| Book Reviews |

George F. Kennan: An American America. John Lewis Gaddis is the Johnson’s administration, Kennan was Life Robert A. Lovett Professor of History “an impressionist, a poet, not an earth- at Yale University, where he teaches ling.” By John Lewis Gaddis courses in Cold War history, grand Although Kennan was known chief- The Penguin Press, New York, NY, 2011. 784 strategy, international studies, and ly as a figure on the American foreign pages, $39.95. biography. Gaddis has reviewed a policy scene, his talents as a writer of vast archive of material, including the memoirs would eventually be com- massive collection of Kennan’s let- pared with those of John Adams’ great- Re v i e w e d b y Je f f r e y G. Bu c h e l l a ters and diaries, and has interviewed grandson, Henry Adams, whose mem- the subject and many of the principal oirs remain in the canon of American Almost 60 years ago, when George witnesses (some now deceased) in literature. In addition, BBC Radio invit- Frost Kennan, the newly designat- order to write what one reviewer has ed Kennan to give one of its annual ed U.S. ambassador to the Soviet called “a triumph of scholarship and Reith Lectures, previously given by Union, presented his credentials to its narrative.” The book presents a com- Arnold Toynbee and Bertrand Russell, figurehead president, he expressed, plex and nuanced portrait of broad among others. When offered a position in fluent Russian, the hope that his scope that enhances Kennan’s image at Princeton University’s Institute for actions in Moscow would “meet with as the diplomat who authored the Advanced Study, Kennan found Albert the understanding and collaboration Cold War strategy of containment and Einstein among his fellow professors. of the Soviet Government.” Kennan who played a leading role in guiding Isaiah Berlin, a historian of philosophy, received an icy response that was—as American foreign policy through the became a close friend and defender of John Lewis Gaddis, quoting Kennan, four decades following World War II. Kennan’s. Kennan was awarded the writes—reinforced by “a propaganda Gaddis traces Kennan’s long life from Albert Einstein Peace Prize in 1981 campaign that exceeded ‘in vicious- his birth in 1905 in Wisconsin, when and a Presidential Medal of Freedom ness, shamelessness, mendacity and the United States was still a largely in 1989. The Kennan Institute—part intensity’ anything he had experienced isolated agrarian society, through his of the Woodrow Wilson International before in the Soviet Union, or even in tenure in the foreign service from Center for Scholars—would become Nazi Germany.” Less than six months 1925 to 1952; through his career as an a major center for research on Russia later, the Soviets unceremoniously academic, elder statesman, writer, and and the non-Russian territories of the expelled Kennan from his post. philosopher; and to his death in 2005 former Soviet Union. Yet some thought Among the signature traits of the at the age of 101, by which time the that, as a result of his impolitic and complex subject of Gaddis’ massive United States had become the world’s even impulsive decisions, Kennan had new authorized biography, George F. sole superpower. Gaddis’ book was failed to reach his potential in the world Kennan: An American Life, naïveté awarded the Pulitzer Prize in biogra- of international affairs. Joseph Stalin’s was not one. Official Russian fear of, phy in April 2012. daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, some and hostility toward, the outside world time after she was granted asylum in were many centuries old, as Kennan A Chinese Puzzle the United States and had lived for a had taken pains to explain to the very Like many larger-than-life figures, while on Kennan’s Pennsylvania farm, first American ambassador to the Soviet George F. Kennan was a man of wide- wrote that Kennan had been “born to Union, William C. Bullitt. When serv- ranging talents, possessing a complex be constantly misunderstood.” ing as Bullitt’s aide in 1936, Kennan and enigmatic personality, which some had prepared a report on the regime found mysterious and even baffling A Life in International Affairs that relied almost entirely on the dis- at times. He was a deeply intro- In an epilogue to this book, titled patches of Neill Brown, U.S. minister spective man, who stirred in those “Greatness,” Gaddis counts as first to the court in St. Petersburg from 1850 around him an impulse to peel back among Kennan’s gifts his abilities as to 1853, who, in an echo from his- the layers of mystery to reveal the a foreign policy strategist. It is both a tory, complained of an atmosphere of nature of the man. One colleague great strength as well as a weakness of “[s]ecrecy and mystery,” where a for- would remember Kennan’s capacity to this biography that it has been crafted eign representative was frequently not “observe and to feel beauty, to drink by a foreign policy historian, albeit a given “even the consolation of an it all in like a sponge.” His eyes, this respected one. Gaddis’ background as insult.” colleague thought, resembled Robert a specialist in Cold War studies allows George F. Kennan: An American Oppenheimer’s “extraordinary eyes, him to treat Kennan’s career as a Cold Life, the culmination of 30 years of just absolutely riveting, those clear War diplomat and intellectual in a com- labor, is a painstakingly researched, blue eyes.” For Eugene Rostow, the petent and even meticulous manner. richly detailed, and crisply written former dean of Yale University’s Law Fresh from receiving an undergradu- biography of a towering, yet under- School and undersecretary of state for appreciated figure of 20th-century political affairs in President Lyndon reviews continued on page 64

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ate degree from Princeton University, the time of Hitler’s defeat in 1945. As to see into the future. In July 1940, Kennan began his professional life early as 1932, Kennan had concluded when it was not obvious to many, he with the U.S. government in 1926 with that, because of its internal contradic- predicted that the United States would an appointment to the rank of foreign tions and the weaknesses of its politi- enter World War II within the year and service officer, unclassified. Soon, he cal system, “Soviet Russia might be that fighting would continue until at was appointed vice-consul in Geneva. changed overnight from one of the least the end of 1944. He anticipated After a period of Russian studies and strongest to one of the weakest and the cruelty of postwar Soviet rule in the with various short postings throughout most pitiable of national societies.” satellite countries of Eastern Europe; Eastern Europe, as well as time spent Kennan came to these conclusions, the eventual and inevitable disintegra- in Germany just as Hitler was coming Gaddis writes, through a convergence tion of the Warsaw bloc; and the dan- to power, Kennan began a diplomatic of ideas derived from such dispa- gers that economic failure, if untreated, posting in Moscow in December 1933. rate sources as Gibbon, Tolstoy, and would pose for Western Europe. The His fluency in Russian and his knowl- Dostoevsky, as well as Chekhov, who Marshall Plan was largely Kennan’s edge of the culture helped him to spoke about Russia’s “resistance, how- idea. He forecast with precision the appreciate the Stalinists’ “justification ever subtle, to revolutionary redesign.” impact that nuclear proliferation would for their instinctive fear of [the] outside In 1968, when the Soviets invaded have on national budgets, especially world [and] for the dictatorship without Czechoslovakia, Kennan viewed the the U.S. budget, and he was among which they did not know how to rule.” move as an expression of historically the first to predict a rapid militariza- Kennan foresaw, as did nearly no one predictable Russian behavior—the sort tion of American foreign policy. His else at the time, that the Soviet Union’s of action Czar Nicholas II, the last Policy Paper Number 380, drafted in existence would be “a transitory phe- Russian monarch, would also have 1950, when he was director of the State nomenon: it was floating along on the taken. After the disintegration of the Department’s Policy Planning Staff, surface of Russian history, and currents Soviet Union in December 1991, the shaped the national debate on nuclear deeper than anything Marx, Lenin, or opening of Soviet archives confirmed policy well into the 1980s. Stalin had imagined would ultimately Kennan’s long-held view of the Soviet In the early 1950s, Dwight determine its fate.” government as a “frightened, over- Eisenhower assumed the presidency, Kennan’s central Cold War notion— stretched gerontocracy.” However, in Joseph Stalin died, and a new Soviet famously expressed in his article, “The the 1950s, when it mattered politically, leadership, deeply unsure of itself, Sources of Soviet Conduct,” published the Republican Party, as well as many watched revolts break out in East under the pseudonym “X” in the July Southern Democrats, was dominated Germany. An armistice was reached 1947 issue of Foreign Affairs—was that by an alliance of isolationist holdovers in Korea, and the Soviet Union the Soviet Union could be contained and zealous McCarthyites, and, by the embarked on a gradual but steady within its existing spheres of influence, end of the 1950s, having been thrown retreat from its previous occupations until such time as it self-destructed and out of Moscow in 1952, Kennan had in Finland, Yugoslavia, Manchuria, and was no longer a threat to the West. become persona non grata in many Austria. Winston Churchill and Kennan Despite the mythology that has grown West European and American foreign believed that the continuing division of up around him, however, Kennan policy establishments. Germany was a mistake, and both men was not responsible for designing a lobbied Eisenhower and Secretary of foreign policy that sought to battle A Steady Gaze into the Future State John Foster Dulles to renegotiate communism everywhere in the world. In a review of Kennan’s Memoirs: the postwar settlement, particularly as In his article, he had written, “the main 1925–1950, published 45 years ago it related to Germany. Eisenhower and element of any United States policy (and followed by Memoirs: 1950– Dulles were dismissive, however, and toward the Soviet Union must be that 1963), historian John Lukacs sum- Germany remained divided until 1990. of a long-term, patient but firm and marized Kennan’s diplomatic gifts by Gaddis does not seem to assign much vigilant containment of Russian expan- quoting what Charles James Fox reput- importance to Kennan’s proposal for sive tendencies.” (Emphasis added.) edly said of Edmund Burke: that he is reunification of Germany, but Russian Others would later advance hard-line a “wise man; but he is wise too soon.” sources made available after the break- interpretations of Kennan’s doctrine, Kennan’s abilities as a strategist were up of the Soviet Union revealed strong sometimes on policy grounds, often based on many things, including his evidence that the Kremlin was inter- simply for political reasons, but, until deep knowledge of European history ested in such a renegotiation. As was his death, Kennan believed that the and culture, and the fact that he tended so often the case, however, the course Soviets had merely tended “to clothe to examine strategic questions within of history was beyond Kennan’s power [their] love for power in ideological the context of centuries, even millen- to change. terms.” nia, not, as others often did, in terms In 1950, Kennan prepared a long Kennan’s views began to form in of weeks or months. His judgment was report to Secretary of State Dean the 1920s, when he was in his early trusted too, in part because he seemed Acheson in which he advised caution 20s, and they were well-formed by to have an almost instinctive ability and restraint in America’s relations

64 | The Federal Lawyer | August 2012 with Latin America, but the report was how delicately its leaders bal- the times, and Kennan likely would was suppressed. It was not published anced the acknowledged absurdity of have understood Tocqueville’s com- until 1976, by which time a series of Marxism-Leninism against their need to ment about an earlier time in American Presidents had deployed U.S. military preserve the ideology in whose name history when it was “impossible to and intelligence assets into nearly all they had gained and retained power.” conceive of a more troublesome and the countries of Latin America, often Kennan predicted, correctly, that China garrulous patriotism.” Kennan became with tragic consequences. Kennan would soon face the same dilemma. the first person to publicly challenge, issued early warnings against a war Kennan also warned against though not by name, Wisconsin Sen. against “international communism” American involvement in Afghanistan Joseph McCarthy by delivering a and specifically against proxy wars in in the wake of the Soviet invasion speech that was sharply critical of the Third World, where, he believed, on Christmas Day 1979—an interven- the rising anti-Communist hysteria in the prospects for the Soviets were tion that some credit for the rise of the country. In a series of lectures he “[f]ar from opportunities, these were the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Decades in delivered at Northwestern University in liabilities, depleting strengths needed advance, Kennan foresaw a Western 1951, Kennan analyzed the temptation to maintain the status quo.” intervention in Iraq that he feared facing democracies such as the United In 1950 in Korea, despite Kennan’s would be impulsive and born of soft- States to believe that they could defeat warnings, the Allied military advanced headed idealism. When he granted his totalitarians by emulating them, but beyond the 38th parallel, with near- last press interviews in late 2002, at the such a bargain could not be struck, he disastrous results. When the war in age of 98, Kennan condemned George said, “without the selling of the nation- Korea led the Truman administration W. Bush’s plans to invade Iraq as al soul.” At the end of World War II, to increase economic and military well as the Democrats’ timidity in not Kennan predicted a postwar period of assistance to the French in Indochina, opposing Bush more vigorously. significant domestic disorder, involving Kennan insisted that this amounted to matters of race, culture, and econom- “guaranteeing the French in an under- An American Life ics. His forecast was accurate—though taking which neither they nor we, nor Kennan’s public profile as a Cold premature. both of us together, can win.” Fifteen War diplomat tended to obscure his Kennan was critical of many aspects years later, with American military lifelong concern for domestic affairs, of American culture: its materialism, its involvement growing in Vietnam, he especially his fear of the devolv- occasional shallowness, and the mind- would express deep concern “about ing character and culture of his own less populism that interfered with wise what our people are doing in Southeast country. In the midst of World War II, decision-making, but he aimed his Asia. It seems to me that they have he had witnessed European authori- critiques at other Western societies as taken leave of their senses.” Kennan tarianism and worse, and, according to well—not least of which was his wife’s would eventually make the first written Gaddis, he came to believe that “the native country of Norway. Ironically, public critique of the administration’s greatest danger to the United States ... Gaddis points to evidence of Kennan’s policy in Vietnam, testifying before the could come from a homegrown dicta- own authoritarian bent, indisputably Senate Foreign Relations Committee torship. The cause would be the ‘pet- present in some of his writings, which chaired by J. William Fulbright. ty-bourgeois jealousy which resents at times seem to reflect a wry hope According to Gaddis, Kennan told and ridicules any style of life more for refashioning the American political the committee that “the United States dignified than its own—a phenom- process into a system less hogtied by could not continue to ‘jump around’ enon of which we saw much in Nazi the constant and often corrupt conflicts like ‘an elephant frightened by a Germany’”—by which I think Kennan of the democratic process. However, mouse.’ Instead its standard should meant that, in the angry and some- many of these ideas are found in his be that of John Quincy Adams: ... to times irrational American populism, diary entries, where he vented his ‘go not abroad in search of monsters he saw some of the same kind of pas- pessimism in moments of frustration to destroy.’” Kennan added, “There sions that among the German work- or despair, or were composed in the is more respect to be won in the ing classes had helped bring Hitler to 1930s, when he was still relatively opinion of this world by resolute and power. Soon, tangible signs of domes- young and when disillusionment with courageous liquidation of unsound tic excess appeared, as Kennan saw democracy, especially as demonstrated positions than by the most stubborn close colleagues being investigated for in Europe, was widespread. On the pursuit of extravagant or unpromising possible disloyalty to the government. whole, any such impulses seem to have objectives.” Kennan’s testimony had, At great risk to his career, he defended been more than counterbalanced by for the first time, made it respect- some of these colleagues, including his an enduring condemnation of the kind able to oppose the war. Nevertheless, former mentor, Robert Oppenheimer, of authoritarianism he had witnessed American troops would remain in who would eventually lose his secu- in the Soviet Union and Germany. Indochina for another decade. rity clearance and thereby his ability More important, Kennan was not given In the face of official belief in a to continue nuclear research for the to simplistic views of the world. His monolithic Communist threat, Kennan United States. Suspicion, paranoia, and thinking about democracy in general saw complexity. In 1960, what “inter- government spying (shades of Red ested him most about Yugoslavia ... Square) pervaded the atmosphere of reviews continued on page 66

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had many influences, including theolo- able work of sustained self-analysis— Like Thomas Jefferson, weary of gian Reinhold Niebuhr’s The Children and certainly self-criticism—since The the strains of office and disillusioned, of Light and the Children of Darkness: Education of Henry Adams. ... [T]hey Kennan yearned for the farm and private A Vindication of Democracy and a document yet another career for which life, though his habits of mind reflected Critique of Its Traditional Defense, the Kennan should be remembered: that of a Scottish-Presbyterian upbringing that thesis of which is that even in a philosopher.” imbued him with a profound sense democracy, the forces of good and evil of duty, a Protestant work ethic, and are constantly at battle, sometimes with Character a steely self-discipline—qualities that their respective proponents in unlikely Whatever gave birth to its constitu- served him well in his official postings. disguises. Authoritarian societies such ent parts, Kennan’s personality was The influences of Russian Orthodoxy, as the Soviet Union filled Kennan with a highly refined compound of many derived from his travel and study, left a sense of personal horror, but he also elements, which many people puzzled him with a somewhat fatalistic view of condemned the social ills caused by over and attempted to explain. Joseph the world. The historian Arthur Link, unrestrained industrial capitalism, abet- Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva whom Gaddis quotes, went too far, ted as they were by national vanities thought that Kennan was not well- however, in contending that Kennan’s and a failure to appreciate the limits of suited to official duties and formal perspective on life involved “the accep- human nature. service. He needed “freedom; travel; tance of things as they are ... that the opened sea,” she wrote. He was a world is fundamentally evil and that Historian, Teacher, Writer writer, but not one born for academia, really there’s not a great deal that you Gaddis focuses on Kennan as a dip- and a foreign relations expert, but not can do about it.” Relying mostly on the lomatic thinker. He notes that Kennan much concerned with what the world word of others, Gaddis suggests that was seen as a leading theorist of inter- thought of him. He was not a vain man Kennan believed in predestination, but national relations, and, along “with but was happiest when he could follow this concept is complex and has more Lippmann, Niebuhr, and Morgenthau, his own inner drives and impulses. than one intellectual and historical tra- as a founding father of post-World At least one former secretary of state dition. Kennan’s views, at least judging War II realism.” As Gaddis points out, has remarked that Kennan “blighted by what he wrote in his letters and however, Kennan disliked international his career” by refusing to embrace diary entries, came closer to a brand theory and did not envision himself as the realities of foreign policy-making of stoicism that acknowledges that the a theorist. In fact, Kennan’s career as a in the domestically troubled postwar world often seems to be fated—that it historian, public intellectual, and writer American order. This same person is pushed and pulled by forces more was probably more important than his said that, after Kennan left government powerful than “the best human inten- career in public service, although it service, he was unhappy to be without tions,” as Reinhold Niebuhr put it. is not clear that Gaddis would agree political influence, but this conten- Whatever the appropriate label might with this conclusion. Kennan received tion is dubious. Kennan’s ambitions be, Gaddis makes what is perhaps a National Book Award and a Pulitzer for learning, understanding, and work a related point, that the death of Prize both for the first volume of his were not, on the whole, based on Kennan’s mother shortly after he was memoirs and for his history of the early worldly goals. In this respect, he dif- born had a deep and lasting emotional Russian revolutionary period (Russia fered from many of his colleagues. impact on him. It is not far-fetched to Leaves the War). The latter work also His loneliness, if that’s what it was, infer that such an introduction to life received the highly esteemed Bancroft derived not from being outside the may have resulted in a skeptical man and Francis Parkman Prizes for history. circle of power, but from something with a somber view of the world. Kennan wrote sweeping surveys of deeper in his nature. Well into mid-life, European diplomatic history, includ- Kennan expressed the feeling that he Gaddis Wrestles with His Subject ing The Decision to Intervene, a study was an exile from his own time and Gaddis strives to provide as com- of the American military intervention place. “I am,” he told an interviewer plete an account of Kennan’s life as in Russia in the wake of the revolu- in 1976, “an 18th-century person.” He possible, but the portrait Gaddis dis- tion, and The Decline of Bismarck’s was deeply reflective and philosophi- plays is unbalanced in notable ways. European Order, a book in which he cal. He was detached: a realist about First, he fails to frame his subject’s sought to chart the developments in the capacity of human will and a story so as to give fair attention to each late 19th-century Europe that would nonconformist, who was reflexively portion and aspect of the man’s life. eventually lead to World War I. Gaddis put off by many of the conventions of Kennan occupied high office in the writes that Kennan’s letters, most of his time yet was fond of many of the U.S. government for only a few years which have yet to be edited and pub- commonplaces of bygone eras. Many immediately following World War II, lished, “rival those of distinguished years later, he would tell Gaddis that and his key role in helping to craft literary contemporaries, and his diaries, “people who are a little unusual—the American foreign policy was confined which run, with gaps, from 1913 to Bohème—they understand me, better to 1946 to 1952, yet more than two- 2003, are arguably the most remark- than do the regular ones.” thirds of the book is devoted to this

66 | The Federal Lawyer | August 2012 early period of Kennan’s life. Kennan his witnesses as it does about Kennan. he viewed as George W. Bush’s bold- died in 2005, more than 50 years after Whatever else one may say, Kennan’s ness and strategic vision. Gaddis was leaving government service (except critiques of American society were a keen supporter of the war in Iraq for a short stint as President Kennedy’s consistent with those found in many and helped draft the ex-President’s ambassador to Yugoslavia). Gaddis powerful currents of thought that came second inaugural address, which was gives the last 40 years of Kennan’s to the fore during his generation and notable, in the words of one reviewer, life little more than 100 pages. This the next. for “its deep devotion to American structure inflates the importance of For some of Kennan’s contempo- foreign policy’s messianic traditions.” Kennan’s contributions as a diplomat raries quoted in this book, and for None of this would have pleased and Cold War strategist, at the expense Gaddis, Kennan’s shortcomings includ- Kennan. of delving deeper into his literary, his- ed his “prolixity,” the fact that he Gaddis’ 2005 book, The Cold War: torical, and philosophical interests and “tended to ramble,” and that he “was A New History, which located the talents. In this sense, this book pres- self-absorbed” and had an “inability cause of the Cold War in the person of ents Kennan’s life as told by a Cold to insulate his jobs from his moods.” Joseph Stalin, was criticized for its ide- War historian. Gaddis sees Kennan’s advice in favor ological bias. The late historian Tony Second, the tone of this book at of U.S. military and political restraint in Judt wrote that Gaddis had presented times seems excessively deprecating Latin America as a sign of his pessimism, a “partial viewpoint” of the conflict— of its subject. Gaddis writes that frus- which “was consistent with his own that of an “unapologetic [American] tration was Kennan’s “normal state,” view of life.” Gaddis also bemoans the triumphalist,” and that Gaddis’ “provin- Kennan’s State Department Policy impracticality of Kennan’s policy pro- cialism” resulted in a view of the Cold Planning Staff papers were “strikingly scriptions, writing that Kennan turned War that lacked a broader accounting solipsistic,” “[s]olipsism showed up as his mood swings into “prophetically of all its costs, such as the fact that well in Kennan’s conviction that only impractical policy memoranda”—this proxy wars in the Third World had he could reverse MacArthur’s course last criticism referring back to Kennan’s created the failed states of our times in Japan,” and the fact that Kennan final memorandum to Dean Acheson, and had done long-term damage to “expected theory to trump subjec- in which, among other things, Kennan America’s reputation. Liberal historians tivity—was in itself a solipsism that issued strong warnings against an tend to view authors such as Gaddis led to failure.” This solipsism theme improvident American involvement in as apologists for American power and begins to run like a thin crack through Indochina. When Kennan leaves the sometimes even as court historians, as a piece of china. The frequency and U.S. Foreign Service for academia in American diplomatic historian Robert liberality with which Gaddis uses the 1952, Gaddis has him departing for Buzzanco has suggested. It is fair term lays bare a tension that seems his own “empyrean”—a word he uses to ask how much Gaddis’ perspec- to have existed, or at least eventu- repeatedly and not in a manner that tive influenced George F. Kennan: An ally developed, between Gaddis and appears complimentary. American Life. Kennan. Gaddis might have chosen Moreover, Gaddis’ sources for this other words to describe his subject, book are almost exclusively from An Unexamined Side of Kennan some of which at least approach the the United States, and it eventually This biography might have been general meaning of solipsistic (con- becomes evident that Gaddis’ narrative called George F. Kennan: A Life in templative, thoughtful, meditative, has been crafted by a native look- Diplomacy, rather than George inner-directed), but he didn’t, so he ing out on the world from his own F. Kennan: An American Life. But must have intended the pejorative shores. Kennan’s life was not just a life in term. This is all well and good, if he diplomacy. The Kennan who was a is convinced that his subject deserves John Gaddis: American Cold War His- fine, if not great, historian, writer, phi- this appraisal, but, if Kennan was torian losopher, and even poet, as Eugene rather wiser than his peers and they Admittedly, few biographers are Rostow suggested, is not greatly in did not heed his advice, is solipsism to capable of complete detachment from evidence in this book. In addition, blame? The general tone of complaint their subjects. A biographer’s own Kennan’s life was not entirely an makes one skeptical of Gaddis’ inten- emotions, ideas, and prejudices neces- American life. Like all great men and tions. We hear from Gaddis (and, in sarily intrude into the process. Gaddis women, Kennan transcended his own all fairness, from people whom Gaddis has been described as the dean of time and place. Gaddis tends to down- quotes) that Kennan was gloomy, pes- Cold War historians. He received play this fact or to view it unfavorably. simistic, and hyper-self-critical, and a National Humanities Medal from Kennan wandered the world, living Gaddis contends somewhat mutedly President George W. Bush in 2005 abroad most of his young life, and that Kennan’s criticism of American after the 2004 publication of his book, later went back and forth between his culture was a product of all the afore- Surprise, Security, and the American Pennsylvania farm, Washington, D.C., mentioned negative characteristics, as Experience, which was an implicit various foreign capitals, and Princeton. well as being odd—perhaps a sign defense of Bush’s foreign policy. A In Sketches from a Life, Kennan wrote of personal weakness. However, this fellow Texan and confidant of the for- may say as much about Gaddis and mer President, Gaddis admired what reviews continued on page 68

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that he was “a sort of Nordic cosmo- is a confusion of human voices, rigid and inhumane, even Ahab-like politan, truly domiciled only in the talking in Russian or German, a in its narrow focus and fierce, singular natural beauty of the seas and coun- hum of invisible insects, a rush intensity.” trysides of this northern [European] of warm breeze through the fresh Speaking of Ahab, Delbanco, who world: in its seasons, its storms, its foliage. ... [H]ow shall we receive has written an acclaimed book on languid summers, but occasionally also this sudden surfeit of warmth Herman Melville, considers the attitudes in its vanishing urban settings, the half- and tenderness? ... We would of Hawthorne and Melville toward abo- remembered ones. ...” like to clutch it and hold it, but litionism. Delbanco sees Hawthorne as In the same book, Kennan saw it is too immense, too illusive, to “hovering between two views” and himself as “an expatriate in time rather be grasped ... We can only walk, notes that Hawthorne’s biography of than in place: an expatriate from the blinking and bewildered ... in the his college classmate Franklin Pierce, Wisconsin of the first years of this disturbing knowledge of a glory which Hawthorne wrote for Pierce’s century, not from the Wisconsin of this we cannot share. TFL 1852 presidential campaign, “contains day. The imprints of childhood are the hints of ambivalence on the slavery strongest and most enduring stamp Jeffrey G. Buchella is a lawyer who re- question.” Delbanco, however, may be of personality. ... To the Wisconsin sides in Tucson, Ariz. He is licensed to too generous to Hawthorne. He does of that time I was never lost. But that practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, quote Hawthorne in the Pierce biog- Wisconsin is largely lost to me. ... And the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the raphy as calling slavery “one of those I, without it, am, like many an older U.S. District Court for the District of Ari- evils which divine Providence does not person, an expatriate to be sure, but zona, and the Arizona Supreme Court. leave to be remedied by human contriv- an expatriate as much within my own ances, but which, in its own good time country as outside it. ...” The Abolitionist Imagination ... it causes to vanish like a dream.” But Gaddis quotes neither of the above Delbanco does not quote Hawthorne’s By Andrew Delbanco, with commentar- passages from Sketches from a Life, comment in the Pierce biography that ies by John Stauffer, Manisha Sinha, Dar- nor the one with which I will close the “two races ... now dwelt together this review. His book would have had ryl Pinckney, and Wilfred M. McClay in greater peace and affection ... than greater depth had it given a stronger Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, had ever elsewhere existed between impression of Kennan not only as dip- 2012. 205 pages, $24.95. the taskmaster and the serf.” Nor does lomat and foreign policy thinker but Delbanco quote Hawthorne’s praise also as a philosopher and writer—a for Pierce for loving “his whole, unit- deep and sensitive soul with a spiritual Re v i e w e d b y He n r y Co h e n ed, native country ... better than the and at times almost mystical bent, who mistiness of a philanthropic theory.” To left behind diary entries that are at The Abolitionist Imagination con- Hawthorne, in other words, the aboli- once history and poetry, as shown by sists of a 53-page essay by Andrew tionists were unpatriotic. If patriotism this extract: Delbanco, responses of about 20 pages required appeasing the slave states so each by four other scholars, and a brief that they would not secede and destroy May 26, 1929—Riga reply by Delbanco. Delbanco takes a the Union, then Hawthorne may have nuanced approach to abolitionism. He had a point. But it is astonishing that Summer has come to the Baltic, wishes “to get away from the heroes a writer as sensitive as Hawthorne and with it the long white nights. versus villains narrative and to suggest was not more moved by the plight of Driving back from the shore at some reasons why people of con- slaves. one in the morning, I see that science ... tried desperately to find a Melville, by contrast, denounced the first drops of the dawn are middle way.” Such people might have slavery as a “sin ... no less;—a blot, diluting the darkness. The waters been appalled by slavery, “but also foul as the crater-pool of hell.” But of the Duna have taken on a aware of the fragility of the republic Delbanco sees Melville, like Hawthorne, bluish tint from the lightening and the likely cost of radical action.” as “squeamish about the abolitionist sky, and the lights from the dis- Delbanco considers abolitionism not response” to slavery. Delbanco believes tant quai throw down across the only as the movement to end slavery that Melville’s squeamishness stemmed water their rugged yellow paths, in the United States, but also as a from his sense “that Armageddon was against which the forms of masts broader concept—as a position that coming—and that, if abolitionists and and stacks and roofs and bridges people take on a variety of causes, fire-eating slaveowners had their way, are still colorless and distance- including opposition to abortion. He it would come soon.” less. agrees that, although abolitionism can The first two commentators in this be a “healthy means by which we book, John Stauffer and Manisha Sinha, At noon—Sunday noon—a sum- challenge our constant tendency to fall defend abolitionism from what they mer sun bathes the city in gold- into moral complacency,” it can also be see as Delbanco’s centrist perspective. en, vibrating warmth. ... There “something perfervid and dangerous, They believe that abolitionism arose as

68 | The Federal Lawyer | August 2012 a result of the Missouri Compromise two recent books that “focus on the products we import, but that doesn’t of 1820, which allowed Missouri to devastation the war wrought” rather mean that we oppose the abolition of enter the Union as a slave state but than on merits of the Union cause, and such cruelty and oppression. Likewise, prohibited the spread of slavery into one recent book—David Goldfield’s if, in the 1850s, we might not have the territories north of the 36° 30´ America Aflame—that takes a negative taken action to oppose slavery, it parallel. This brought the issue of attitude toward abolitionism. As for would not follow that we would have slavery to a head. Prior to the Missouri the first two books, not to focus on opposed the abolition of slavery. Compromise, there seemed to be an the merits of the Union cause can be A third reason that Delbanco sees understanding among both slavehold- consistent with full-throated Unionism. for “the shift in tone in contemporary ers and their opponents that slavery One might take for granted Abraham writing about the war against slavery was an evil that had been sanctioned Lincoln’s assertion that slavery “was, ... is the abolitionists’ militant religious by the Constitution as a compro- somehow, the cause of the war” and, voice”—that of Harriet Beecher Stowe, mise but that would gradually disap- for that reason, also take for granted the John Brown, and others. Delbanco pear. “Over the course of the 1820s,” necessity of the war. As for Goldfield’s adds, “Today, when the language of however, Stauffer writes, Southerners book (reviewed in the October 2011 holy crusade has been appropriated “repudiated the belief ... that slavery issue of The Federal Lawyer), it is too by jihadists abroad and the Christian was a sin, and began to envision an early to tell what effect it may have on right at home, the religious accent empire of slavery. In response, the historians. sounds a good deal less congenial North witnessed the rise of ‘modern’ or Delbanco continues, “Reasons for to many who seem themselves lib- immediate abolitionism. ...” the change in tone in Civil War schol- eral or progressive.” But, apart from Delbanco responds that he finds arship are not far to seek.” He suggests the fact that many abolitionists, such himself “agreeing substantially with several such reasons, but none is par- as Henry David Thoreau, were New my critics while not always recogniz- ticularly cogent. The first is that mod- England Transcendentalists and not ing what I wrote in their critiques.” ern-day liberals’ opposition to “two conventional—let alone fundamental- His aim, he writes, “was neither to American-led wars that were justified, ist—Christians, many secular liberals, denigrate nor celebrate” abolitionism, in large part, as acts of liberation on despite their opposition to jihadists but “to propose some reasons why behalf of innocents living in conditions and the Christian right, continue to serious people of conscience could akin to slavery” makes it possible to admire Harriet Beecher Stowe and have withheld themselves from the imagine that, if we lived in the 1850s, (to a lesser degree) John Brown. abolitionist crusade for as long as they we might not favor “intervention in Commentator Wilfred M. McClay did. My hope was to discourage the what people of advanced views today writes that Delbanco’s point that the kind of hagiography and demonology might call ‘the indigenous culture’ of abolitionists’ cause grew out of their into which writing about this subject the South.” The flaw in Delbanco’s brand of Christianity “strongly sup- often descends.” reasoning here is that most liberals did ports the claim by religiously based The third commentator, Darryl not believe that the invasions of Iraq foes of abortion rights in our own Pinckney, does not respond directly to and Afghanistan (which I assume are day that the mantle of the abolition- any of Delbanco’s points but contrib- the wars to which Delbanco refers) ists is theirs.” But religion has always utes an essay on black abolitionists, on were, in fact, intended as acts of lib- been used to justify causes both good whom Delbanco did not focus. Wilfred eration. and evil; many supporters of slavery, M. McClay, the final commentator, Delbanco’s second explanation for for example, cited scripture in sup- generally supports and elaborates current scholars’ reduced enthusiasm port of their position. McClay might upon Delbanco’s analysis. He praises for the Union cause is that “most of us reply that support for abolitionism, both Lincoln for his pragmatism and live quite comfortably today with our unlike support for slavery, depended the abolitionists for their vision, noting knowledge of cruelty and oppression on religion—“No religion, no aboli- that, “[b]ound in a tense and fractious in nation-states whose exports are as tionism: it is that simple,” he claims. alliance, they accomplished together essential to our daily lives as slave- But he cannot know that the abolition- a goal that neither could have accom- grown cotton once was to the ‘free’ ists were not psychologically inclined plished separately.” North—yet few of us take any action to oppose slavery and would have I close by taking issue with a state- beyond lamenting the dark side of done so even without religion. The ment of Delbanco’s that none of the ‘globalization.’ Are we sure we would Abolitionist Imagination raises many commentators addresses. Delbanco have sided with those who insisted that such provocative questions. TFL writes, “Civil War scholarship seems to all Americans ... had a duty forcibly to be turning away from the full-throated terminate the labor system of a region Henry Cohen is the book review editor Unionism of James McPherson’s Battle that many regarded, to all intents and of The Federal Lawyer. Cry of Freedom (1988) ... toward a purposes, as a foreign country?” Here more muted assessment of the conflict Delbanco confuses taking a position as a vastly tragic, perhaps even avert- with taking action. Yes, few of us take able event.” Delbanco offers little evi- any action beyond lamenting the cru- dence for this statement, merely citing elty and oppression of nations whose reviews continued on page 70

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Revolutionary Founders: Rebels, the temerity to write her will at a time Captain General of the Liberty Tree.” Radicals, and Reformers in the when a woman’s property was consid- In 1765, Mackintosh was an instigator Making of the Nation ered to belong to her husband. of five major actions, including hang- Two other women are also fea- ing effigies from an elm tree—known Edited by Alfred F. Young, Gary B. Nash, tured in this book. Judith Sargent as the “Liberty Tree”—to protest the and Ray Raphael Murray, like Abigail Adams, was an Stamp Act. Of the Boston Tea Party in Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY, 2011. 452 advocate of women’s rights; her land- 1773, Mackintosh boasted in old age pages, $32.50. mark essay, “On the Equality of the that it was “my chickens that did the Sexes,” published in 1790, predated job.” Young credits Mackintosh with Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication having influenced the three leaders of the Rights of Woman” by two years. of the Revolutionary movement in Re v i e w e d b y Ch a r l e s Do s k o w Murray’s three-volume book of poems, Massachusetts: John Adams, Samuel essays, and plays—published in 1798 Adams, and John Hancock. History is not only about kings and and titled The Gleaner—established Other essays in Revolutionary presidents and generals. In fact, as her as an advocate for women’s equal- Founders describe the several local Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “All his- ity, education, and economic indepen- revolutions that antedate 1776; the tory is a record of the power of minori- dence. The second woman featured struggles of the Baptists in Virginia ties, and of minorities of one.” in the book is Phyllis Wheatley, an against the established Church; and the The three distinguished historians African-American and a freed slave, “radical caucus” that, during the sum- of the American Revolution who edit- who wrote poetry. Historian David mer of 1776, immediately after inde- ed Revolutionary Founders, and who Waldstreicher calls his essay about pendence, gave the Commonwealth each contributed one of the book’s 22 her, “The Poet Who Challenged the of Pennsylvania the most democratic essays, asked “prominent scholars to American Revolutionaries.” Phyllis constitution ever written to that date. discuss men and women who are rep- Wheatley wrote elegies, patriotic verse The post-Revolutionary activities of a resentative of larger historical currents.” (one about the Boston Massacre), and group that the editors call the “Black Most of these men and women were poems about the complex issues raised Founders,” as well as the activities of associated with popular movements by slavery. certain Indian tribes, are also the sub- and were people of lesser renown Philip Mead’s essay focuses on jects of essays in the book. who either influenced or embodied the the memoirs of Private Joseph Plumb In the introduction, the editors sug- Revolutionary era. In that sense, they Martin, a soldier in the Continental gest that two early uprisings have been were “Revolutionary Founders.” army. Martin had an extensive military given titles that fail to reflect their true Many of the individuals discussed career, rising to the rank of sergeant nature. The Whiskey Rebellion (1794), in the book were far from ordinary and participating in many successful a challenge to Alexander Hamilton’s people, and they made outstanding and unsuccessful battles, skirmishes, finance program, was given that name contributions to American history, even bivouacs, mutinies, and marches. His by Hamilton to caricature it; the book’s if they have largely been unrecog- observations about the deficiencies of editors prefer to call the participants nized. The editors characterize them the Continental army provide the per- “regulators,” who sought to enforce in the subtitle as “rebels, radicals, and spective of the grunt soldier and leave their right to pass judgment on (or reformers,” contrasting them with the no doubt of his lack of respect for “regulate”) their rulers. The editors Founding Fathers, who were con- most of the officers who commanded further contend that Shays’ Rebellion tent to accommodate slavery in the him (though he had a high opinion of (1787) had several leaders and should Constitution. George Washington). Martin’s memoirs not be attributed to a single disgruntled Of the 22 subjects of these essays, were written many years after the war, individual. The editors write, “This only Tom Paine and Abigail Adams yet, according to Mead, the soldier’s misnaming may seem trivial, but it are generally familiar to contemporary recollections check out with remark- is suggestive of greater obfuscation,” Americans. Paine’s varied and peripa- able accuracy against other accounts specifically, as an attempt to portray tetic contributions on two continents of the war. His book became “a the protestors as “wild radicals [who] are summarized in a brief essay evalu- classic among military historians and lost out to more reasonable men.” ating his accomplishments and his Revolutionary War enthusiasts as a These uprisings were expressions of influence on the Revolution. Abigail unique insight into the mind of a sol- the people, many of whom were dis- Adams, wife of the second President dier of the Revolution.” satisfied with their government for and mother of the sixth, was an early Alfred F. Young’s essay details the having failed to carry out the promise advocate of women’s rights and was contributions of Ebenezer Mackintosh, of the Revolution. The editors believe known for the letter she wrote in 1776 a shoemaker, to the pre-Revolution- that the leaders of these uprisings, like to her husband, then a member of the ary unrest in Boston. Massachusetts the other subjects of the book, deserve Continental Congress, advising him to was the cradle of the Revolution, greater recognition in American his- “Remember the Ladies.” She also had and Young titles his essay, “Boston’s tory.

70 | The Federal Lawyer | August 2012 Revolutionary Founders succeeds Johnson an instrument that he could and disarmingly frank about his own admirably in providing such recog- and did use to build his own personal ambition. nition. Each of its essays stands on political machine. In 1951, Johnson would arrange for its own, has its own bibliography, The second volume, Means of Baker to get a more adult-sounding and illuminates our picture of the Ascent, was published in 1990 and title than “page.” He became “assis- Revolutionary War era. TFL moved us on to Johnson’s elevation tant, Democratic cloakroom,” a nebu- to the U.S. Senate in the election of lous position invented precisely for Charles S. Doskow is dean emeritus 1948. The key votes, in the essentially him. Later, when Johnson became the and professor of law at the University one-party Texas of that time, were majority leader, Baker’s title became of La Verne College of Law and a past generally those cast in the Democratic still grander: “secretary to the major- president of the Inland Empire Chapter primary, and Johnson’s opponent in ity.” Then, when Johnson became vice of the Federal Bar Association. the party primary in 1948 was a for- president, Baker stayed on as secretary midable one—former Governor Coke to the majority in the Senate, under the The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Stevenson. Caro argues that Johnson’s new majority leader, Mike Mansfield. The Passage of Power defeat of Stevenson was blatant theft. One impression that everyone who Indeed, not only does Caro charge reads Caro’s biography of Johnson By Robert A. Caro that Johnson stole this election and his receives is that of a paradoxical com- Alfred A. Knopf, New York, N.Y. 2012. 712 resulting Senate seat but he also says bination of “Big Picture” architectonics pages, $35.00. that the theft was so blatant as to vio- with a passion for particularity. Here’s late “even the notably loose boundar- an example from near the end of ies of Texas politics.” Nonetheless, the Master of the Senate. Caro takes us to Re v i e w e d b y Ch r i s t o p h e r Fa i l l e Democratic Party’s state convention a meeting at which Johnson is giving upheld Johnson’s victory, and he pre- Senator Hubert Humphrey a dressing- Robert Caro has been working on vailed against Stevenson’s lawsuit with down. Humphrey had disappointed a multivolume biography of the 36th some help from attorney Abe Fortas, a him by counting votes inaccurately, President, called The Years of Lyndon man he would in the fullness of time forcing Johnson to use last-minute Johnson, for more than 30 years. The put on the U.S. Supreme Court. parliamentary maneuvers to avoid the first volume of the set, The Path to passage of a bill that Humphrey had Power, appeared in 1982. We ought Volume III: Master of the Senate erroneously assured him would not to begin a discussion of the book Caro’s third volume, Master of the require such maneuvering because it under review—the fourth volume— Senate (2002), discusses Johnson’s didn’t have the numbers to pass. Caro with some account of its precursors, as time as a U.S. senator. features describes the scene this way: it builds upon those earlier volumes. Johnson’s assumption of the leader- Someone with a general idea of where ship of his party in that body while He started to lead Humphrey to U.S. politics stood in the late 1950s can the Democrats were still the minor- his office. As he was crossing the treat this book as a stand-alone, but ity, with that assumption making him Senate Reception Room, he saw I trust the following paragraphs will majority leader in January 1955, when Anthony Lewis, the New York prove helpful for such an adventurer. the Democrats gained control of the Times Supreme Court reporter, Senate. This book takes the story to coming down the stairs. Grabbing The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Volumes January 1961—the end of his last term Lewis’ arm, Johnson brought him I and II in that institution. along, and Reedy as well, and The Path to Power related the first Along the way, Caro introduces us the four men settled down for a 33 years of Johnson’s life, including to Bobby Baker, who had been asso- talk, the Majority Leader behind his first election to the U.S. House of ciated with the U.S. Senate for a long the big desk, the three men fac- Representatives in 1937, which was time, having become a Senate page ing him. Every twenty minutes a special election for the district that as a teen-ager in 1942. He was still a or so, a secretary would come in included Austin and the hill coun- Senate page at the age of 20, when and hand Johnson a fresh Cutty try that surrounds it. Through that Johnson was elected to that institution Sark and soda, which he would campaign and the following years, in 1948. Johnson soon understood gulp down. Johnson was—at least on the surface— (according to the story as Caro told it a devotee of the New Deal, and he in this volume) why Baker was impor- The Big Picture here concerns noth- was associated in particular with the tant and said to him, “Mr. Baker, I ing less than the system of checks and cause of rural electrification. But Caro understand you know where the bod- balances, because the bill in question sees all of Johnson’s devotions dur- ies are buried in the Senate. I’d appre- was one that would have limited the ing the Roosevelt years through the ciate it if you’d come by my office and jurisdiction of the U.S. Supreme Court lens of Johnson’s already overweening talk to me.” That quote, which Caro (a common desideratum at the time for ambition. In this 1982 volume, Caro takes from a memoir Baker wrote conservatives lashing out at the judicial stressed that a close tie to the Rural in the 1970s, displays Johnson at his Electrification Administration gave most charming: both politely solicitous reviews continued on page 72

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revolution of Chief Justice Earl Warren vending machines to certain govern- Texas, after all, was a community and his colleagues). Caro included the ment contractors but then seen to it property state. As a matter of law, allusion to Cutty Sark, not for that Big that the contractors in question bought Johnson owned the half of his wife’s Picture (and not as a product place- from Serv-U anyway. interest in that company that had been ment), but because he knows enough Johnson’s response to the first unfa- accumulated during their marriage. about narrative to give the scene its vorable headlines about Baker and Even more to the point: if the LBJ pull. This isn’t political philosophy Serv-U was to claim that he hardly Company’s assets weren’t in any sense or even political science: this is old- knew Baker. He tried to sell the idea his, then why was that company pay- fashioned narrative biography on the that the secretary to the majority is a ing for his life insurance? grandest scale but with a wonderful post filled independently of the wishes On the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, sense of detail. of the majority leader and, indeed, that the Senate Rules Committee was hold- the two people who fill those respec- ing a hearing on Bobby Baker’s she- Volume IV: The Passage of Power tive posts have little contact. And he nanigans. Also that morning, in the There is some chronological overlap stopped taking Baker’s telephone calls. offices of Life magazine in New York in the coverage of Master of the Senate That tactic wasn’t going to work. Every City, an editorial meeting on the direc- and in Caro’s new book, The Passage reporter who had been on Capitol Hill tion of that periodical’s coverage of the of Power, because the latter begins in during the 1950s was aware that there Baker story was taking place. The LBJ 1958, when Johnson was still in the was a close tie between Johnson and angle of the Baker story had spun off Senate, and continues into 1964). But Baker (the usual language for it was into something new—an inquiry into there is little thematic overlap, because that of mentor and protégé). the vice president’s net worth and the the earlier chapters of this new volume sources of his wealth generally. focus not on legislative maneuverings Life Insurance and Life Magazine Days before, William Lambert, the but on the jockeying underway for The Baker story grew, and the associate editor of Life, had said to the Democratic Party’s nomination for Johnson connection to Baker tight- George P. Hunt, the managing edi- President in 1960. ened when a life insurance broker tor, that he was sure LBJ “had used Because I am writing a review and named Donald Reynolds began talking public office to enhance his private not a multivolume biography of my to Republican Sen. John J. Williams. wealth.” Johnson had been in public- own, I’ll skip forward, past the pri- Reynolds said that he had come to sector jobs all his adult life, yet he was mary campaign (when, Caro believes, know Bobby Baker in 1957, and that a multimillionaire. On Nov. 22, 1963, Johnson dithered away a real chance to Baker had introduced him to Majority Lambert and Hunt were discussing a be the Democratic Party’s nominee in Leader Johnson, who, at the time, had perspective on the Baker stories as 1960) and past Kennedy and Johnson’s been having trouble buying life insur- only one window into how that had defeat of Nixon and vice presidential ance because of his history of heart happened—and they were discussing candidate Henry Cabot Lodge. The trouble. Reynolds sold him a policy. the likelihood of other windows. outline of this much of Caro’s story is The check to pay the initial premium well known. was written on the account of the “LBJ An Assassination in Dallas The book picks up interest and nov- Company” and signed not by Lyndon That morning, at 11:38 in Dallas elty when Caro returns to the matter Johnson but by Lady Bird. Therein (12:38 in Washington, D.C.), Air Force of Johnson’s relationship with Bobby hangs another tale. The LBJ Company, One touched down. Around that Baker. At some point (Caro doesn’t tell supposedly Lady Bird’s project, with- time, two investigators for the Senate us exactly when), Baker became associ- out any input from Lyndon at all (if Rules Committee decided not to break ated with a vending machine company, one considers that they had the same for lunch but to continue question- Serv-U. This firm sold a lot of machines initials if she were to use her nickname ing Donald Reynolds, who had sold for use in military contractors’ manu- rather than her actual name), owned a Johnson the life insurance policy. The facturing plants, where Baker turned chain of radio and television stations investigators found the material so fas- out to have connections for reasons across Texas—a chain that Caro says cinating that they sent a secretary out that, even not especially cynical folks had been the recipient of “a twenty- to get sandwiches to avoid the need for surmised, had some connection with year long string of strikingly favorable a nutritional interruption. his years on Capitol Hill. In September rulings by the Federal Communications At about 12:30 in Dallas, LBJ and 1963, a competing vending machine Commission.” The LBJ Company also everyone else in the motorcade through concern filed a lawsuit against Serv-U owned “11,000 acres of ranchland and Dealey Plaza heard an ominous crack. and Baker, alleging that Baker had not major shareholdings in nine Texas At the same time, the Life editors were only taken bribes but also had then banks.” dividing up their planned coverage of double-crossed the people who had Lyndon Johnson’s denials of any the “LBJ’s wealth” story and assigning bought him fair and square. He had involvement with that company were tasks to their reporters. Also at that supposedly taken bribes agreeing to as incredible as his denials of any time, in Washington, D.C., Reynolds allow a competing company to sell its significant contact with Bobby Baker. was handing copies of potentially sig-

72 | The Federal Lawyer | August 2012 nificant documents to the committee’s handing over documents involving was to Ed Weisl, a prominent securi- investigators. Johnson to investigators the morning ties lawyer and LBJ’s best connection Reynolds told investigators that he of Kennedy’s assassination and that the to Wall Street. LBJ told Weisl that “your had paid kickbacks on the insur- hearing (and the investigation) came folks” (his clients in the securities busi- ance premiums he had received from to an end as soon as the participants ness, presumably) should take the hint Johnson. Specifically, he had paid for heard the news from Dallas has been that “this thing ... this assassin may ... advertising time on KTBC-TV. (He was catnip for theorists. Nonetheless, you have a lot more complications than running an insurance brokerage in won’t find any support in this book for you know about. ... It may lay deeper Maryland, with no Texas connections any particular conspiracy theory about than you think.” The message clearly at all. He had no need to buy air time the murder of the 35th President of the was that Wall Street should show on a Texas television station except, United States—in particular, you’ll find its own faith in and solidarity with of course, as tribute to Majority Leader no support for any theory that would Johnson, because he was going to save and then Vice President Johnson.) The paint Caro’s protagonist as complicit in the system that had made them all rich documents that Reynolds handed over the assassination. from the shadowy forces represented around 1:30 p.m. were the canceled For Caro, the coincidence of the tim- by the assassin. checks on these advertising/kickback ing of those two Baker-related investi- We can leave the story there. I payments. gations and the murder of President heartily recommend this book. Caro is The above paragraphs will have Kennedy is precisely that: a coinci- building a great scholarly monument to suffice to give some sense of the dence. “[N]othing that I have found with this multivolume work. We have tangle of issues that Johnson faced as in my research,” he writes, “leads me the privilege of watching him build it the inquiries into Baker’s various she- to believe that whatever the full story in real time. Those of our descendants nanigans intensified. Read the book for of the assassination might be, Lyndon who care about the history of the mid- much more. Johnson had anything to do with it.” 20th century will see it only as a thing The assassination of President John Typical of Caro’s view (and typical made, not one in-the-making. TFL F. Kennedy brought an end to such of his way of presenting his views) inquiries, at least for a time. The is a brief allusion near the end of Christopher Faille is the co-author, with sense of crisis made stories about the book to the claims of “publicity- David O’Connor, of Basic Economic old-fashioned kickbacks seem trivial, hunting New Orleans District Attorney Principles (2000), and the sole author and Johnson’s new position created a Jim Garrison” to have “discovered of a just-released book on the financial patriotic appeal in his favor—the idea that the Dallas shootings … were crisis of 2007-08, Gambling with Bor- that he should be given a breathing part of an elaborate conspiracy.” Caro rowed Chips. space before being pressed on such a then tells us that Robert Kennedy matter. It was only a breathing space, once discussed Garrison’s views with though. In August 1964, Life would run Frank Mankiewicz, his press secretary. the story it had scotched the preced- Kennedy asked Mankiewicz whether ing November, and other periodicals Garrison “had anything,” to which would be back in the hunt for dirt on Mankiewicz replied, “No, but I think Baker and Johnson. there is something.” Bobby replied, Presumably, we’ll read more about “So do I.” Baker, Reynolds, and issues of petty Caro, likewise, doesn’t believe that corruption in Caro’s fifth volume. This Garrison or any other theorists had fourth volume ends in March 1964. anything. Caro isn’t sure that there is By that time, according to Caro, the nothing to be found, but he appears to period of transition was over; Johnson want us to consider the possibility that had made the White House his own. one of the Attorney General Robert The end of the transition is reflected, Kennedy’s investigations—perhaps his for example, in the fact that Pierre pursuit of the Teamsters’ boss, Jimmy Salinger, a close Kennedy associate, Hoffa—had backfired, and that Robert whose continued presence after the Kennedy’s own grief accordingly had assassination Johnson had plaintively “explanations … beyond the obvious requested, left the administration with ones”—that is, that it was mingled with unexpected suddenness on March 19, and reinforced by guilt. 1964. In addition, Caro observes that Johnson was perfectly willing to play Coincidence and the Conspiracy Card the conspiracy card himself, when One reason the Baker scandal is he thought that it would help him. historically important is that the tim- In that awful weekend after President ing has fed into certain conspiracy Kennedy’s murder, one of the many theories. The fact that Reynolds was calls that the new President placed

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