Against The Wind: Edward Kennedy And The Rise Of Conservatism 1976 - 2009, Gabler - A*

                      This is the second volume of the author's masterful biography of the Massachusetts senator. In the first, the theme was Ted's contribution to the causes of liberalism that dominated the 60's. This book, however, is about how the wind shifted in the 70's, "and how Ted Kennedy attempted to defy it, then bent into it, charged into it, even as he realized that the moral moment had passed and the nation's values had changed..." Under Nixon and Reagan, America abandoned "the ideals that had held the liberal consensus together." The Republican Party was now about "the politics of anger and resentment." This story is about the flawed senator's battle to protect liberalism and its political morality. 

                    When Jimmy Carter ran in 1976, both Ted and the liberal establishment showed little enthusiasm for the conservative Georgian. Ted continued to plug away at his senatorial responsibilities with the thoroughness and modesty that had impressed all since his arrival a decade and a half earlier. He was considered the hardest-working senator and everyone agreed that he had the best staff, one fiercely loyal to him. Knowing full well that his presidential prospects had materially dimmed, he focused on becoming a legislative maestro in the style of Lyndon Johnson. He understood the institution as well as anyone, knew how it worked and worked to make it work for him and his causes. He was polite to all, never, ever made enemies and excelled at bringing people into his circle. 

                   Carter's objective was to govern as a moralistic technocrat, not an ideologue. Tip O'Neill observed that he wanted to change everything, but didn't understand anything. He had a meaningful majority in both houses but squandered it by insulting and ignoring the leadership. The first sign of discord with Ted was Carter's apparent indifference to universal health care. As they proceeded to talk and talk, it was apparent to Ted and big labor that Carter would never really pursue healthcare legislation. By the end of 1978, there was a clear break and Carter feared Ted would challenge him in 1980. At year end, Ted achieved a major goal when he became Chair of the Judiciary Committee. He worked very hard to create and pass the Criminal Code Reform Action effort that the Washington Post called "one of the greatest legislative feats of modern times." He then tacked to the right and passed both airline and trucking deregulation laws. Everyone expected Ted to run, particularly in late summer 1979 when Cater's approval ratio dropped to 19%. He felt he had to run to uphold the legacy of his brothers and to protect the liberal wing of the party. He made a lackluster announcement on Nov. 7th that had been preceded by a Roger Mudd interview that was so horrid, it is remembered as having scuttled his campaign before it began. Immediately afterwards, Carter's approval rating skyrocketed as America rallied behind him when the embassy hostages were taken in Tehran. The campaign was rudderless and lacking a message. Ted was a better senator than his brothers, but totally lacked their campaigning abilities. Furthermore, the moral mission of liberalism was not on the minds of a people facing 12% inflation, 8% unemployment, and unheard of interest rates. Carter beat him in Iowa. Ted switched the focus from Carter's leadership to time honored liberal values, but those issues failed to resonate as they once had. Ted won enough primaries to keep going and fight over the platform. Speaking to the Platform Committee, he closed the best speech of his life with "the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." He now was, in the words of Ted Sorenson, "the conscience of the party, the hope of the nation."

                  Reagan convinced "Americans that they had no civic obligations to Americans in distress." Ted's objective was to fight in the minority against the Reagan agenda. He was disillusioned, drinking and newly divorced. He found his footing when he worked the Voting Rights Act extension through the senate with Republican help and no support from the White House.  However, day after day battling the turn to the right was a losing cause. Under Nixon, the Republicans had taken a portion of the Democratic base on the issue of race. Reagan took the Catholics on the issue of abortion. Equally important, fewer and fewer of the old coalition were as poor as they once had been. They were middle class and inclined toward the Republican status quo. With the economy booming in 1984, Reagan was a shoo-in.  Ted visited South Africa and championed an American refutation of apartheid. When apartheid ended, Sen. Lowell Weicker said that Ted more than anyone in the world was responsible for the accomplishment. Ted embraced arms control and acted as a critical go-between for Reagan and the Soviets. When the Dems took back the senate in 1986, he left Judiciary and became chair of the Labor Committee. Realizing the presidency would not be in reach at any point, he recommitted to the Senate. In 1987, the Labor Committee introduced forty-five bills that became law. He passed the Civil Rights Restoration Act over Reagan's veto. That summer, the president nominated Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. In addition to his extreme views, Bork had also fired Kennedy-family friend Archibald Cox in 1973.  Ted came out swinging in what is known as his 'Robert Bork's America' speech, heatedly eviscerating the nominee. He organized a nationwide opposition, personally made thousands of phone calls, and his staff created the 'Book of Bork' with the jurists extreme positions detailed. Ted went after him with a ferocity that surprised his colleagues. In the end, Bork's arrogance at the hearing did him in. In Bush's first year, Ted worked diligently with any and all in Congress who had a connection to the disabled, and passed the A.D.A. which was essentially a civil rights act for forty million disabled Americans. In 1990, he forged the coalition that passed the Ryan White Act. In the first two years of the new administration, his committee passed fifty-four bills. 

                    Nonetheless, the late 80's and early 90's were a difficult time for a man approaching 60. Battling from the minority was wearing. He had a vast set of responsibilities to Bobby's eleven and Jack's two children. His own sons and Bobby's seemed to be in constant trouble. On a daily basis, he was reminded of the loss of his brothers. He dated, but never overcame the loneliness. And, he drank - a lot. After a night of bar-hopping in Palm Beach over Easter in 1991, his nephew William was accused of rape and Ted was investigated for obstruction of justice. The tabloids and the mainstream press crucified him as the man who had turned the Kennedy myth from a "brief shining moment" to a "sordid aftermath." He was mocked on the late night shows and became an object of national derision. The tide began to turn that summer when he started dating Victoria Reggie, a family friend and recently divorced lawyer. Although Ted believed Anita Hill and not Clarence Thomas, he was relatively quiet that fall during the hearings, and was accused by many for letting Thomas on the court because he had been unwilling to fight the way he had against Bork. His marriage to Victoria significantly changed his life for the better. He was now a devoted husband and a superb step-dad.

                 With Bill Clinton in the White House, Ted began to put through many bills that George Bush had vetoed. The press began to report that America's "liberal titan" was back. He was concerned about what he considered Clinton's tepid approach to health care, an approach that ignored the congress. With Finance chair Moynihan opposed, and the bill not presented until 1994, matters did not look promising. As much effort as Ted and Majority Leader Mitchell put into it, it failed.  For the first time in thirty-two years, Ted also faced a Republican opponent who could possibly unseat him. Mitt Romney was charming, good-looking and totally without any personal baggage. Romney had money to spend and he did. Polls in September showed them neck and neck. Ted looked old, overweight and worn out.  He called in an army of old Kennedy hands. Ted's campaign found Romney's weakness and hammered away on it. His company took over a business, laid off people and cut benefits, and they did it to a company that had been in Holyoke for a century. Ted pulverized him in their debate with his knowledge of the Senate and the details of legislating. Ted won by 18 points, but for the rest of the party, 1994 was a disaster. Republicans won both houses and a number of governorships. The new Republican leadership declared war on civility and on the US government. Ted set "the democratic strategy against Gingrich's dismantling of the government." The Republican budget made massive cuts to Medicare and other programs for people in need in favor of benefitting major corporations. Clinton vetoed them, and then when the government was shuttered, the public blamed Gingrich. Ted was the "spine stiffener" in the senate, and Clinton was the "executioner" of the Gingrich revolution. Ted spent the first half of 1996 tying Bob Dole up in knots over a minimum wage bill, which Dole could not support as the Republican nominee. Ted so masterfully "ran the senate" with amendment after amendment that Dole eventually resigned his senate seat. That summer he passed HIPPA and medical savings accounts, and was being praised as one of the greatest senators of the century. Unlike LBJ's powers in the Senate forty years earlier, Ted's power was not muscular, but rather "the soft power of congeniality" and "legislative integrity." He loved the Senate, respected everyone in it, and still worked harder than anyone else. He was generous, considerate, caring and incredibly thoughtful. He had an unparalleled personal decency. "He was the master because his colleagues knew that Ted Kennedy, for all his flaws, or perhaps because of them, really cared about them and about others."

                      The second Clinton administration saw Ted working with Orrin Hatch, a Republican Mormon senator from Utah with whom he had, on the surface, little in common, but who became his great friend and colleague, to pass a bill providing health care to children under six even though both the administration and the Republican leadership were opposed. He worked on the culmination of decades of support for Ireland by collaborating with Bill Clinton and George Mitchell to establish the accords that ended the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He backed Clinton when his impeachment ordeal began in early 1998. As the matter dragged on, Clinton's approval ratio increased and for the first time since 1822, the party of a second term incumbent picked up seats in the mid-terms. Thus, Newt Gingrich, "the vainglorious opportunist who had always put his ego above his nation's interests" resigned from the House. 

                     Although he seldom agreed with George W. Bush, Ted initially liked him. He worked closely with the administration on No Child Left Behind. But although, "Bush was charming and congenial, he was still a hardcore conservative who was not willing to make major compromises, and his ambitions were seemingly no different from those of Reagan and Gingrich." After 9/11, Ted called the families of each of Massachussetts'  187 victims offering sympathy and more importantly, help. He obtained free legal assistance for them, and obtained a dedicated social worker for each family. Soon, the Bush administration was ginning up their war on terror to include Iraq, a godforsaken country, but not one with a connection to 9/11. Ted became the leading voice trying to stop the madcap rush to war. Bush, Cheney, et. al. wanted war, lied extensively to get it, and began shooting in March, 2003. After Bush pushed his war through and deceived Ted on funding for NCLB, and on details of the bill for Medicare prescription drugs, Ted reluctantly concluded that an institution where one could rely on a man's word was changing for the worse. Ted no longer would go to the White House or talk to the president, whom he now lambasted in public as comparable to Nixon. He raged against George Bush throughout 2003 and 2004, campaigned vigorously for John Kerry, and was crushed when Bush was reelected. He spent a vast amount of time in the new year and in 2006 working with John McCain to pass immigration reform. They passed it in the Senate, but it died in the House. The last years of Bush's presidency saw a collapse of his popularity, and Democratic control of both houses after the mid-terms. Ted was finally able to push through the first increase in the minimum wage since 1994. Ted came close in 2007, but once again immigration reform failed.

                    In January of 2008, Ted, as well as Caroline Kennedy, endorsed Obama over Clinton for the presidency. Both Kennedys thought he had the ability to inspire and compared him to JFK. Ted campaigned for Obama with an enthusiasm not seen on the campaign trail in years. But everything came apart in May when he received a diagnosis of incurable brain cancer. Although surgery was considered a long shot, he had much of the tumor removed in June. The hope was to defer the inevitable. He spoke to the Democratic convention in August. In a crowning "last hurrah" speech he spoke of the passing of the torch to new generation and closed with "the dream lives on." He brought down the house. When Obama won a clear and convincing victory, Ted returned to Washington to work on a lifetime dream - health care. He was not well enough though to go to the senate. On the day of Obama's inauguration, he had another seizure. He came to Washington for his birthday and  received the Profiles In Courage Award at the Kennedy Center. He worked from Hyannis with his staff and the Democratic majority, and felt confident that the ACA would pass. The end came on August 25, 2009.

                   This is an extraordinary and very powerful book about a very human and very special man. At 1041 pages of text, one might suggest it's a tad too long. The two books total 1773 pages, but I believe every one is worth reading. He was as focused and as committed to his beliefs and goals as anyone I have ever read about, and his beliefs have proven, and will continue to prove, that he had the wind and the long arc of history at his back. 

The Last Supper, McCarry - B+

                      This is the fifth book in the four decades old series about CIA agent Paul Christopher. On a day in the mid-60's, Paul takes off for Saigon from Paris. His live in girlfriend, Molly Benson, is run down and killed, presumably by the Vietnamese. The book then explores Paul's journey to the agency that his dad had preceded him in. His dad was Yale, and his mother a German Baroness. Paul was born in the early years of the Weimar Republic, grew up Germany and escaped just before the war began. His mother was unable to escape, and died in the camps. Paul's dad, Hubbard, was chief of station in Berlin after the war when he was run down by the Sovs. 

                       When Paul gets to Saigon , he hires a pilot to take him to Hue. The pilot falls asleep with the automatic pilot on, and before Paul knows it, they land in a barrage of bullets, and he is carted away. He is in China and imprisoned for ten years. He confesses to everything he did for the CIA, but continues to plead that he has never spied on the PRC. They eventually let him go. Back in Washington, Paul continues to  ponder some of the dots he connected in prison. He and the CIA chief conclude that an old friend and incredibly successful agent is the reason Paul was betrayed and turned over to the Chinese. The old friend was a Soviet mole for over four decades and behind endless agency failures.

                       I discovered this very old series three + years ago and apparently forgot about it.  I discovered it because of the high praise heaped on the author in his NYT obituary. He was compared to LeCarre.  And in this marvelous novel, he plots a very long story with endless twists and plots that would do the late English master proud.

                      

Haven, Donoghue - C

               In the seventh century, three Irish monks leave their abbey and sail downriver to the western ocean. The leader, Artt, has a vision that they will find an island and worship God in solitude.  On the fifth day, they land on Great Skellig. Cormac, the elder, and Trian, a youngster, work hard to secure food, water and a modicum of protection from the elements, while the messianic Arrt wishes to build crosses and copy the holy book. "God will provide" is Artt's answer to all queries about the many things they need to survive. As summer turns to autumn, the birds they eat begin to leave and they have no fuel for fire. Soon, they are eating raw fish. The winter wears them down, and Arrt banishes Trian when he learns he is a hermaphrodite. Cormac tells Arrt he is releasing himself from his vow, gathers Trian, and they row back to the mainland. Perhaps this is about religious extremism, but quite frankly, I have no idea.

Sometimes People Die, Stephenson - B

                     This novel is set in the UK at the turn of the millennium. The topic is health care serial killers. It is narrated by a young Scottish physician trying to re-establish a failed career. He has been booted from his previous hospital for abusing opioids. He goes to work for a poor East End hospital in an ancient building with poor patients and not enough staff or money. He is now clean and works diligently to toe the line. When it becomes known that a healthy elderly woman died of an opiate overdose, he comes under suspicion. However, he is soon absolved because the police conclude that the hospital is the scene of a series of murders. Within a few days, his flatmate, another physician, commits suicide, a wealthy young songwriter dies and a nurse is arrested for the murders. He's never quite comfortable with the confession that puts the nurse away. Some interesting twists and turns. 

Russia: Revolution and Civil War, 1917-1921, Beevor - B

                      "The only disaster which could make life even worse for the poor in Russia was a major European conflict." That conflict was entered into without much apparent thought, and over 15 million Russian men were called to arms. "The drift to revolution was clear to all except the willfully blind." In late February 1917, the Petrograd garrison stopped following orders, shared weapons with workers, and ignited the flame of revolution. Abdication and a provisional government followed in March. Violent retribution against the wealthy spread throughout the empire. The Kerensky government insisted on continuing the war. An offensive in late June lasted but a few days before the Germans pushed them back. The Bolsheviks prepared for a takeover."Like most successful coups, the outcome in Petrograd would depend mostly on the apathy of the majority and the government's loss of confidence with itself." In October, the Bolsheviks waltzed into power in Petrograd. The country was wracked with violence from coast to coast with the aristocrats, military officers, and anyone who wasn't with the Reds the favored targets. In November, Lenin asked Germany for a cease fire. 

                       A Red terror descended on the nation with endless, indiscriminate torture and murder of 'former peoples.' Lenin stayed in power by agreeing to the humiliating Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, whereby Poland, Belarus, the Baltics and the Ukraine were ceded to the Germans. The government moved to Moscow because of the proximity of Petrograd to the Germans.  The class warfare initiated by the Bolsheviks inevitably led to a counter-revolution centered in the Don region, which became the stronghold of the Whites. The Germans occupied the center of the country, the British and Americans landed in Murmansk, and the Japanese in Vladivostok. Czech POW's thought that after Brest-Litovsk  they could return home. When they were refused, they headed east on the Trans-Siberian RR, and in Vladivostok joined the Allies in unseating the Reds. When the Czechs passed close to Yektarinburg, Lenin used it as an excuse to murder the Tsar and his family. The Reds were incredibly sadistic and violent. Russia was the scene of personal violence not seen in Europe in three centuries. People were torn apart and tossed in rivers and blast furnaces. Dzerzhinsky's Cheka set up a fake Brazilian Embassy, sold false exit visas, and then murdered the estimated 5,000 applicants. Both sides fought up and down the Volga in the summer of 1918, frequently covering the vast distances on the steppe before the Reds took control. In November, the armistice required Germany to return to its 1914 borders. The German withdrawal opened up vast regions of the interior to conflict. The Baltic states declared their independence. As the year closed, Russia was wracked with violence from one end to the other. There were Allied soldiers in the north, in the Baltics, in the Caucasus and the far east. Red and White forces battled in the Ukraine and the Don River basin, while starving people shifted their allegiance daily. It was a cauldron of desperation, poverty, chaos, violence and confusion.

                       The Allies departed the Murmansk-Arkangel region over the summer. However, the ambitious Japanese increased their forces to 85,000 in Siberia and the British continued to use naval and land forces in the Baltics. Churchill's dream of a Baltic anti-Soviet alliance failed when Moscow signed treaties granting Finland and the three Baltic countries their independence. The British also aided the White attack north from Tsaritsyn which had Moscow as its objective. The advance failed, the Cossacks went home, Britain withdrew its material help, and the Whites fled south. By year's end, even Churchill had concluded the cause of the Whites was hopeless. 

                   The Reds pursued the Whites into Siberia. In Krasnoyarsk, they encircled an army and captured 20,000 men. Unable to feed them, they murdered them. They captured Odessa while Allied ships took soldiers and civilians away leaving desperate thousands at the waterfront. As the Whites collapsed in 1920, a new force entered the fray. Under the command of Gen. Pilsudski, an army of Poles uncertain of what the boundaries of their country would be, began to fight the Reds in Poland and Ukraine. Pilsudski advanced as far east as Kiev before the Reds threw him back. In the Miracle on the Vistula, the Poles destroyed a Red army and assured themselves of their freedom. In October, the Whites made their last stand in the Crimea. It ended with 146,000 people evacuated by 126 Allied ships. The Reds slaughtered those the Whites had left behind. The author suggests the SS Einsatzgruppen took lessons from the Reds in the Crimea. For all intents and purposes, the civil war was over, but not the suffering. Reprisals and mass executions continued. Starvation soon followed.

                 "The Whites lost the civil war largely because of their inflexibility, including their refusal to contemplate land reform until it was far too late or to allow autonomy to the nationalities of the Tsarist Empire." Of equal import "an utterly incompatible alliance of Socialist Revolutionaries and reactionary monarchists had too little chance against a single-minded Communist dictatorship. All too often Whites represented the worst examples of humanity. For ruthless inhumanity, however, the Bolsheviks were unbeatable." 

                   In light of the disaster that Bolshevism was for Russia and the world, I read this with an eye on the what ifs that might have spared us from the Reds. The first was when the provisional government asked Nicholas to abdicate in favor of his son with an eye toward a constitutional monarchy. He refused. The other opportunity that spring was if Kerensky had not insisted on fighting. Perhaps Lenin might have failed. But once Lenin had power, he was so iron-willed, disciplined and inhumane that Red victory was inevitable. Only for a brief few months in 1918 did the Whites or the half-hearted Allies really pose a threat. We know that the bloodlands of Poland, the Baltics, Belarus, and Ukraine in WWII set the benchmark for 20th century horror. This tragedy was pretty close and possibly was a foreshadowing of what evildoers would later undertake . An estimated twelve million died.

On Every Tide: The Making And Remaking Of The Irish World, Connolly - B +

                      Between 1821 and 1901, six million people left Ireland. Most went to America, and many to Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. "They were migrants in an age of mass migration." Invariably, they entered the economic ladder on the bottom as unskilled laborers. "The story of the migrant Irish is of disadvantage and exploitation." In America, they became defenders of white supremacy. "In a world of racial hierarchies and ruthless territorial expansion, the migrant Irish must be recognized as both victims, and inescapably oppressors." The Irish immigration to America, particularly after 1850, uniquely included almost as many women as men. 

                      Almost all of the 17th and early 18th century immigrants to the US were Protestants from the north. They easily assimilated into America. Emigration from the south picked up after 1815, as the economy contracted, the population grew and news of the freedoms in the US became common knowledge. By 1840, there were 700,000 Irish in America, 160,000 in Canada, 48,000 in Australia and 400,000 in Britain. The 1845-51 potato famine took one million lives and sent another million overseas. Generally, 98% survived the 6 week voyage across the Atlantic. However, in the peak famine year of 1847, when immigrants were often sick and typhus was pervasive, approximately one in six died trying to reach North America. After the famine, emigration was once again was driven by economics. All in all, between 1860 and 1910, another three million left. The Irish came from a rural agrarian society, but nonetheless mostly chose to stay in America's major cities. This was likely a consequence of their not having the financial wherewithal to travel to the interior, or the fact that managing an American farm was much more complex than working as a tenant in Ireland. "By opting to stay in the industrializing eastern states Irish immigrants exposed themselves to the worst aspects of urban living, as runaway population growth outstripped the the development of basic facilities such as water supply and drainage." They were housed in jerry-built slums. They worked hard and lived in difficult circumstances, but there was one thing that was immeasurably superior to home. For even the poor, there were abundant amounts of quality food. Although they were not all unskilled laborers, they were still on the bottom of the socio-economic ladder working as waiters, sailors, miners etc. The young women were often housemaids, who learned the ways of America and were able to save their wages. They spread out throughout the country. There were many, many Irish in San Francisco,  Butte, Montana, Chicago and elsewhere, but it was the East where most remained.

                      As they poured into a Protestant country in the 1850's, they attracted the antipathy of the American Party (Know-Nothings) because of their Papist religion and preference for drink. Anti-Catholic laws were passed, immigrants lost civil service jobs, and Irish-American citizens were prohibited from voting. The absorption of the Know-Nothings into the new Republican Party partially led to the urban Irish ambivalence about the Civil War. Nonetheless, when the war came for many "service to the nation in its hour of need would be the ultimate answer to nativist slurs on the Irish population." It didn't quite work out the way many had hoped. There was resentment in the Irish community that the Irish Brigade was often the first in the line of attack. They were slaughtered at Antietam and Fredericksburg, and suffered massive casualties. Their regimental commander even resigned over the way they were used. The war ended without a material change in American society for the Irish. In the post-war years, the Irish "were able to make both the union local and the parish central pillars of their Irish-American identity." They"created their own network of institutions and associations." Working with the church, they established hospitals, schools, colleges and universities, and orphanages. "They formed clubs and associations to supplement the bonds of family and neighborhood." They did not, however, separate themselves from the mainstream. They created a place for themselves without giving up their identity. Simultaneously, the Protestants from Ireland began to feel uncomfortable about being connected to the newcomers and staked out a distinction for themselves as Scotch-Irish.

                      The Irish excelled at big city politics, were involved in the nascent labor movement and supported the push for independence at home. The Irish registered to vote at a much higher percentage than any other immigrant group. Political machines then rewarded them with patronage jobs. They constituted a disproportionately high percentage of municipal workers, particularly in NY, Boston and Chicago. Soon, they were electing mayors in those cities. The skills that helped in politics, especially their facility with English, propelled them to the top of the labor movement as well. More so than most groups, the Irish remained focused on what happened at home, taught their children and grandchildren to despise the English, and provided moral and financial support for those seeking freedom in Ireland.

                     In the 20th century, the Irish were able to assert a slight blue collar supremacy over all of the new arrivals by virtue of their positions in the labor hierarchy. Similarly, Italian and other ethnic Catholics were ruled by Irish monsignors and bishops. Irish-Americans generously supported the efforts after the First World War to free their homeland from Britain. In theory, the achievement of independence in 1921 should have halted outward emigration, but the economics of the new, but still poor, country contributed to an ongoing migration to the US. Additionally, more and more young people were opting to go to the UK. After WWII, Ireland did not participate in the general increase in European prosperity leading once again to a ratcheting up of migration to America. As time progressed the Irish made modest socio-economic advances in America. "By the mid twentieth century, the Irish had clearly improved their position. In the twenty-five years or so that followed the end of the Second World War, Irish Americans completed the last stage of their long journey from an immigrant underclass to equal participants in prosperity and status." The capstone of their success was the election of Jack Kennedy in 1960. In the last decades of the 20th century and in the new century, attendance and support for the church has precipitously declined. The labor movement has been diminished and is barely Irish at all. And since 1980, the Irish have voted Republican. The passage of a century-and-a-half has whittled away the recollections of the immigrant experience. This is a superb, but not an easy, read. Erin Go Bragh.

Desert Star, Connelly - B

                     It's hard to believe that this is already the fifth Bosch - Ballard novel. Renee is in charge of a cold case unit and Harry, now 70, volunteers to help and assist. Of course, Harry is Harry and pushes very hard to solve two cases pretty much as soon as he starts. On the first, his beloved 30+ year old Jeep is totaled and he has a bullet nip his ear lobe. But the one he wants is the second case because it's been haunting him for years. He tracks down the killer and closes the case. He advises Ballard that he won't be back to the unit. Many authors lose a step writing these lengthy series. But not Connelly.

The Rising Tide, Cleeves - B

                 A group of friends from the Northumbria region of England return every five years to Holy Island just off the coast. Fifty years ago, they all went there as high schoolers on a retreat and made a special connection. When the leader is murdered, Vera, a local detective, begins the search for the killer. As Vera assesses each story, she concludes that the motive is buried in the past of this group of mid-sixties friends. The deceased was planning a tell-all novel based on their collective story and just about everyone who knew him now has a motive. She eventually pinpoints the target and catches him. 

The Cloisters, Hays - B+

                     This fabulous novel set in what I believe is one of the most fascinating and intriguing places I have ever been, the medieval museum on Manhattan's far north side overlooking the Hudson.  It is part the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and was created by the Rockefellers in the 1930's.  In our story, a brilliant but clearly a country girl from Washington obtains a summer internship at the Cloisters. Ann works with Rachel, a young Harvard grad of considerable east side wealth and they report to Patrick the Curator, an equally wealthy scholar in his late forties. His obsession is understanding tarot cards and that is the project they collectively work on. Tarot cards have a crucial role in medieval spiritualism that scholars have been assessing for centuries. The gardening staff grows medieval herbs and Patrick decides that they can better understand the cards if they take a blend of the hallucinogens. It doesn't work out, as Patrick is found dead the following morning. The autopsy shows he was poisoned by belladonna. Was it the gardener Leo or Rachel, apparently an occasional lover of the deceased? Either way, Rachel and Ann pen an assessment of the cards that they know will make them famous. Fame is part of the astounding and astonishing ending. This is a must read. 

Swann's War, Oren - B+

                       This superb novel is set on the fictional island of Fourth Cliff off the Massachusetts coast in 1944. Mary Beth Swann, a former officer with the Boston PD, is acting as the island's only police officer because her husband, the police force's only captain, is a major in the Marines and fighting in the Pacific. There are approximately 100 Italian POW's who are imprisoned on the island. They work at various jobs and are relatively free to travel to them. Over the course of the year, four are murdered and Mary Beth cannot sort it out. Both the FBI and later the Mafia try to solve the murders and fail. Just as the war is winding down in Europe the following year, she connects the one clue she has with a member of the US Army crew acting as coastal watchers. The American is twisted by hatred for the prisoners. This book highlights the fact that, just like the Japanese-Americans in the west, throughout the country Germans and Italians were also imprisoned and placed under house arrest. One couple placed under house arrest in San Francisco were Joe DiMaggio's parents. Lastly, and amazingly, the author is the former Israeli ambassador to the US.  

Empires of the Normans, Roach - B

                      In the early 10th century, Vikings established a foothold in the lands around the lower Seine. They slowly consolidated what became the duchy of Normandy and adopted the Catholic faith. A century later, they were Francophones and culturally French. The last king of England prior to the Norman conquest was actually half-Norman. Edward the Confessor had spent most of his life in the duchy. Indeed, Duke William was a cousin. He died without an heir in January, 1066.  A rival Englishman, Harald, claimed the throne. In late September, William, Duke of Normandy crossed the Channel and defeated Harald at Hastings on Oct.14. William ravaged the Home Counties as he marched to London. He was crowned on Christmas Day. William acted quickly to assert his control as the English did not readily submit. For the next five years, William brutally suppressed his Anglo-Saxon opponents. He replaced the ruling elites with Normans loyal to him.

                     Normans, under the leadership of the de Hauteville family, came to southern Italy in the 11th century and established a state that survived for 800 years. They expelled Saracens and Byzantines from the peninsula. "For the first time in almost half a millennium, all of southern Italy stood under a single banner."  They were also an integral part of the First Crusade, which Pope Urban II called for in 1095. The Crusader state of Antioch, established in 1096 and in place for 170 years was ruled by Normans. They also expanded south into Africa in the 12th century for a short-lived occupation.

                     Over the course of the two decades the Conqueror sat on the English throne, his focus was on consolidation. Expansion was a matter left to his earls and knights. They pushed west into Wales and north into Scotland. Both regions were poor and there was little interest in conquering them. The goal was to start establishing a light-touch hegemony over them. Centuries would pass before the absorption of the two regions into a United Kingdom. In the late 12th century, Henry II invaded Ireland, beginning the long English occupation of the island. In 1202, France claimed the Norman duchy and proceeded to conquer it. The Normans no longer ruled Normandy. The descendants of  the Vikings had a broad impact on Western Europe, Italy, and the Middle East. "In the end , they were victims of their own success. They became so much a part of the fabric of European society that they scarcely occasioned note. They were gone and soon, forgotten."

Racing the Light, Crais - B

                  Elvis Cole and Joe Pike are the 21st century's embodiments of LA noir. Here, the private detective is hired to find a missing son. Things are complicated by the fact that the parents are retired from some deep and dark work for the US, but are important enough to still have extensive security. Cole eventually calls in Pike and they get to the bottom of a plot featuring Chinese criminals and crooked LA pols. Always fun.

Stay Hidden, Doiron - B+

                    Mike has been promoted to Warden Inspector and no longer cruises the backwoods of Maine. His first case is a shooting incident during the first days of deer season. It takes place on one of Maine's many offshore islands. In fictional Maquoit, there are only about 100 residents, no real services and a really unhealthy dynamic of bitterness among competing lobstermen in a place where opiod drug use is rampant. Was the shooting an accident or intentional? Mike digs in and sorts it out.

Zero Night, Freeman - B+

                     It's been over a year since Stride was shot. Maggie has taken over his job and he's not sure he even wants to go back. He and Serena are barely talking when Serena hears the devastating news that her mother has died. The floodgates of her horrible teen years with an alcoholic/drug addict parent overwhelm her and she takes a drink for the first time in 18 years. She digs into a case to try and get her focus back. Jonny shows up at the office because of his concern for her and to help with a kidnapping case. Ironically, it is Serena's work on a two year old cold case that provides the key to solve the kidnapping. This is the 11th in the series and a really good one.

American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis, Hochschild - A*

                 This "is a story of how a war supposedly fought to make the world safe for democracy became the the excuse for a war against democracy at home." "The toxic currents of racism, nativism, Red-baiting, and contempt for the rule of law have long flowed through American life. Never was this raw underside of our nation's life more revealingly on display than from 1917 to 1921." "Although the government first used the war in Europe to justify the ferocity at home, the repression continued, and in some ways grew worse, in the several years after the fighting ended..." 

                A month after Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare, Wilson asked Congress for a Declaration of War. It would be a "war to make the world safe for democracy." 

                 The army set up a bureau to spy on Americans. Anything less than absolute fealty was problematic if not treasonous. Congress passed the inappropriately-named Espionage Act which criminalized opposition to the war. The Postmaster General had the ability to censor newspapers by not allowing them to be mailed. The War Dept. censored books in the country's libraries. The day the Draft Law was signed, federal agents arrested anarchist Emma Goldman for publishing anti-draft leaflets. A trial two weeks later led to a conviction and a two year prison sentence. The militant wing of the labor movement was also targeted. In Arizona, 1156 IWW strikers at a copper mine were put on trains, sent two days away and told not to return. Civil liberties apparently did not exist in war time. A filmmaker went to jail for 3 years for a negative depiction of George III at a time when we were allies of the UK. People were tarred and feathered for not buying war bonds. A famous labor activist in Butte was lynched. In September, agents of the Bureau of Investigation (predecessor to the FBI) raided 48 IWW offices, took away all their files and documents, and arrested 166 men for violating the Espionage Act. Adding fuel to the fire of fear and paranoia, in November the Bolsheviks took over Russia. Conscientious objectors were often treated so badly in prison that many died. Lynching of Blacks in the South accelerated. The year 1918 saw the passage of the Sedition Act, a set of laws strengthening the Espionage Act. In Chicago, a noted businessman found the American Protective League, a vigilante organization that worked with the Bureau of Investigation. Civilians with no legitimate policing power but wearing badges conducted a series of raids seeking out draft evaders.* They checked the draft cards of men in public places and raided Wrigley Field. The Boston Symphony's German born Swiss conductor was imprisoned when someone claimed he was radioing to U-boats in the Atlantic. A trial of 97 Wobblies before Judge Landis saw all convicted on all counts after an hour of jury deliberations. He handed out over 800 years of sentences. The IWW was decimated, and never recovered. The former presidential candidate for the Socialist party, Eugene Debs, was a widely admired man of great integrity. When he said that the people never got a say in war declarations, he too was arrested. At this trial, he said "men are fit for something better than cannon fodder and slavery." He was sentenced to ten years in jail. The fighting finally stopped in November. "At home, the worst was yet to come." 

                   Many hoped that those imprisoned in the year-and-a-half of war would be pardoned. Instead, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the constitutionality of the Espionage Act. Raging inflation in the US added 50% to the price of food leading to widespread discontent. Factories ceased arms production and laid off workers. Hundreds of thousands went on strike. The continuing success of the Bolsheviks in Russia generated ongoing Red scares throughout the world. In June 1919, bombs were exploded in multiple east coast cities. One of the bombs was at the house of Attorney General Palmer. The DOJ set up a Radical Division and named J. Edgar Hoover as its head. America engaged in a full-scale Red scare. The government had a free hand deporting non-citizens and it pursued that course vigorously in the fall of 1919. Emma Goldman was one of the first to go. Ironically, the deportation center and holding pens were on Ellis Island. Throughout the winter, the so-called 'Palmer Raids' were led by Hoover, who supervised the arrest of thousands around the country. It is estimated that 10,000 were arrested in what one historian called "the greatest single violation of civil liberties in American history." As Hoover and Palmer hoovered up everyone they could find, they ran into an unexpected surprise. Deportation orders required the signature of the Dept. of Labor, and the leadership of the department fell to a man who was unabashedly progressive.  Lewis Post not only opposed the indiscriminate arrests, he had been a founder of the NAACP. In the six weeks he was interim secretary, he derailed 80% of Palmer and Hoover's planned deportations. Palmer, who was now seeking the Democratic nomination, told the nation that there would be mass assassinations on May Day. When no communist uprising took place, cracks appeared in the Red scare movement. When the Senate attempted to impeach Post, he wittily ran circles around them citing the unconstitutionality of the raids. Soon, jurists and law professors were criticizing Hoover and Palmer for acting like a "mob" by violating people's rights. The Democrats rejected Palmer's extremism, and the Republicans did the same by not nominating Gen. Leonard Wood, a vocal proponent of 'Americanism.'

                 Harding began to release prisoners, and at year end, released Eugene Debs. He went so far as to say that he wished he hadn't voted for the war as senator, and that Debs was right for opposing it. The most impactful consequence of the excesses of the era was the passage in 1924 of the Reed-Johnson Act limiting immigration to the nations of northern Europe through a quota system that cut off people from eastern and southern Europe, Latin America and Asia. For forty years, there was minimal immigration to the US. Adolf Hitler applauded the new law. "The Socialist Party would never recover from the mass mailings...The IWW was similarly shattered." Many states adopted criminal syndicalism laws to restrain organized labor. America returned to right-wing extremism in the early '50's and again in 2017, when a man whose father had been arrested in Queens in 1927 while wearing a KKK white hood, became president. "America's version of democracy is far from perfect, and every generation or two we learn anew just how fragile it can be." It will require "a vigilant respect for civil rights and constitutional safeguards, to save ourselves from ever slipping back into the darkness again."

               

*The First World War had a higher ratio of draft resistance than did Vietnam half-a-century later.

No Plan B, Child & Child - B

               Jack NMI Reacher observes a woman murdered in Colorado, and attempts to hold the murderer accountable. He fights off two men who get away, winds up looking into the details and ascertains that the source of the crime is in Mississippi. He heads east to Winson, MS, home of a private prison that is at the center of a web of criminals. They specialize in selling inmates for body parts to a nefarious provider of organs for black market transplants. Reacher sorts it out with insights, panache, and an awful lot of kicking ass. This may be the last that the two brothers co-author. That would make next years the first that Andrew pens on his own. I cannot remember a Reacher book that had two parallel stories that came weakly together with the main plot line at the end of the book. My guess is that the series carries on with a slight drop off.

Electric October: Seven World Series Games, Six Lives, Five Minutes Of Fame That lasted Forever, Cook - B +

                    The 1947 World Series was the first ever to be televised and featured a few immortals, including Joe DiMaggio and Jackie Robinson.  This book however, focuses on six men forgotten to all but baseball historians: Cookie Lavagetto, Al Gionfriddo and the Dodgers manager,  Burt Shotton;  Bill Bevens, Snuffy Stirnweiss and the Yankees manager, Bucky Harris. All six were big league journeymen. Harris, however, had the distinction of winning the World Series as the Senators' player-manger in his twenties. 

                   The Yankees clinched earlier than Brooklyn. When the Dodgers won, NY was ready for another subway series. The Yankees were an 11-5 favorite. The Yanks led the AL in hits, homers, R.B.I.'s and ERA. The Dodgers led in stolen bases and walks. There were 73,365 people at the Stadium for the first game. The game was broadcast on television in NY, Philadelphia, Washington and Schenectady. The Yankees took the first two. The Dodgers won game 3. In game 4, Bill Bevens carried a no-hitter into the 9th and had two men out with a runner on first and Gionfriddo on second. The man on first had been put on by intentional walk after Gionfriddo had stolen second.  Shotton sent Lavagetto to the plate as a pinch-hitter. Cookie knocked one off the right field wall for a walk-off double. Red Barber said it led to "the biggest explosion of noise in the history of Brooklyn." The next day, Lavagetto struck out to finish game 5. The Series moved back to the Bronx. The Dodgers took game 6 when Gionfriddo stole a homer from DiMaggio with a catch in left field that Joe said was the best ever made against him.  Game 7 was on Oct. 6. The Yanks easily coasted to a 5-2 win for their 11th World Series victory.

               Lavagetto, Gianfriddo and Bevens were gone before the next opening day. They hacked around the minors for years. Snuffy Stirnweiss who had the best average in the Series played for a few more years. After retirement, he died in a train wreck at he age of thirty-eight. Harris and Shotton were soon elsewhere. Shotton went back to Florida and Harris managed the Senators for a third time. Cookie Lavagetto replaced Harris in Washington in the mid-50's. He stayed in the game until he retied as a coach in 1967. Decades later, Bucky Harris made it to the Hall of Fame. Bill Bevens spent the rest of his life wishing he had that one pitch back. Lavagetto and Gionfriddo were feted for their heroics until the day they died. This is one of the finest baseball books I've ever read. Thanks to Carl Kreitler for the recommendation.

The Boys From Biloxi, Grisham - B

                 The boys are Keith Rudy and Hugh Marcos. Their grandparents were part of the Croatian migration to the Gulf coast. When their dads came back from WWII, they pursued different approaches to the American dream. Lance Marcos opted for a life of crime, focusing on booze, gambling and prostitution. Jesse Rudy chose the law and and was eventually elected DA. The boys were close growing up but drifted apart as their careers diverged, as each followed in their fathers footsteps. Jesse Rudy sent Lance to Parchman Prison. Soon thereafter, he was killed  when a bomb went off in his office. Keith was appointed his successor and went after  the Marcos gang with a vengeance, eventually sending his old buddy to death row. Good, but not as good as Grisham in his prime. 

Death of A Rainmaker, Loewenstein - B+

               This is an intriguing police procedural set in rural Oklahoma at the height of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression. A flim flam man who is selling the town his rainmaking skills, is murdered in the middle of a dust storm less than 24 hours after he arrives in town. The sheriff begins the search, and with some unwelcome advice from his wife, eventually finds his man. What makes this novel special though is the character development and the amazing background on just how horrible it was at that time. These are the Okies, those who fell upon such hard times that they up and left, many heading west. This is the first in a series. The author acknowledges being inspired by 'The Worst Hard Time,' which is the only book on this blog to which I added a picture, of a dust storm, when I read it last year.

Funeral Train, Loewenstein - B

                        The follow-up is set a few months later, at Christmas 1935. A train is derailed just outside of Vermillion and over a dozen die. The inquiries are headed up by local Sheriff Temple Jennings, and a detective from the railroad. The night of the crash, a local woman is murdered not far from the scene. The two events might be related. The ensuing investigation confirms that they are. The first in the series did a better job of evoking the Depression than this one which seemed  focused on the investigation.

Sisters In Resistance: How A German Spy, A Banker's Wife, and Mussolini's Daughter Outwitted the Nazis, Mazzeo - B

             "This is a story of how people who, finding themselves on the wrong path in the middle of their life's journey, discover the courage to change and to wrestle with the darkness and the reckoning that follows." At the core of the story is the efforts three woman made to protect the diaries of Galeazzo Ciano, married to the Duce's daughter Edda, and Foreign Minister. Ciano's diaries were used as proof at Nuremberg and remain an important first person account of the intentions of the leaders of the Reich. 

             Ciano was an aristocratic playboy appointed to his position in 1936. He wanted no part of the German alliance, and was opposed to the war. He kept Mussolini neutral until May, 1940. In early 1943, aware that Ciano had reached out tothe Americans, Mussolini fired him. In 1937, Ciano had begun a diary which he kept up until that point. Being a man who talked too much, he had not kept his diary secret. Both Hitler and Mussolini knew of its existence and knew that both men and their parties would be exposed and embarrassed by it.

            In July, the king removed Mussolini from office. The new PM, Pietro Badoglio, despised Ciano and stopped him from leaving Italy. Edda Ciano asked the Germans for help and they offered to fly the family to Spain and on to S. America. Before leaving Rome, Edda hid the diaries knowing full well that both dictators wanted them and that they might be a future bargaining chip. The Germans  put the Ciano family on a plane and flew them to Munich. Soon thereafter, Italy changed sides, and Hitler put Mussolini  in charge of a puppet state in the north of Italy. He sent Ciano back to Italy and Mussolini imprisoned him. Hilde Beetz, Ciano's interpreter, confidant and occasional lover negotiated a deal with her superiors in the German security forces. In exchange for those portions of the diaries incriminating Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop, Ciano would be released from jail. Ciano delivered the diaries and was double-crossed by the Germans. 

           Hilde then assisted Edda in her escape from the SS, and friends helped Edda cross the Swiss border. She was free and had most of the remaining diaries with her. She wrote to Hitler and her father demanding the release of Ciano, or she would publish the diaries. The response was immediate. Ciano was convicted of treason and forthwith executed. The Gestapo, to the extent it could act surreptitiously, scoured Switzerland for Edda and the diaries. The Swiss had Edda stashed away first in a convent, and next in an insane asylum. As 1944 advanced, the diaries caught the attention of the US War Dept. and Allen Dulles, the OSS man in Switzerland. They assumed the diaries could be helpful for the planned Nuremberg trials. Frances de Chollet, American wife of a Swiss banker, was tasked with befriending Edda, who was unsure of how to make the diaries public. It took months to convince her, but Dulles did, and the OSS photographed 1,000 pages at de Chollet's residence in January, 1945. That summer, Dulles hand the translated version to Justice Jackson at Nuremberg. There was damning evidence against von Ribbentrop and Kaltenbrunner. Edda returned to Italy, where she was tried for her support of the regime and sentenced to two years of house arrest. Frances de Chollet returned to private life. When the Americans came to arrest Hilde Beetz as a Nazi and a spy, she surprised them. While translating the diaries that the Germans had, she had made copies and offered them to the US. She was soon working for the CIA. Rumors continued to fly after the war about 'missing' pieces of the Ciano diaries. This has been enlightening. Thanks to Kathy Blair for the recommendation.

American Rascal: How Jay Gould Built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune, Steinmetz - C

                 "This book seeks to explain Jay Gould and his under appreciated - and aggressively maligned - role in the country's transformative economic expansion of the nineteenth century. Only the strictures of conscience, rather than law and regulation, governed the participants. That left the unscrupulous free to self-deal, fix prices, trade on inside information, lie to investors, and manipulate stock prices. In New York, men in top hats, abetted by corrupt politicians, snatched your life savings."

                 He was born Jason Gould in 1836. As a teenager, he developed surveying skills and ran a successful mapping business.  When he was twenty, he opened a tannery. Realizing that merchants and traders made more money than he could running a tannery, he headed for Manhattan. He became a stock broker and  worked harder than everyone else. He and his colleague Jim Fisk finagled their way into positions with the Erie RR. On the cusp of bankruptcy, Erie raised money in London, and Gould manipulated his own company's stock in a bear raid, keeping the company away from Cornelius Vanderbilt. And made a fortune in the process. He then turned his attention to gold and orchestrated a devastating 'Black Friday.' He used futures to control half of the private gold in NY. The price began to rise. Others shorted it. Gould sent Fisk to the Gold Exchange where he loudly acquired more, while Gould had a dozen small brokers selling his positions. The Panic of 1873 sent the country into a five year depression. Gould took advantage of the fallen prices and purchased the Union Pacific RR. He later purchased the Kansas Pacific RR, and by the early 1880's, he controlled one-ninth of the mileage in the US. He also formed a telegraph company that took over Western Union. The Panic of 1884 caught Gould overextended, but he put all of his available money into the Missouri Pacific RR which had extensive short positions owned by his enemies. The stock soared and he was once again very, very rich. He announced he would trade no more and would simply mange his businesses. He slowed down and at the age of 52 was diagnosed with tuberculosis. His life unravelled quickly. He was weak, lost a considerable amount of weight, and lost his beloved wife, Ellie. He died in December, 1892.

                 His estate was an astounding $65M. The author suggests that had he lived longer, he likely would have done what Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and Carnegie did, i.e. created philanthropic entities that would have whitewashed his reputation. He is mostly forgotten now, but "he accelerated productivity as much as any contemporary and, in doing so, improved the lives of most Americans." Mark Twain and Charles Francis Adams thought him the devil incarnate. "He lied. He cheated. He stole. But he was so good at what he did, so intelligent in the execution, and such a clean, kind, and industrious family man that, try as you might, you can't hate him properly." I believe scoundrel fits better than rascal.

                  

The Fourth Protocol, Forsyth - B

             About two months ago, I read a really good Cold War novel. It reminded me what a  great genre it was, and I sought out another. This is a forty year old one written by one of the masters of the era. The Fourth Protocol was part of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and prohibited the introduction of nuclear devices into another country. The setting is the mid-80's when London realizes they have a mole on their hands.  MI5 tracks down the traitor and his controller. When the traitor is confronted, he agrees to try and feed false material to the Soviets in exchange for some leniency. Simultaneously, Moscow is desperate to meddle in a UK election and targets a disruption of Thatcher's second campaign for re-election. The plan is to explode a small nuclear device near an American base, and create an anti-war movement capable of thrusting Labor to an electoral victory. As is always the case, there are plots within plots and more. The operation fails when an incompetent courier is observed and MI5 easily rolls up the whole project. It turns out the courier was sent by someone hoping to insure the failure of the operation, thus causing his boss to fail and be retired. Oh, the good old days.

Knife Creek Doiron - B +

                Maine Game Warden Mike Bowditch stumbles upon the corpse of an infant and duly calls in the appropriate authorities. Later that day, he stops by a house nearby and senses something is amiss. One of the two woman at the house has been missing for four years and presumed dead. Mike and the police engage in a long game of cat and mouse with the mastermind behind the kidnapping. Mike is promoted to the position of Investigator as a reward for his determination and skill.

Operation Chastise: The RAF's Most Brilliant Attack Of World War II, Hastings - B

                  This is the story of one of the most famous events of the war, one well known in 1943 because of its daring success, and better known a decade later when featured in a major motion picture. In 1943, both the US and the UK were bringing the war to Germany through their bombing operations over Europe. Within Britain's Bomber Command,  there were those who wanted to saturate cities and those who pined for military/industrial targets. One target identified early in the war was the Mohne Dam, which supplied the Ruhr Valley. The RAF researched the possibilities, and an eccentric designer named Barnes Wallis created a bouncing bomb that theoretically could destroy the Mohne Dam. The bombs were 7500 pounds, and modifications to strengthen the Avro-Lancaster bomber were required. Mid-May was the optimum time because the dams would at their highest capacity. Bomber Command selected Guy Gibson, twenty-four, as commander of Operation Chastise. He recruited the 617th Squadron and began a seven week training program of very low level flying. This operation was to be conducted at a few hundred feet above ground, as opposed to the usual 15,000. A month before the planned attack, Wallis and Vickers had yet to come up with a bomb that worked. They eventually settled on a cylindrical bomb to be dropped from 60 feet, 410 yards from the dams, from a plane flying 210-220 mph.

                 On the morning of May 16,  the 133 men of the squadron were finally briefed on  their targets. After a special meal of bacon and eggs, the men climbed into the nineteen planes at 2030 GMT. They flew the entire way below 500 feet. A little after midnight, the first five attackers bombed the Mohne Dam. Two bombs sunk, one bounced over, and two hit the dam, and the Mohne was breached. The next target was the Eder Dam and the fifth and final bomb punched a hole in it. The third target, an earthen dam at Sorpe,  could not be damaged. Indeed, it still stands today. Eight planes did not return to England. On the ground, somewhere between 1300 and 1500 people died, half slave laborers and POW's. Germany's war making capacity was diminished, but far from crippled. The Mohne was repaired by the fall.

                Operation Chastise was widely praised and hailed in the UK and the US. Gibson received the Victoria Cross and every officer a DSO.  Wallis received a CBE and long after the war was knighted. The airmen were less fortunate. Only a quarter of those who returned that fateful night survived the war. Although Gibson was feted in the UK, Canada and the US, he managed to get back into bombers, and died over Europe in September of 1944. In the 1955, film the Dam Busters Wallis and Gibson were played by Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd.

They Come At Knight, Angoe - B

                      In the second in the series, most of the action takes place in Ghana. The Knight's are there to enjoy a vacation before a major social event celebrating the success of the Tribe. Nena's sister, Elin, ascertains that someone is running a very sophisticated fraud agains the Tribe, siphoning off money and likely preparing to oust Noble Knight. The traitors kidnap Nena, she manages to escape and protect her father from an assassination attempt made while he is speaking to the Tribe's Council. As is so often the case with debut thrillers, the second is a cut below its predecessor. Nonetheless, the fun continues.

Killers Of A Certain Age, Rayburn - B

          Natalie, Helen, Billie and May Alice are sixtyish and on their retirement cruise. All expenses were paid for by their employer, the Museum, a handy name for an organization of assassins. After 40 years of work, the four friends were ready to pack it in. But they noticed a younger colleague working as a member of the crew and realized he was likely there to take them out. They act first, and return to the  US on the run. They learn that an order is out for them, one based on a foolish pack of lies and they go into action to rectify the injustice of it all. A bit of fun. 

Her Name Is Knight, Angoe - B +

               Aninyeh is the teenage daughter of a tribal chief when a warlord comes to their village in Ghana. Her mother, father, and brothers are murdered. She is gang- raped before she is sold into slavery. A year later, she has escaped her prison in the basement of a Parisian home and is living rough. She helps a woman who has been cornered by two thugs and that woman takes her home to London. Aninyeh is renamed Nana Knight and introduced to the family business. Her new parents are senior members of the Tribe, an international association of Africans working to free Africa of neo-colonial exploitation and to help Africans everywhere. One part of the Tribe is responsible for dispatching enemies of Africa. Nena becomes an excellent assassin, residing in Miami and enjoying life as a successful young professional. In a diabolical plot turn, three of the men who were in the village the night her family was murdered cross her path. Revenge is hers. The plotting is a bit contrived, but this book is an absolute blast. Luckily, it's the beginning of a series.

Suspect, Turow - B

                   Pinky, actually Clarice, is Sandy Stern's thirty-three year old granddaughter. Sandy is now 85 and in an assisted living facility. Pinky used to work for him as a PI. She now works for her uncle Rik. Rik is retained by the Latina police chief who is being accused of offering promotions for sex with some of her officers. They do a solid job researching the accusers, find ample problems with their stories and are able to protect the Chief. Rik decimates two accusers on cross, and the third dies before he concludes his testimony. A local crime lord is behind their accusations and Pinky and the chief provide the FBI with enough information to put an end to his long reign. As I have observed about his last three efforts, this once great author seems to have slipped quite a bit.

Something In The Air: American Passion and Defiance in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, Hoffer - B

              The 1968 Olympics  came at perilous a time. "Not since WorldWar II had there been so much deadly commotion throughout the world. Not since the Civil War had the United States been so riven." America had been roiled for years over racial tensions and the war in Vietnam. Athletes historically were often isolated from society's issues, but 1968 would be different.

              Speed City, San Jose State's track team, "would have a profound effect on culture, history even, that went well beyond sports." Its team included Harry Edwards, Tommie Smith, Lee Evans, and John Carlos. Smith, Lee, and Evans were the fastest sprinters in the country.  The national media focus was on the all-American boy from Kansas and record holder in the mile, Jim Ryun. On the other end of the spectrum was the drug-dealing juvenile delinquent from Queens, Bob Beamon, now at UTEP and setting long jump records. From Tennessee State, the only women's powerhouse program in the US, came virtually all the women sprinters, although pretty much no one paid them any attention.

              Harry Edwards, 6'8" and 275 lbs., turned down an NFL offer, obtained a graduate degree at Cornell, returned to SJS to teach and speak out on behalf of black athletes, and called for an Olympic boycott. The older black athletes were opposed; the younger ones uncertain and divided. Lew Alcindor was the most prominent boycotter. Although Edwards was supported by the all-white Harvard crew team, there were few takers amongst the young blacks, and he withdrew the boycott in August.

              "Innovation in sports is exceedingly rare."The curve ball, the jump shot, the forward pass are all unique examples. So too is the Fosbury flop. Dick was struggling to clear the minimums in high school meets in Oregon so he threw himself over facing upwards. Everyone ran to the rulebook, but the only rule was that the jumper jumped off one foot. The Fosbury flop was legal and he won the NCAA's in the spring of 1968 with a jump of 7'2 1/2".

             The Americans flew to Mexico City thinking about and talking over how to protest, but without any kind of plan. Mexico was the first developing world country to host an Olympics, but it was the altitude of 7350 feet that was the leading cause of anxiety about 1968. On the first day, six runners did not finish the 10,000 meters and the Australian favorite passed out and needed to be revived with oxygen. Only four men finished the final. The first three were Africans who lived at altitude.

             Before the 200m final, Tommie Smith was lying in the training room with an iced groin, uncertain he would run. Of course, he did, and he set an Olympic record. Fellow Speed City athlete, John Carlos, took 3rd. In the twenty minutes between the race and the ceremony, they decided on the black gloves. They raised them as the anthem began. One of the most powerful acts of defiance in US history was met with vituperative hatred immediately. They were suspended by the USOC and sent home. The reaction of the IOC and the USOC exploded interest in the actions of Smith and Carlos. Fearful of other acts of rebellion, the USOC threatened every remaining athlete. The next two men to medal were Beamon and Boston in the long jump. For the medal ceremony, Bob Beamon wore black sox and no shoes, Ralph Boston was barefoot. Lee Evans, Larry James and Ron Freeman swept the 400m and wore black berets on the podium. The men's 4 x 400m relay winners all wore black gloves on their podium and refused to shake the hand of the USOC president. On the final day of the track and field competition, Ryun garnered a silver and Fosbury a gold.

          With the track and field athletes gone, the second week settled down. "The Olympic spirit, as it was interpreted by white authorities, reasserted its soothing self." The week went smoothly, but the closing ceremony did not. At Tokyo four years earlier, the athletes were allowed to wander around instead of marching in and out. The IOC was offended by people blowing kisses to Hirohito, who laughed and thought it funny. For 1968, they would revert to marching only seven athletes behind each country's flag bearer. To the chagrin of IOC president Brundage, the athletes in the stands flooded the infield. "There was nothing to be done for the moment anyway, and the revelry continued for a half hour, the infield full of thousands of athletes now, one on shoulders, some snatching flags, others wearing sombreros."

         For many who had disrespected the games, there were consequences, but none greater than those faced by Smith and Carlos. "They came home as outcasts, terrorists, when they might have been welcomed as heroes."

         This has been an intriguing read, especially for me, as it is probably the only Summer Olympics in 62 years I didn't see. Colleges back in the day had few, if any, television sets around. Thanks to my brother Bill who suggested the book, and tells me that Smith and Carlos will light the fire in LA in 2028. They'll be in their mid-80's - I hope they make it. Hell, I hope I make it.

Counterfeit, Chen - B+

                     This excellent book is written in the first person by Ava, a Chinese-American Stanford grad, lawyer and mother, who narrates her confession to an anonymous  detective. Along the way we receive an insightful and witty peek at the Chinese industry that makes brand name knock-offs, the perils of growing up as the child of Chinese immigrants, the complex pecking order amongst young SF moms, ditto Stanford alums, and a myriad of other first-world concerns. Ava's former college roommate of but a few months recruits/steamrolls her to work in a scheme whereby one buys a top-of-the-line handbag, returns a cheaper but equally exquisite copy, sells the original on E-Bay, and pockets quite a bit. Together, the two hire and build a pyramid, thus magnifying their profits, until their eventual facing the music. This is a blast.

Act of Oblivion, Harris - B

                 This thoroughly researched and well written novel is set in the 17th century. The Act of Oblivion was signed by King Charles II in 1660. It condemned to death all of those who had participated in the trial, imprisonment and execution of his father, Charles I. Those still living regicides were hunted down. Our story features three principals. Col. Edward Whalley was Cromwell's cousin and Col. William Goffe was married to Whalley's daughter. Richard Naylor was the detective for the Privy Council. The two fugitives fled to America when it became apparent the new king would seek revenge. Naylor was determined to track down each and every one on the list. When he heard that the two men were in Massachusetts, he departed for Boston. The colonels had already fled for New Haven, a colony that paid little heed to London. Naylor arrived in the New World and began the chase. He pursued the two men through Connecticut and was sure he was very close at New Haven, but he could not crack the Puritan commitment to protect them. He eventually called off the search. The regicides spent almost the entire summer of 1661 in the woods living like the natives. By 1662, the appetite for revenge was fading in London and Naylor was told to not waste any more time pursuing the two colonel's. In the Colonies, the Puritans found shelter for the two men 80 miles inland in a town on the frontier. The aging colonels were destined to live out their lives in the far corner of Massachusetts. Whalley died first in 1674. The time and place of  Goffe's death is unknown. This book has some fabulous insights into the Cromwellian era and the intense religious extremism that drove both sides in the English Civil War.

Facing The Mountain: An Inspiring Story Of Japanese American Patriots in World War II, Brown - B

                    "At its heart, this is a story of young men - some of the bravest Americans, the Nisei warriors of World War II, and how they, through their actions, laid bare...what exactly it means to be American. But it's also the story of their immigrant parents, the Issei, who like other immigrants before them...faced suspicion and prejudice from the moment they arrived in America." "It's the story of the first Americans since the Cherokee in 1838 to face wholesale forced removal from their homes, deprivation of their livelihoods, and mass incarceration."

                     A third of Hawaii's residents in December, 1941 were of Japanese ancestry. One young man, Kats Miho, was a freshman at the University of Hawaii and a member of the Army ROTC.  Martial law was declared the afternoon of the 7th and the islands were completely blacked out. On Maui, Kats' father was arrested that same day. Issei were considered resident aliens and not allowed to become citizens. In January, Kats Miho and all of his colleagues in the ROTC were dismissed from their roles in the Territorial Guards.

                   A month later, FDR authorized the military to establish exclusion zones. The western sections of California, Oregon and Washington were designated as places requiring the expulsion of all Issei and Nisei. Knowing that the Hawaiian economy would collapse if the Japanese-Americans were removed, only people on FBI lists on the islands were incarcerated. In Salinas, CA, Rudy Tokiwa and his farmer parents were put behind barbed wire. In Seattle, Gordon Hirabayashi, a student at the University of Washington, refused to relocate and surrendered to the FBI. He apparently was the only person in the west coast exclusion zone to cite his constitutional rights and refuse to be relocated. Ironically, the law required people to consent to their exclusion and he could not be excluded without signing a form. Instead, he was jailed, indicted, and convicted. The Tokiwa family was sent to Poston, AZ. Meanwhile in Hawaii, Kats Miho worked as a laborer on Maui.

              On February 1, 1943, the US authorized the enlistment of Nisei. The Army expected 1500. Ten thousand volunteered. Kats Miho and his older brother were among them. Fred Kisaburo, son of an Issei laundryman in Washington, was outside of the exclusion zone, walked out of Gonzaga in Spokane, and enlisted the day he learned of the new rule. Rudy signed up at his internment camp. The members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team were sent to Mississippi for basic training. Basic is hard enough, but in addition to the incredible heat and humidity and living in the Jim Crow south, there was a constant ongoing confrontation between the Hawaiians and the Nisei from the west coast. The islanders were happy go lucky people used to a bountiful life in Hawaii, and whose family members were home and free. Most of the mainlanders families were imprisoned. Tensions between the two groups escalated until a chaplain and the commanding officer came up with plan. They sent the Hawaiians to visit two nearby internment camps. Chastened by what they saw, they paved the way toward a reconciliation of the two groups. By the time the 442nd went overseas, they were united. In May, 1944, they headed for Italy.

           Gordon Hirabashi was released from prison and returned to Washington to continue his work with the Quaker American Friends Service Committee. When he saw the questionnaire and loyalty oath that all Nisei were expected to sign, he refused. In the camps, traditional family ways were falling apart. Because everyone ate in canteens, the concept of the family meal was no more. The older Issei had nothing to do and lost their natural leadership roles and status. And after the US allowed Nisei to enlist, their daughters did the unthinkable. They ignored their parents and joined the Women's Army Corps.

           The 442nd marched north from Anzio in June. They entered western Tuscany and faced the Germans for the first time on June 26th. The infantry had a difficult first day, but the artillery excelled. Around them, death dominated the day, with Germans and their colleagues falling everywhere.  They fought continuously into July. Four hundred of the initial 4,000 were casualties. The Germans always commanded the higher ground that the 442nd approached. The Americans continued to move forward. They crossed the Arno and faced the Gothic Line constructed along the spine of the Apennines. They were also gaining attention back in the US for their successes, and their enemy called them 'the little iron men.' On Sept 6, they were pulled back to the south and sent off to Marseille for the attack up the Rhone Valley. They went back into action a month later in the Vosges. With their homeland just 30 miles away, the Germans fiercely defended every yard of ground. Relentless and constant combat ensued. They made headlines around the US for saving the 'Lost Battalion' of Texans surrounded by the Germans. 

          In late 1944, FDR ended the exclusion and evacuation protocols. The decimated 442nd was pulled out of the lines and given duty in the Maritime Alps far from the fighting. They took extended leave on the coast enjoying the Riviera at Christmastime. Gordon Hirabayashi was now married to a white woman, the father of twins and incarcerated for refusing the loyalty oath and the draft. In March, the 'Champagne Campaign' was over, and the 442nd headed back to Italy. The Fifth Army still had not breached the Gothic Line after seven months and wanted the 442nd to assist. Within two days, they broke through. Soon, the war in Europe ended. The surviving boys from the 442nd went home.

      The 442nd was the most decorated unit in the war. Its men received 21 Medals of Honor, 29 Distinguished Service Crosses, 560 Silver Stars, 4000 Bronze Stars and over 4,000 Purple Hearts. Nonetheless, the men were mostly met with continued unrelenting hatred as Japs when they returned to the mainland. Truman attempted to honor and compensate the Japanese-Americans abused during the war. He pardoned all of the draft resisters. In 1952, a law allowed the Issei to apply for US citizenship. Congress awarded the survivors of the camps $20,000 and an apology in 1988. In 2012, the Nisei warriors were presented with Congressional Gold Medals. Gordon Hirabayashi was posthumously award the Congressional Medal of Freedom.

     Thanks again to Carl Kreitler for the recommendation. This a fabulous story of courage in the face of appalling racism.

The Local, Hartstone - B+

                     This is a fabulous legal thriller written by an accomplished screenwriter. Jimmy Euchre is a patent lawyer practicing in Marshall, Texas in the Federal District Court. The EDTX attracts patent cases from around the country and the local bar works closely with larger out of town firms. One of Jimmy's clients is accused of murder, and wants Jimmy to represent him. He works with a lawyer from NY who had been in the US Attorney's office and together, they pull off the defense. This novel is a fun read with insights into Texas, with particular attention paid to how a small town far from the big cities has become one of the three busiest courts for patent issues in the US. Recommended.             

Do No Harm, Pobi - B

                 In the third in this series, Dr. Lucas Page is asked by the FBI to take a look at a sequence of killings involving physicians as victims. He realizes that the stakes are much higher and that there are over 30 physician murders over the last two years in Manhattan. There is no connection at any point between the victims and the killers or suspected killers. That makes Page suspect that there may be a  group with a person in charge who connects up different people who might wish to kill a physician. These books are always fun and the NYC settings make it more so for me. However, the conclusion here is somewhat baffling because we never find out why it was orchestrated.

Take Your Breath Away, Barclay - B

                   When Brie Mason goes missing, the police assume its her husband Andrew. He is soon persona non grata in his corner of Connecticut and four years later, he changes his name while attempting to rebuild his life. Six years after Brie's disappearance, her mother is dying and her brother decides to give his mother some hope. He hires an actress to impersonate his sister, which leads to a runaway cascade of unanticipated events. This is a modern day thriller par excellence that you'll knock off in a day. 

Widowmaker, Doiron - B

                 This is not one of the better novels in this series. Mike gets stabbed and while off to recover, gets involved in trying to find out what happened to a young man with whom he had a slight connection. The plot spins out of control and ends with a mass murder of a dozen young men working in a logging camp. The fun here continues to be insights into the wild world of the far north, and in this instance a lengthy discourse on hybrid wolves in North America. 

A Higher Call: An Incredible True Story Of Combat And Chivalry In The War-Torn Skies Of World War II, Makos - A

                     This is an excellent story about two pilots, one German, one American. 

                      Bavarian-born Franz Stigler flew 487 combat missions as a fighter pilot. Of Germany's 28,000 fighter pilots, only 1,200 survived the war. His father had flown in the first war, and he had flown a glider at the age of 12. By the time he was 22, he was a Lufthansa pilot. A year later, in 1938, the Luftwaffe came calling, and assigned him to train pilots. He was a flight instructor until he requested a combat assignment in late 1940. In the Spring of 1942, Stigler was sent to support the Afrika Korps. Flying and fighting in the desert offered opportunities, as Franz was an ace (5 kills) within a few months. But, the hardships were overwhelming. In the summer's heat, each man slept in a grave - a hollowed out hole in the ground with a tarp over it. In September, he took an eight week leave at home, after which he was assigned to Sicily. The fighting was complicated by the Allies growing numbers and better equipment. The following June, a P-40 riddled his Me-109 with bullets and he landed in the Mediterranean. He survived, just barely. With nineteen victories to his credit, Franz was transferred to Germany to help defend the Fatherland as it was being battered by Allied bombers. His squadron flew out of Wiesbaden every day to confront the B-17's.

                    Charlie Brown grew up in West Virginia, and was a pilot of a B-17 by the time he was twenty. At the end of 1943, Charlie and his crew flew from England to Germany on the their first combat mission. As they approached Bremen, flak blew out the planes nose, pierced a wing, took out an engine and damaged a second engine. They slowed after they turned toward home and were attacked by Me-109's, who shot away half the rudder and hit another engine. The B-17 was pummeled again and again, with damage everywhere, the radio out, and two men dead. His stabilizer was shot off and soon, Charlie was flying the plane in an upside down spin. With his oxygen gone, he passed out. The plane plummeted from 22,000 feet. Charlie came to at about 10,000 feet and pulled the plane out of its death drop so close to the city of Oldenburg that he blew shingles off roofs. Flying barely faster than his stall speed, Charlie headed for the Baltic and passed over a German fighter base. Eyeing the wounded B-17 and in need of a bomber to earn a Knights Cross, Franz Stigler took off. When he saw the condition of the B-17 he could not believe the plane was still airborne, and he concluded he didn't have the heart to destroy a handful of helpless men. Franz saluted Charlie and let him attempt to return to England. Three-quarters of the way across the North Sea, they were down to 500 feet. By the time Charlie landed the plane, they were running on one-and-a-half engines. A few months later, Charlie and his crew finished their 28th and final mission. Their war was over.

                  Franz's was not. He already had posted 300 combat missions by the time Charlie was finished. He continued flying two or three missions per day. By the end of the year, the Luftwaffe was a shadow of itself with Franz leading teenagers against the Allies, and facing devastating odds. In October, he was wounded and grounded. In the last month of the war, Franz and a handful of veterans took to the skies in Messerschmidt jets. He survived, surrendered to the Americans, and emigrated to Canada after the war. Because he flew a Me-109 in a few air shows, he was invited to Boeing's 1985 B-17 reunion. About the same time, Charlie began to wonder about the man who had saved his life. He got in touch with the magazine of the German pilots association and posed the question. In 1990, he received a letter from Franz.  They met the following year; their reunion attracted national media attention.  By virtue of the unusual circumstances of Franz not shooting down Charlie and his plane in 1944, the Air Force had hushed the matter up. Sixty-four years later the Air Force awarded Charlie the Air Force Cross and all of the crew received Silver Stars.

                This book tells a remarkable story. The chapters describing Brown and his crews first flight and the amount of destruction their plane took is as harrowing and  nerve wracking as anything I have read about WWII. It is incomprehensible that the plane stayed in one piece and that Brown could fly it for hours in that condition. The degree of professionalism amongst the Germans who fought for years is truly impressive. And not least of all, stories like this are a reminder that almost all of these courageous men were just boys. A magnificent read and one highly recommended. Thanks to Carl Kreitler for the suggestion.

The Disappearance of Josef Mengele, Guez - B-

          This 'factual' novel is the story of Mengele's thirty years in Argentina. He arrived in 1949 and went to work as a laborer. His circumstances improved when he let those in high places know who he was. His family's agricultural equipment business in Bavaria provided financial support.  Mengele began accumulating wealth and expanding the family business into both Argentina and Paraguay. The passage of time allowed him to obtain a German passport and birth certificate as Josef Mengele. The time for hiding had passed. He married his brother's widow in order to assure all of the family business assets stayed in the family. Happily married and making money, Mengele was feeling very good about life in South America in the mid-50's. 

          In 1959, he was indicted in Germany. Fearing possible extradition, he moved to Paraguay. A year later, the Mossad kidnappped Eichmann, but failed to find Mengele. The Nazis of South America became very wary, fearing the Mossad was constantly pursuing them. His wife returned to Germany, he burned his German passport and began life anew again as a Brazilian. With Eichmann captured, tried and hung, he was now the most wanted Nazi fugitive. He worked as a farmhand for a Hungarian couple who were paid nicely for harboring him. By the end of the decade, he was almost 60 and in failing health. Years of stress, anxiety, loneliness and manual labor have taken its toll. His endless complaining lead the Hungarians to throw him out and he found himself in a rundown small house. In 1976, Mengele suffered a stroke and is hospitalized for two weeks.

         Mengele's only son, Rolf, born in 1944, is a left leaning Munich lawyer who despises his surname and has only a limited memory of the 'uncle' who visited him when he was a young boy. Mengele begs his son to come and in October, 1977, he visits Brazil. Rolf confronts his father about his monstrous crimes at Auschwitz. Josef tells Rolf of the struggles Germany faced after WWI, of his belief in the policies of Hitler and that he just followed orders at Auschwitz. "After two days and two nights of relentless discussions, Rolf gives up. His father is stubborn, incurable and evil, a war criminal. a criminal against humanity, unrepentant." Miserable, and in ill health, he suffers a stroke while in the ocean and drowns on Feb.7, 1979.

Cairo 1921: Ten Days That Made The Middle East, Faught - B

                  The Conference, called by Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill, was to address issues left unresolved at Paris. It created two new states, Iraq and Jordan, and established Mandate Palestine. The purpose was to remake the Middle East after the tumultuous war that had ended the Ottoman Empire. Its intent was to establish independent states after a period of trusteeship under the League of Nations.

                 On October 3rd, 1918, in newly emancipated Damascus, Gen. Allenby told Prince Faisal and his British military advisor, Col. T. E. Lawrence, that independence was not imminent. There would be a French supervisory role in Syria. Unbeknownst to all but a few, France and Britain had previously allocated their interests for a post-war settlement without regard for Arab independence. Complicating matters further, Britain had made assurances to the Zionists. The Paris Peace Conference and the San Remo Conference a year later solidified European supervision of the Middle East. The ongoing European mandates were very unpopular in the Levant.

                   Churchill took over the Colonial Office in February, 1921. He brought on T.E. Lawrence as a special advisor. Their plan was to put Faisal on the throne in Iraq, and his brother Abdullah, in Transjordan. Churchill, Lawrence, and staff headed to Cairo for the conference, which opened on March 12. "Churchill, Lawrence and the rest of the Middle East Department worked hard to ensure...this conference would be both brief in duration and focused on producing tangible results." The first order of business was Iraq. Discussion of the few alternatives to Faisal were considered before the endorsement of Faisal as king. Both Churchill and  Lawrence wanted to see an independent Kurdistan, as they feared the Arabs would either ignore or suppress the Kurds. However, the majority conclusion was to keep the Kurds in Iraq. Churchill believed Abdullah as king of Transjordan was a necessity to establish a completely Arab state to the east of a Palestine he hoped could be balanced between Jew and Arab. A substantial subsidy for Ibn Saud was agreed to in order to keep him away from the new states to his north. On the 23rd, the principals departed for Jerusalem. Churchill spent days in Jerusalem discussing with Abdullah the need for him to support peace with the French in Syria, and to not allow Transjordan to become a base for anti-Jewish activity. To the Jews and Arabs of the Holy Land, he stressed the importance of working together to create a modern Palestine.

                  The following year was a "watershed" in the implementation of the Cairo Conference. The UK and Iraq signed the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty. Abdullah settled in in Amman where he would rule for over three decades. However, in Palestine, the situation deteriorated. The Arabs protested vigorously about more Jews immigrating to the area.  Ultimately, the solutions set up in Cairo did not succeed. In Palestine neither the Jews nor the Arabs were willing to cooperate and share. Indeed, one scholar has said "Palestine was the greatest failure in the whole history of British imperial rule." In the dozen years before his death, Faisal was unable to break down Iraq's "traditional tribal society." Only in Jordan did the Cairo solution survive and succeed. Indeed today, Abdullah's great-grandson sits on the throne of the Middle East's only continual monarchy. It was granted complete independence from the UK in 1946.

              "Today, a hundred years later, it is hard to avoid concluding that the multivalent failure of the Cairo Conference's geopolitical prescriptions of the post-war Middle East may well have been a grand opportunity missed, the dire implications of which remain with us still."