the fan on and came back upstairs. He was a foot or two behind Kennedy when the Titan II exploded.” (392) Following the explosion, chaos resulted, in part because of human nature, but also because of the lack of planning and communication due to bureaucratic incompetence. The Air Force refused to publicly admit what had occurred and the danger involved. Schlosser grows incredulous at the obstinacy and carelessness of the military as they confront the crisis and to cover themselves, Kennedy and Livingston, two “Explosive Ordinance Disposal” technicians are blamed for the explosion.

Schlosser’s descriptions are based on impeccable research through interviewing the participants and familiarizing himself with the pertinent secondary and primary source material. His command of the events narrated allow him to take the reader inside the stair wells, behind the blast doors, into the command center as people are met with deadly fumes. The narrative points to an inability to integrate the necessary safety conditions by employing available techniques to make our nuclear assets safer. Even in the 1980s, when it was realized that the Titan II needed an overhaul, attitudes existed to not institute safety changes in the Titan II rationalizing that since they were much older than the newer weapons the money to make them safer was not a priority. Positions such as this make the reader boil and it is with a measure of hope that one can point to the retirement of the Titan II during the Reagan administration. However, one must not feel too secure as Reagan spent $1.5 trillion on new weaponry during his administration, but at least $18 billion went to rectify some of the safety issues and address the concerns dealing with who was in charge and who would make decisions concerning nuclear weapons, better known as command and control. Schlosser’s book is extremely unsettling in the post Cold War world where countries like Pakistan, North Korea, and Iran either have nuclear weapons or are very close to developing them, but despite the discomfort of learning the story Schlosser tells, he is to be commended for telling it.

THE WRONG ENEMY: AMERICA IN AFGHANISTAN 2001-2014 by Carlotta Gall

April 25, 2014April 25, 2014szfreiberger American Diplomatic History, Military History, United States Foreign Policy 1 Comment

As presidential election results in Afghanistan are being counted one must ask the question; how much better off is Afghanistan today, as compared to the period before the American invasion following 9/11? Further one must ask; what is the future outlook for Afghanistan as the United States and its NATO allies are about to withdraw by the end of the year? Carlotta Gall, a New York Times reporter who has worked in Afghanistan and Pakistan for more than ten years attempts to answer these questions and many others in her new book, THE WRONG ENEMY, AMERICA IN AFGHANISTAN 2001-2014. A number of books have been written about America’s role in Afghanistan and its relationship with Pakistan the best of which are Steven Coll’s GHOST WARS, Ahmed Rashid’s DESCENT INTO CHAOS, and Barnet R. Rubin’s AFGHANISTAN FROM THE COLD WAR THROUGH THE WAR ON TERROR, but what sets Gall’s apart is her knowledge of the region and her ability to coax interviews with villagers, mujahideen, Taliban fighters, government officials, intelligence sources, and major decision makers involved on both sides of this never ending war. Gall takes the reader inside councils held by the Taliban, government meetings in Kabul, decision making within Pakistan’s chief spy agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, and discussions among village elders as they try to cope with the threats they face on a daily basis. Gall’s premise is that the United States has failed to confront the real enemy in its Afghani war, Pakistan. Gall argues that the Pakistani governments, including its presidents over a period of time and the ISI have pursued a duplicitous policy by publicly claiming to be an ally in the war on terror with the United States, but privately creating and supporting the Taliban as a means of manipulating events in Afghanistan and controlling its government in Kabul. These conclusions are sound, well argued, and supported by abundant research and sources that only she has had access to.

From the outset Gall writes from the perspective of the victims and does not claim to be objective. She argues persuasively that the ISI is the real power in Pakistan and controls its press and media. By December, 2001 after the Taliban’s leadership misjudged the strength of the American attack, and their standing with the Afghani people, thereby forcing them to flee to the safety of Peshawar across the Pakistani border. Soon after, Taliban commanders convened a council of war which included Afghan Taliban commanders, their Pakistani allies from the Pashtun border areas, and Pakistani militant and religious leaders to discuss how they should respond to the American attack. Watching from the sidelines, but present at these meetings were representatives from the ISI and Pakistani Special Forces who had been involved with the Afghan resistance against the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Also in attendance was the son of the powerful Taliban commander and minister, Jalaluddin Haqqani, a stalwart against the Soviet Union and a favorite of Pakistani intelligence and Arab donors. The goal of the Taliban was to create an Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan would now be continued as a guerilla war against the United States and its western allies. The goal for Pakistan was to continue to employ “proxy forces, Afghan mijahideen, Taliban in Afghanistan, and Kashmiri militants against India to project its influence beyond its border.”(21) As Seth Jones, the author of IN THE GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES: AMERICA’S WAR IN AFGHANISTAN wrote in the New York Times on April 10, 2014, “Islamabad’s rationale for supporting Afghan insurgents is straightforward and, in many ways, understandable. Hemmed in by its archenemy, India, to the east, Pakistan wants an ally in the west. It doesn’t have one at the moment. Instead, New Delhi has a close relationship with the Afghan government. Feeling strategically encircled by India, Islamabad has resorted to proxy warfare to replace the current Afghan government with a friendlier regime.”

Gall follows the war as the United States pursued its neocon agenda of the Bush administration and shifted important resources from Afghanistan to support its ill conceived invasion of Iraq in 2003. This left open the door for the Taliban to try and recapture its position in Afghanistan. Many have asked why the United States chose Hamid Karzai to head the government in Kabul. Gall concludes that he was a compromise candidate as he was Pashtun and acceptable in the northern part of the country. Gall accurately concludes further that Karzai was the problem from the outset. For the next thirteen years Karzai would oversee the most corrupt country in the world as stated in the “Transparency International Scale”, as it was tied with Myanmar,” with only Somalia lower. (216) the key to the Taliban resurgence would be their “friends and supporters in power in Pakistan’s border provinces.” This would allow Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader to emerge in February 2003 and publicly call on all Afghans to wage holy war against American forces. (67)

Galls details the Taliban resurgence and Pakistan’s role in their successes and points out the flaw in American policy towards Afghanistan. According to Bruce Riedel, a former CIA official who wrote a strategic review on Afghanistan for the incoming Obama administration in 2009, the Bush administration considered the Taliban irrelevant once they were defeated. In addition, the Bush White House never gave instructions to its intelligence officials in Pakistan to follow the Taliban and CIA officials in Pakistan saw the Taliban as a “spent force.” (75) The road was open for the Taliban to succeed especially when the ISI forced many Taliban exiles that fled to Pakistan to join the insurgency. Gall describes the situations in northern and southern Waziristan were foreign militants were sheltered in tribal areas and foreign journalists were banned by the Pakistani government from traveling. Gall explores the role of President Pervez Musharraf and his double dealing with the United States. He would feign being an ally and turn over a few Taliban wanted by Washington, but in reality was training, supplying, and encouraging the insurgency to the detriment of Afghanistan who he needed to control because of his fears of India.

Gall correctly argues that America’s approach in dealing with counter terrorism through the use of massive bombing was self defeating. It alienated the Afghan villagers and turned the Afghan people further against what they viewed as their corrupt government in Kabul that was allied with the United States. In 2004 the United States supported the reelection of Karzai, but despite his reelection his policies under the heavy handedness of his brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, who was in charge of the southern part of the country further alienated the Afghan people and did little to counter the onslaught of the Taliban. With the economy in dire straits and little hope for improvement, “young unemployed men were going to Pakistan in search of work and being recruited by the Taliban….who paid $175 a month to join and fight.” (133)

Gall makes many important observations in her narrative. It was clear that America’s NATO allies were not very successful. With only 2000 Canadian troops in the south the task for the Taliban to seize control of the Kandahar region was made easier. The U.S. asked its allies for further troop commitments, but they refused. Exacerbating the problem was the increase in suicide bombings in 2006, many of which were in the south. Gall accurately describes the voyage of young men to madrassas to receive suicide bombing indoctrination and the final committing of the act. Most were traced back to Pakistan were Islamic cells functioned quite freely. Afghan intelligence would share information with NATO allies, who would forward the information to the ISI, which was like warning the suicide cells and resulted in the torture and death of Afghan informers. The nexus of Pakistani support for the Taliban was Quetta and other border areas. “The madrassas are a cover, a camouflage,” a Pashtun legislator told the author, “behind the curtain, hidden in the shadows, lurked the ISI.” (159) From Gall’s extensive interviews in the border region her contention that the ISI played the major role in the Taliban success is well founded.

Some of Gall’s most interesting chapters deal with militant blow back in Pakistan as the ISI periodically would lose some control and then recover, a cycle that went on for years; how close the Taliban came to conquering the south as they reached the outskirts of Kandahar; and the role of Ahmed Karzai. Many Americans have grown tired of Karzai’s act over the years believing he was ungrateful for the sacrifices and support given by the United States. However, despite his antics Karzai’s point of view is important in understanding the events of the last thirteen years. Gall does a remarkable job presenting Karzai’s perspective and making sense out of his statements and actions. Granted his government was corrupt and appointments were based on tribal membership or political faction, but the United States was aware of the political culture around him from the outset. But as Gall correctly points out that when a society functions “on patronage, a duty to help your relatives and clans comb[ined] with Karzai’s poor management and the influx of vast sums of assistance, often poorly administered by donors, [it] created the most corrupt regime Afghans had ever seen.” (216) By 2010, $900 million in loans disappeared implicating Karzai’s family. The problem is that Karzai is not personally corrupt, yet he has tolerated and benefited from it. Karzai would brush off complaints “as a necessary way of doing business in cash strapped country.” (217)

By 2009, after the United States mistakenly bombed a wedding party in eastern Afghanistan and Washington’s failure to deal with Pakistan, Karzai became convinced that the US was not going to defeat the Taliban. As Pakistan continued to ignore American requests to reign in the Taliban, Karzai’s bitterness increased and he decided the only way forward that made sense was to negotiate peace with the Taliban and Pakistan. Richard C. Holbrooke, the US Special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan began back channel contacts with the Taliban. Holbrooke realized the difficulty Karzai faced and realized further that peace with Pakistan was the key; as he summed up the situation in 2010, “we may be fighting the wrong enemy in the wrong country.” (222)

In 2009 the Obama administration also announced a “surge” of 30,000 troops in the south as Kandahar was in danger of falling to the Taliban. The joint operation with Afghan and Canadian troops lifted the Taliban siege and Gall’s description of the fighting as she went on patrol with US troops brought the reader to the battlefield. The IEDs, the mines, the booby traps, the rigged houses provide insight into Taliban tactics and what American and Afghan troops faced and have to undo. However, the Taliban hold in the south was broken. Over the next three years the Taliban would be kept at bay, but a new crisis developed with Pakistan over the capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden. Gall has an excellent chapter on the raid and Pakistan’s culpability in having Bin Laden seized from under its nose. From Gall’s interviews it is clear that Pakistani officials were involved with Bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad. Whether it was military or ISI involvement is not totally clear, but it’s beyond the pale to imagine that the Pakistani government was not involved.

Gall closes her book with a somewhat optimistic chapter about the future of Afghanistan, however the threat from Pakistan remains constant and they must be reined in. At the outset of this review I asked whether Afghanistan was in a better position since the pre-9/11 period. One thing is clear the United States has brought modernity, rebuilding and bright educated graduates in every government office, but “the fundamentals of Afghanistan’s predicament remain the same: a weak state, prey to ambitions of its neighbors and extremist Islamists.” (286) 2014 is a perfect storm for Afghanistan, NATO and US forces are withdrawing, the election of a new president and the appointment of a new government, and the handover of security to Afghan forces in the middle of the summer fighting season. What will the future hold? I would be naive to think that once the US withdraws the security situation will not collapse, but we will see. For those who are interested in reaching an educated guess about Afghanistan’s future I would read Carlotta Gall’s powerful new book.

A NICE LITTLE PLACE ON THE NORTH SIDE by George F. Will

April 16, 2014szfreiberger Sports Leave a comment

(Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL)

George F. Will’s latest book will touch the soul of everyone who loves baseball. Though the book titled A NICE LITTLE PLACE ON THE NORTH SIDE is a short history of Wrigley Field and the futility of being a Chicago Cubs fan Will takes the reader on a hundred year journey encompassing numerous historical, sociological, philosophical, and political components that relate to the ivy covered ballpark on West Addison Street. Will, a conservative political columnist and a regular on the Sunday talk show circuit has written other books on the nation’s pastime. MEN AT WORK: THE CRAFT OF BASEBALL and BUNTS were excellent treatises on their subject matter, written with an intellectual approach and a witty style. Will’s latest effort follows the same model as he presents a history of Chicago from the late 19^th century to the present, commenting on things as diverse as Carl Sandburg’s poetry, the philosophy of John Locke, to Ernie Banks homerun numbers. In discussing the origins of Wrigley Field, Will takes us back to the Haymarket Massacre of 1886 when Chicago was a rather dangerous city, especially for labor. This setting produced the need for recreation and Wrigley Field was the perfect progressive remedy for the working class to spend their spare time rather than getting involved with non-productive aspects of society. Will’s history of Wrigley Field is interspersed with vignettes, facts, and stories that are not common knowledge, presented in a humorous fashion, and are a joy to read.

Since the Chicago Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908 when they defeated the Detroit Tigers, their fans are considered the longest suffering supporters of a team in baseball. The “Cubbies” have proven fodder for many jokes over the years. Will integrates numerous funny stories as he sprinkles them throughout the book. For example, “in 1968, Cubs pitcher Bill Hands recorded fourteen consecutive strikeouts. Regrettably, he did this as a batter in consecutive at bats.” Another, “What does a female bear taking birth control have in common with the World Series? No Cubs.” The Cubs have been so bad that in 1948 their owner P. K. Wrigley publicly apologized for the futility of his team.

On our journey Will relates many diverse historical figures to the Cubs. We meet Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonalds; Jack Ruby, Lee Harvey Oswald’s assassin; and former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan as Will explains in detail how their lives are intertwined to the resident of “the friendly confines of Wrigley Field.” Literary figures abound, including William Shakespeare and Theodore Dreiser, whose writings are used in trying to explain the agony of being a fan of the Chicago Cubs. This is all part of Will’s profession of love for the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field. I assume he realizes that his emotions are irrational, but like all love it is based on faith, which in of itself is irrational. Then why does Will feel so strongly? The book is his attempt to answer that question.

The story Will tells is one of human tragedy as he speaks of Wrigley Field as the final resting place for many Cubs fans as they have instructed their families to sprinkle their ashes in the outfield after they are gone. It is clear from my study of baseball history that Cub fans have little to be thankful for except a beautiful ball park that has altered the course of baseball history as many stadium architects have used it to create the newer parks of the last twenty-two years. In the late nineteen sixties baseball developed what I refer to as “cookie-cutter ballparks,” multi-use stadiums shared with football. All were outside urban areas and to say it mildly; were very unattractive, not very fan friendly, and thankfully most have been torn down. In 1992, Camden Yards opened, in part as a means of urban renewal. The architects studied Wrigley, and Brooklyn’s long gone Ebbets Field as a means of creating a venue that was comfortable and help refurbish urban neighborhoods. Camden Yards has become a model for numerous new stadiums all around baseball including minor league cities. This has helped revive numerous urban areas and have created new revenue streams for teams and their cities. As a result the goal of replicating the feel of Wrigley Field as a neighborhood institution has been a success. Overall, Will’s concise and intellectually humorous approach to baseball history is a wonderful addition to any library, not just the nation’s pastime. If you can spare a few hours, It is a great read that you will not be able to relinquish until completed.

(Camden Yards, Baltimore, MD.)

SEYMOUR HERSH: SCOOP ARTIST by Robert Miraldi

April 14, 2014April 15, 2014szfreiberger American Political History, Biography, Vietnam Leave a comment

When Robert Miraldi sat down to choose the title of his new book, SEYMOUR HERSH: SCOOP ARTIST, he might have thought about a different title to describe one of the most important investigative reporters of his generation. Seymour Hersh was more than a scoop artist, to use Theodore Roosevelt’s term to describe the likes of Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair and others during the Progressive Era, he was more of a muckraker, a writer who thrives in the muck to locate and develop a story. This was Seymour Hersh, a reporter whose tactics were unconventional to say the least, which developed his own stories no matter where they took him, and became a thorn in the side of any person with power who he set his sights on. Hersh was a Pulitzer Prize winner and a recipient of the George S. Polk award for distinguished journalism, and the author of numerous books. In exploring Hersh’s career, Robert Miraldi has not produced a traditional biography, but an examination of Hersh’s methodology in tracking down stories, and he provides numerous insights into his subject’s character and relationship to the people and topics he is drawn to. What emerges is a flawed Seymour Hersh, who fights for justice and righteousness, but at times, allows his larger than life ego take hold of him, resulting in great praise from the public, but also denigration, and enemies from the protectors of his targets.

Having read most of Hersh’s books over the years I had little insight into the type of individual that he was on a personal level. I always believed after reading a book or article written by Hersh that he was a person who let the public peer into the halls of power and was driven to seek justice whether it be the My Lai massacre, the downing of flight 007 by the Soviet Union, the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, or any of the myriad of causes he took up. Miraldi opens a window into Hersh’s work that is both personal and analytical. Resting on numerous interviews, documents, and an encyclopedic knowledge of Hersh’s writings, Miraldi has produced a useful narrative that seems to track his subject’s life from book to book, and article to article that he has written. By adopting this approach the reader is exposed to a history of the United States from 1960 through the present, through the eyes of Seymour Hersh.

If Hersh had you in your cross hairs it meant you were a very powerful individual or a government agency that had overstepped its constitutional limits as seen by Miraldi’s, “scoop artist.” After an early career at the Chicago City News Bureau and UPI, Hersh latched on to the AP Chicago bureau by 1965 proclaiming that David Habersham, the award winning New York Times reporter as his role model and would soon pursue similar investigative subjects. Early on Hersh was interested in civil rights and the military and after being transferred to Washington, D.C. Hersh began his first investigation of the military confronting the truth behind General William Westmoreland’s thirty hour bombing freeze in December, 1965. Hersh’s first major crusade dealt with the inequalities of the draft. We witness Hersh’s standard writing technique as he refused to name sources as his articles are sprinkled with “unnamed sources,” informants, anonymous citations which led many to question the veracity of his approach. One of the most important parts of Miraldi’s book is his description of Hersh’s tactics which were very successful, but as he correctly points out, at times, are over bearing and based on falsehoods and bullying. For Hersh, the investigation meant the ends justified the means. The My Lai massacre investigation that Hersh turned into a book, MY LAI MASSACRE: A REPORT ON THE MASSACRE AND ITS AFTERMATH made him nationally known figure, and created a reputation as a tenacious investigator who knew how to uncover information better than any of his peers. If he wanted to talk to you, he had a way to extract what he needed even if you did not want to provide the information. From the outset the “Hersh treatment” was ever present. First, Hersh is a voracious reader. No matter the subject if it dealt with an ongoing investigation he would consume books, articles, and documents so that he was as well versed, or more in the subject matter than the person he wanted to interview. To get to a source Hersh was extremely disingenuous and outright lied, bullied, or threatened a target until they succumbed to a conversation. Most of this took place on the phone and at times in person. Jay Peterzell, a researcher at the Center for National Security Studies, an advocacy group in Washington had a “bird’s eye view of the telephone terrorist” as Hersh conducted over a thousand interviews for his book on Kissinger. He would “overwhelm you with his verbal barrage” and bait his target into finally granting his wishes, as “they got caught in the enthusiasm, the importance, his energy.” (237) This approach was evident in all of his research but especially when dealing with Henry Kissinger, who Hersh despised, at one point stating that he would “love to get that son of a bitch.” The question must be asked is Hersh’s approach too over the top, or did his mantra of “terrible things happen in war, [but] the responsibility of the press…to find, verify, and publish the truth” justifies everything. (32) Hersh was able to alienate his targets as well as his colleagues who resented his success, but in many cases felt that he was very biased in his approach and he could not “fairly evaluate reality.” (95)

bodies of civilians killed in My Lai massacre

Bodies of Vietnamese villagers killed at My Lai, March 16, 1968

One of the most surprising things that I learned from Miraldi’s book is that Hersh worked for Senator Eugene McCarthy’s campaign in 1968 as its Public Relations director. This brought two imposing personalities head to head, as McCarthy, who hated publicity that he did not control, and Hersh who was overbearing and controlling, it was obvious that after a short period of time they could not coexist. After Hersh quit or was fired from the campaign he published CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WARFARE: THE HIDDEN ARSENAL making him the “Ralph Nader of the bio-chemical industry” and helped to push the Nixon administration to stop building biological weapons. Nixon had his own reasons apart from what Hersh exposed, but Hersh must get some of the credit for Nixon’s actions. Hersh followed this success by becoming involved with the POW issue in Vietnam. He even visited Hanoi and after joining the New York Times he continued to get under Richard Nixon’s skin. Another surprising aspect of the book is Miraldi’s discussion of Hersh’s view of Bob Woodward and the Watergate investigation. Woodward and his partner at that time, Carl Bernstein were out front in the investigation from the outset. Hersh was caught up in the New York Times, Washington Post competition and grew jealous of Woodward’s success and growing reputation. Throughout the book this competition remains in the background as Hersh wanted to be considered the number one investigative reporter in the American press, and though he praised Woodward’s work, and became his friend, he never truly accepted him as his equal. Hersh was able to enter the “Watergate competition” late and eventually the Nixon White House became “scared to death of this guy…We don’t know what he can prove or can’t prove,” (158) as stated by an unidentified White House source during the investigation into the illegal bombing of Cambodia.

What was shocking to me was Miraldi’s discussion of how many top governmental figures, be it political or military that spoke with Hersh and leaked important information to him. For example subjects as diverse as Senate Armed Services Committee head, John Stennis, a conservative Democrat during hearings concerning U.S. bombing of Cambodia; Frank Sturgis, a Watergate co-conspirator, dealing with hush money paid by the Nixon White House; to CIA Director William Colby who became a Hersh “phone mate” during the investigation dealing with the coup against Salvatore Allende in Chile. Hersh always sought out new sources, particularly in the Pentagon, and according to Miraldi when Hersh called declaring, “Hi I’m Sy Hersh and you probably want to talk with me,” retired generals, in particular liked to hear from him.” (171) The book is also useful for shedding light on the inner workings of the New York Times editorial board and how the “paper of record…did not seek to create or make that record.” (233) The reader also witnesses the competition between staff and board members and the volatile nature of the Hersh-Abe Rosenthal relationship. The two sides tolerated each other for six years but after Hersh’s articles dealing with Gulf and Western Industries in 1979 they went their separate ways. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book is Miraldi’s description of how Hersh went about writing his work on Kissinger, THE PRICE OF POWER. Having read the book I agree with the author’s critique that the book is difficult to read and Hersh is probably guilty of overwriting, particularly certain topics, i.e., SALT negotiations with the Soviet Union. On a more positive note, historian, Stanley Hoffman has written, “this is a book that through its factual density avoids the typically hectoring tone of the investigative reporter or the ideologue with an ax to grind.” (252) This cannot also be said of THE DARK SIDE OF CAMELOT where Hersh ran up against the myth of JFK and the family that tried to protect the image of Camelot. As Hersh uncovered some of the more salacious details of Kennedy’s private life he fell for some doctored documents and his reputation suffered and in the end he wound up mentally exhausted.

Hersh would recover and he latched on with the New Yorker, under the influence of its editor David Remnick who supported Hersh’s work and gave him the leeway and resources that reenergized him. This resulted in Hersh becoming a “war correspondent” after 9/11. Hersh was truly shaken by the attack and over the next three years “Hersh produced twenty stories and over 110,000 words.” (319) Hersh concluded that the intelligence community was not prepared to stop the terrorists as government agencies and the military lacked the training and communication to be successful. Once the United States invaded Iraq, Hersh concluded that President Bush had lost control of his foreign policy to the cabal of neocons inside and outside his administration. Hersh argued that “the intelligence community had ignored the sacrosanct ‘stove piping’ rule-that only carefully vetted information should go up the chain of command.” (323) Hersh was once again faced criticism of his sourcing as most of his sources were anonymous, but he felt the neocons were now out of the closet. This would lead to his book, CHAIN OF COMMAND: THE ROAD FROM 9/11 TO ABU GHRAIB, which took advantage of over thirty years of sources who were at the Pentagon, the CIA, and other places to critique US policy on Afghanistan, Iraq, and terrorism. Donald Rumsfeld became part of the center piece of Hersh’s narrative in the book and articles written based on his own research dealing with the torture at Abu Ghraib. Hersh’s presentation has proven very accurate during the last ten years since the book was written. PHOTOGRAPH: ABU GHRAIB PRISONER ABUSE Abu Ghraib prison, site of US torture and demeaning of prisoners in Iraq

Whether Seymour Hersh uses unethical tactics to obtain information, whether he is a bully who extracts the necessary documents he needs, what is important for Miraldi is that Hersh presents the facts and lets others ponder the consequences. If you are a fan of Hersh’s raison ‘detre, or believe he has gone too far, Miraldi’s book is comprehensive and provides the best portrait of one of the most important journalistic figure of his age.