Tag: watergate

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Latest read: What the Dog Saw

I have been a fan of Malcolm Gladwell’s writing.  Joining The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking and Outliers: The Story of Success comes his latest work What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures which is a collection of his writings with the New Yorker.  I have enjoyed all of his books and this new release is no exception.

And to prove life again is all about timing the NYTimes has it’s book review hitting tomorrow’s Sunday paper.  The book’s title is from his writing about Cesar Millan, the noted animal trainer with the hit cable show The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan.

Gladwell breaks the book into three parts: Minor Geniuses, Theories – or ways of organizing experience and Predictions we make about people.  From these points Gladwell shares those articles that have stuck with him long after the New Yorker articles were published.

I was pretty amused in reading What the Dog Saw right after finishing SuperFreakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance

To say the data and stories by Gladwell and Dubner & Levitt may overlap, it was nevertheless a lesson in looking beyond the regular story to take the opportunity to learn hidden lessons.

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Education Globalization Reading

Latest read: The Way of the World

Ron Suskind has written a revealing novel about the Bush Administration‘s attitude towards terrorism and American politics in The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism.  Suskind won the Pulitzer for A Hope in the Unseen and sets a pretty level playing field for the Bush Administration’s War on Terrorism revealing new insight to the strategy used by Bush/Cheney to “secure” war against Iraq.
The Way of the WorldSuskind brings many issues of concern to the forefront regarding the Bush Administration’s actions in taking the country to war.  I believe Suskind has clearly documented actions by Cheney as lessons learned from Nixon’s Watergate.  Cheney served Nixon as White House Staff Assistant in 1971 and Deputy Assistant to the President from 1974–1975.

During Watergate Nixon’s inner circle kept the President “in the know” but as Vice President Cheney has acted to deliberately keep W. Bush out of the loop for political and potentially legal reasons.  Suskind details the odd relationship developed by Bush in order to protect himself.

The 2% rule.
What does a sitting President do with a 2% approval rating with African American voters in a post-Katrina America?  With midterm elections on the horizon Bush simply extended (a bit early) the voting rights act.  That was the most strategic advice the GOP could offer?  Did they want to hit….say 4%?  This proves to be an excellent example of the political extremism underway in the Bush White House to show how the story and plans for war would be developed to further a political agenda.

Knifing the baby
Immediately following 9/11 Bush became accustomed to getting his political way with America, the mainstream media and government. History has shown this leads Presidents down dark paths.  When British intelligence (MI5 & MI6) notified the US that a plan was underway by Al Qaeda to blow up airplanes over the Atlantic Bush asked British PM Tony Blair to give up the terrorists to American authorities.  Blair refused saying British Intelligence had 2,000 operatives working this case for over a year.  They were eavesdropping on their ring of terrorists and looked to grab higher players within 30 days.

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Education Reading

Latest read: Nixon in Winter

Was looking forward to Monica Crowley’s Nixon in Winter : His Final Revelations about Diplomacy, Watergate, and Life out of the Arena for any Watergate insight but failed to learn anything new outside of Nixon’s predictable thought and opinions on the issue that killed his presidency . I was somewhat more interested in his insights on Vietnam.
Nixon in WinterSo what I learned was the impact of Vietnam and ultimately how it was just another part of the downfall of Nixon. I believe Nixon’s secret invasion of Cambodia which lead to campus protests, really ignited the anti-war movement and as a result began the actions of CREEP. He promised if elected he would bring peace to America, yet most Americans did not realize the resources North Vietnam used in Cambodia.

The most revealing was Crowley’s view of the Nixon’s and how he was so attached to Pat, especially when of her physical failures resulting from cancer. The insight of his devotion to her was true. In recalling video of Nixon weeping openly at her funeral somehow proved he was human in a moment of loss.

Overall this final revelation about Watergate proved little value. If memory serves me correctly this is now my 14th book about Watergate. Not sure I will pickup Crowley’s other book Nixon off the record.

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Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest read: Secrets A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

Daniel Ellsberg‘s Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers is about his direct experience in Vietnam and more importantly his role in leaking The Pentagon Papers.  Daniel’s lessons in both academic research and military battlefields helped me learn more about the times he lived in and how it ultimately caused him to steal and publish top secret files regarding the war in Vietnam.

Secrets A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon PapersThe Pentagon Papers showed world the surprising role of US involvement in Vietnam dating back to Harry Truman through the Nixon Administration.  His influence is not to be under estimated. I was impressed to learn of his work with President Kennedy in David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest. There was more to Ellsberg than meets the eye.

His background: undergraduate studies at Harvard and post graduate Woodrow Wilson fellowship at Cambridge in England. Daniel returned to apply for Marine officer candidates courses but had to wait a year — so he went to grad school at Harvard (during the Korean War) where he was expected to serve. In the beginning Ellsberg was a political hawk regarding communist expansion in the world especially Soviet aggressiveness in Czechoslovakia and Poland.

A week after getting his PhD he was in the military training to be a lieutenant. He would command a rifle unit in the second Marine division. As his tour was ending his first son was born. He was awarded a three year junior fellowship back at Harvard, but asked the Marine commandant to extend his tour as war in the Middle East appeared imminent. Daniel drafted secret plans against Egypt and Israel. As a research fellow back at Harvard in economic and decision theory he attracted attention of the Rand Corporation and in ’58 accepted an economic position with RAND in California. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik during this time-frame.  The cold war was beginning to really heat up.

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