Book Description
Pham Xuan An was a Vietnamese nationalist and member of Ho Chi Minh's army in the 1950s. Knowing that war with the United States was inevitable, the Party sent An to America to study journalism (for his cover) and observe its people and culture. He attended community college in California, worked for the Sacramento Bee and traveled across the country making friends.
Back in Saigon he worked as a reporter for Reuters and Time in the early 60s. He befriended numerous British and American journalists, including David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan and Stanley Karnow who came to regard him as a friend and trusted source. Meanwhile, he was providing intelligence to Hanoi; his early reports were so accurate that a general joked "we are now in the US war room." For twenty years An lived a lie and no one knew because he was so good at his day job, which was interwoven with his assignment in espionage.
Several years after the war, the new Vietnamese Communist government revealed that An had been one of its most effective spies. He was publicly awarded six medals and named a "Hero of the People's Army" – one of only two intelligence officers during the war ever promoted to the rank of General and Hero. But An's disaffection with the new government's treatment of their southern countrymen and his close friendships with Americans made him suspicious in the eyes of the Communist government. He was soon placed under housed arrest and to this day he is banned from leaving the country.
Customer Reviews:
You Cannot Have it Both Ways.......2007-10-01
I might not be as forgiving as some people, but I certainly would have felt betrayed by this man. He seeks to justify everything by stating that he felt the Americans did not belong in Vietnam. Maybe so. But what he did was so deceiful.To just look at the fact that he often helped those closest and known to him from suffering any harm, neglects the hundreds of thousands who died and were wounded as a result of his actions. To top it all off he sent his family to the US when the Communists came !! No doubt for a better life !!This fellow must have been of fairly limited intellect , or at least uneducated.And don't tell me was educated in the US - they let him do some courses... big deal! Did he really believe the Americans would attempt to rule Vietnam the way the French did ? Yes, they would take advantage of economic opportunities ( who does'nt), but what did he think they would have done if the South succeeded ? A good insight into blind nationalism and deceit by one of the most two faced people I have ever encountered. I still cannot understand his mindset.
the worst book to read! just a waste of time........2007-09-18
This book is nothing but full of communist propaganda. To most of the Vietnamese people, I say not including the 2% of the communist population, An is a betrayer. Don't waste your time being brain-washed by communist ideology.
Interesting, and Eerie!.......2007-09-09
Pham Xuan An was recruited by the Communist Party in Vietnam and sent to the U.S. in 1957 to learn journalism as a cover - long before the U.S. took a major role in the conflict. An quickly came to admire the U.S., did well in his studies (Orange Coast College) and internships, and was had several attractive offers for permanent work upon their completion. Yet, despite fear that he would be arrested by the South Vietnamese government upon returning to Vietnam, An returned, first reporting French troop actions, then also working for various government military figures (eg. teaching English to future VN spies; helping set up the Vietnamese spying service), and finally for various American publications - Time magazine in particular. Several times the CIA even tried to recruit An, with no success.
Early in his career An risked exposure to save the life of a Time reporter captured by the VietCong in Cambodia because he knew the reporter had saved a number of Vietnamese children's' lives from various Cambodian army massacres. This conflict between his spy role and friendship with Americans continued up to America's last day in Saigon when An helped a Vietnamese friend who had worked for the Americans escape. These actions, however, did not dull An's effectiveness - his insights and reports based on conversations and documents played key roles in VietCong/NVA tactics and strategy development. After the war ended, An was promoted to Maj. General, and collected his ten top-level medals.
An received no formal spy training - instead, he read a number of books by others who were past masters. Communications involving An were almost entirely one-way - towards nearby VietCong and much farther away NVA leaders in Hanoi. His methods were to use melted rice as invisible ink (revealed by pouring iodine over the paper), and secreting both the paper and film rolls in food materials handed off to a vendor.
An's career spanned 30 years - longer than any other spy. Consequently, after the war there was considerable suspicion by the communists that this was due to his having played both sides. He was even forbidden from leaving VN to attend a post-war correspondent's conference in NYC.
Some of the most impactful portions of "Perfect Spy" involved stories about eg. another VietCong spy who pushed the Vietnamese government to move peasants into more defensible self-contained villages. His rationale - he knew this would greatly upset the peasants and turn them against the government. An himself declared several times that the U.S.'s biggest failure was to develop a new cadre of leaders after Diem was deposed. It was also quite jarring to read details from the "other side" about so many areas that I had been to - Nha Trang, Siagon, Ban Me Thuot, Pleiku, Vung Tau, Khe Sanh.
My one wish is that "Perfect Spy" included more planning details from the VietCong and NVA side. Unfortunately, even the author (Larry Berman) sensed several times that An left much more unsaid than revealed.
Bottom Line: I was taken aback by An's working against the U.S. after having made so many friends here, how well the VietCong/NVA infiltrated U.S. planning, and how long ahead their thinking ran. The book also brings an eerie sense of wondering what is happening along these same lines now in Iraq.
Just another Communist propaganda book.......2007-07-23
It was a good read, but it just followed the line of typical Communist propaganda.
It is laughable for anyone to think An spied for his "country", that he was a "patriot", or a "nationalist" for that matter. An was a Communist through and through. Communist propaganda and the book want you to think that the Vietnam war was about fighting off foreign invaders/aggressors.
Make no mistake. An and his comrades fought for one sole purpose: put the entire country of Vietnam under Communism, and strip the Vietnamese people of freedom and basic human rights.
Hanoi successfully exploited the American involvement to justify their aggression in South Vietnam, and masked their communist proliferation campaign under a "patriotic" theme: war against foreign invaders.
It was Communist activities in South Vietnam that brought in US soldiers, and they made it looked like the American invasion of Vietnam that forced them to start the war to save the country.
An was lying when he implied that he didn't know how bad the Communists were when they took over the country. He fought for a regime that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent land-owners in North Vietnam in the late 50's during the bloody land reform campaign. He fought for a system with outdated economic (communism) theories that turned Vietnam into one of the poorest countries in the world. He fought for a totalitarian state that took away the people's basic freedom and human rights, where free-thinking was not allowed. If An had any doubt during his spying days, he just had to look to the iron curtains of the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cuba, East Germany, ... where the people were oppressed, and all would leave if they had a chance.
As well informed as he was, An surely must have known how brutal the Communists were, and still chose to be on their side. Instead of helping to promote freedom in Vietnam, he worked hard to crush it. If An was truly disillusioned after the war, then he was a fool to fight for a system that he knew nothing about.
I am shocked and appalled that many freedom-loving Americans failed to see this, and continued to think of An as a patriot, a nationalist, and that they would probably do the same if they were An. Naive Americans.
Also, the book repeatedly mentioned An's American acquaintances admired him for being a spy without injecting any pro-communist ideas onto them. Are you kidding? That's what he was supposed to do to keep his cover. To this day, many Americans still love this guy and be fooled by his deceiving charm, buying into his Communist propaganda line that he was just fighting foreign invaders to save his country. Naive Americans.
An was responsible for thousands of American and hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese deaths during the war. After the war, tens (if not hundreds) of thousands more died in re-education camps, or during their escape journey from Vietnam.
Unification without freedom is worst than death. To this point, An helped kill his fellow Vietnamese and the country. He was a traitor!
A great read, a great man for his country and a sad commentary of our press corps.......2007-06-15
As a former Marine sniper with two straight years in the Vietnam War, the early part, I couldnt pass this book up. An, the spy, is the perfect spy and by the end of the book you can see he duped our press, his 'friends', not only in Vietnam during the war, but all the way to his recent death. He certainly played a central part in the demise of our strategy and as one soldier to another, my hat goes off to him. He was good at what he did and so were my fellow Marines and I. He fought for his country in his way and we in ours. An incredible man.
Now for my disdain. The author did an excellent job researching and writing this book. Except for his bias to continue to make the North Vietnamese out the good guys and us the bad. I understand they fought for 'their He continues to this day, forty years later for me, to herald the very pr' country and to get foreigners off their soil. But this author contuess corp that were hopefully duped by An, some probably not. They continues the US press corps position that the people in the south had no right to their way of wanting their country back. The author supports the media in their current dismantling of US efforts in Iraq. I do not believe we should have gone to Iraq, but now that we unraveled their lives, we owe it to them to see it to the end. Yet just as it outlined well in this excellent book, they are undermining US efforts to help a people who strive for freedom like the millions of South Vietnamese that are barely mentioned in this work.
This is an important work on the Vietnam War, which I have studied for my forty years since being there. It tells a compelling story of a proud warrior who did what he had to do for his country. He did it well. And it shows the dispicable US media, lead by Time magazine, and their work which ended up aiding our enemy at the time.
And then they proudly, according to the author, pull out all the stops to bring the son of this perfect spy, back to the US to educate him as we did his father. He continued perfect to the end and his great friends in the media still believe his line. We just never learn.
Average customer rating:
- Self centered and biased
- A good introduction to life in the war zone
- The true story
- Same as Penguin Canada Freetown Ambush?
- "Ambushed" has something for everyone
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Ambushed: A War Reporter's Life on the Line
Ian Stewart
Manufacturer: Algonquin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1565123808 |
Book Description
Ian Stewart has reported from some of the most dangerous places on earth, but none more dangerous than Sierra Leone. When he was named West Africa bureau chief by the Associated Press, Stewart accepted his new assignment with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. He was one of the AP's youngest bureau chiefs, and over the next year he reported from the front lines of the war-ravaged countries of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone and coordinated news coverage of some twenty-three others.
AMBUSHED is a fascinating, in-depth look at the extraordinary day-to-day life of a war correspondent. Stewart presents a compelling portrait of the often surreal world that journalists inhabit as they bear witness to violence and give voice to the unspeakable. Appalled by the level of cruelty he witnessed, Stewart was shocked by the indifference of the outside world. Though his stories were sometimes buried deep inside the daily papers, or published not at all, he kept reporting the truth. When armed rebels entered Sierra Leone's besieged capital of Freetown, Stewart and two of his colleagues were ambushed while driving down the street on assignment. One of his colleagues was killed instantly, and Stewart, shot in the head, had a twenty-percent chance of surviving. Astonishingly, he did. With frankness and courage, Stewart tells the story of his extraordinary recovery and the tremendous risks he and other journalists take to give us the news.
Customer Reviews:
Self centered and biased.......2006-10-21
Stewart does give a number of experiences in shocking & vivid detail, but I was hoping for more time spent on the experiences of the people in Africa, opposed to HIS experience of Africa and five entire chapters on his own experience of being shot.
The horrible experiences of the people he sees deserve much more attention than a decadent (an example on page 159) Western reporter who meets an unfortunate experience. On top of this he brings slanted and self-admitted ignorant views on Africa ("The more I discovered, the more I grew angry and disgusted at Africa's recent colonial experience, but I still knew little about African history" page 35).
Stewart makes a few blanket accusations against the West for all that is wrong in Africa ("Europe demonstrated to Africa that self-serving greed outweighed all else" page 129) with no mention to the equally ruthless Arab slave traders who oppressed Africa before the white man. The book makes Stewart seem more self centered than compassionate. His criticism of the west is best re-directed to his own book: "the West's luxury and comfort comes before the human rights of African citizens" page 130.
A good introduction to life in the war zone.......2004-12-01
Ian Stewart's "Ambushed" is a commendable book worthy of use as a introduction to life behind the lines, however it falls short of the actual horrors of war. Stewart's writing is linear, easy to read, and palatable for most readers and the stories he has to tell are courageous. However I am a bit reticent to give his book four or five stars because he, albeit probably unintentionally, doesnt portray the soul-crushing horrors of war as they really are. Having worked and witnessed the atrocities in Sierra Leone, the DRC, and Cambodia myself I sympathize with Ian but I can assure you his book is a trip to Disneyland compared to the actualities of the situation in these war torn countries. I'm glad that his book brings light to the Sierra Leone situation (which fortunatly is being extinguished) to the public. If one wants a more to real life of todays modern and barbaric wars I suggest reading Jon Steele's "War Junkie". This horribly named book was written by an ITN news photographer but he should have been a journalist. Jon has covered twice as many wars as Ian(not that this is a comparision) however no book has ever given me nightmares or brought more emotion to what really happens behind the lines as his book has. Read it with caution, I can still smell the stench of Rwanda's murdered...
The true story.......2003-12-02
In this book you get the information you will not see on any TV station. You recieve first hand the experience of a war reporter. The author is very good about telling you the situation before he travels to his destination. He doesn't hold anything back. He makes the story come alive with his descriptions.
My favorite part of the book was his recovery period. He had to work so hard to find out who he truly was and what he had to overcome was amazing. It opened my eyes to the dangers that reporters face to bring us the news.
Same as Penguin Canada Freetown Ambush?.......2003-01-25
I read Freetown Ambush published by Penguin Canada. If this is the American version of the same book, I highly recommend it.
Stewart's description of Ivory Coast and the disintegration of a society is compelling and the descriptions of the inside workings of the AP is very interesting. The touching story of his recovery is short and sweet. His writing style keeps moving and he explains the confusing situation in West Africa very well.
"Ambushed" has something for everyone.......2002-12-25
When I first picked up Ian Stewart's "Ambushed: A War Reporter's Life on the Line" I had some trepidation. I worried I would finish it with the same feeling I had when I read "All the President's Men." I enjoyed that book, but I had a feeling it was only really compelling to people interested in history, politics or journalism. Not that those topics are boring - they just don't always have much heart or soul.
With Stewart's book, I was pleasantly suprised. Although a good portion of the book focuses on the political climates he faced as a war correspondent, it also gets to the heart of how war affected people in the places he covered. With relative grace, Stewart manages to balance the bare-bones reality of war with the personal struggles he had covering it as the Associated Press' West Africa bureau chief. He brings real emotion to the book by describing both fighting in the streets and the reactions of children who see it every day.
But the real heart of the story is apparent in the final third of the book, after Stewart has been shot in the head by rebels in Sierra Leone. As he describes the rehabilitation process following his injury it becomes more and more evident what war reporters really face. It's really compelling to analyze, along with Stewart, why those journalists do what they do and whether it is worth the sacrifice.
In the simplest terms, the book is interesting because it tells one person's story in a way that most people, not just journalists or history and politics buffs, can relate to. By showing how Stewart covered war and how he dealt with it personally, "Ambushed" opens a window into war that most of us will never get to experience first-hand.
Amazon.com
Spiritual environmentalist Thom Hartman ventures into the genre of parables with this story about a jaded, unemployed newspaper reporter named Paul Abler. The same day that he's fired for being "too driven" as a reporter, Abler has a spontaneous debate with a street corner religious zealot. Moments later Paul risks his life to rescue a 5-year-old girl who is about to be hit by a Mack truck in a crosswalk. These two chance encounters set off a chain of mystical events that change his life.
Like in any great parable, we see an ordinary skeptic wandering in a land of spiritual teachers disguised as misfits and vagrants. More so, we have a straightforward storyteller, able to keep the dialog moving at a clip while giving a strong sense of scene and action. As Paul heads toward the frightened girl in the crosswalk, Hartmann writes, "Three steps out, the voice inside his head was now shouting, you're gonna die, but he didn't stop. Just five more steps and he could shove the little girl--now frozen in horror staring at the truck, whose brakes were screeching--hard enough to knock her out of the way.... If he succeeded he would then, himself, be in front of the truck that he knew would take his life. But even if he wanted to turn back he'd already gone too fast and too far." Even if readers wanted to turn back from this fast-moving parable they will find themselves, like Paul, mysteriously committed to a magnetic journey through underground tunnels, distant lands, back in time, and into the greatest spiritual secret of the century. --Gail Hudson
Customer Reviews:
Amazing Insights.......2007-02-06
Thom Hartmann is an author with authenic insights & some of the realizations in this book are quite extraordinary. I highly recommend it.
Thoughtful introspection for open-minded folk.......2005-05-17
It's always refreshing to see a positive and action-minded message set forth by a renowned nationally syndicated talk show host and author of many many books.
It's a beautiful book on finding your path in life - does involve some non-denominational christianity and in fact teaches us to understand the messages that come along in our lives - as well as how to bring about some meaning in our otherwise workcentric universe.
I enjoyed it and found it to be a different type of book than what I'm used to seeing. Very refreshing.
Nice book, but..............2003-10-19
We've seen it a lot, with different titles and the same message, to which I absolutely agree by the way.
However Thom, your other books were written much better than that.
Maybe you're trying to include a broader audience...!?
Bravo anyway!
The Greatest Spiritual Secret of the Century.......2003-01-11
Thom Hartmann is a psychotherapist and internationally known speaker. He's written numerous books and short stories. The Greatest Spiritual Secret of the Century is his first novel, and in it he takes both his characters and the reader on a transforming journey.
Paul Abler is an ordinary person, living an ordinary life filled job stress, past-due rent, and a girlfriend who jilts him. Then one day, he throws himself in front of an oncoming car, in a successful attempt to save a little girl who had darted in front of it. He himself is saved from serious injury by an extraordinary man named Noah.
Noah, who is a shape shifter and time traveler, takes Paul on a journey where he receives his first lessons in the School of Wisdom.
Paul later is approached by a street person named Jim, who takes him beneath the city streets, where he meets a group of homeless people led by Joshua. But like Noah, his new acquaintances are more than they first appear to be. Paul continues to have fantastic adventures and experiences, all the while increasing his knowledge of how things truly are. When he learns the greatest spiritual secret, he knows that he can never revert to being the person he had been.
A modern-day parable, The Greatest Spiritual Secret of the Century, is written in "the story-telling tradition of Og Mandino and Richard Bach. . .Paul's voyage is a journey that all of us would like to take, and provides answers each of us had hoped to find."
Amazing the accuracy of the research for this book.......2002-06-25
This book is a great, fast-moving story with a deep, spiritual theme. Even more amazing for me was the depth of the research the author put into it. The scenes describing ancient Sumeria and Uruk and the gods of that time and the nature of the temples (from the statuary to the costumes to the traditions) are impeccably accurate. On digging through the book carefully, I find that all of the words attributed to the female deity he meets in space are the (few) actual words put in a female "voice of God" in the Bible (mostly Song of Songs, but other places, too), and all the words of Joshua are verbatim from the Gospel of Thomas. It's an amazing dip into the esoteric history of the Jewish/Christian tradition...and its predecessors...as well as a fun read. Just the info on mysticism is worth the price of the book. Enjoy!
Amazon.com
Cronkite's prose has the same stately cadences as that famous voice, reinforcing the grandfatherly persona that made him America's most trusted anchorman until his retirement in 1981. He also has a dry sense of humor, so his memoirs are dignified rather than pompous. Chapters on the early days of radio and television broadcasting are colorful; the more episodic later portions contain some good anecdotes, plus a frank account of Cronkite's dismay at the direction CBS News took under Van Gordon Sauter. Just the book you'd expect from Uncle Walter.
Book Description
He has been called the most trusted man in America. His 60-year-long journalistic career has spanned the Great Depression, several wars, and the extraordinary changes that have engulfed our nation over the last two-thirds of the 20th century. When Walter Cronkite advised his television audience in 1968 that the war in Vietnam could not be won, President Lyndon B. Johnson said: "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America."
Now, at the age of eighty, Cronkite has written his life story--the personal and professional odyssey of the original "anchorman" for whom that very word was coined. As a witness to the crucial events of this century--first for the
Houston Press, then for the
United Press wire service, and finally for
CBS in the fledgling medium of television--Cronkite set a standard for integrity, objectivity, enthusiasm, compassion, and insight that is difficult to surpass. He is an overflowing vessel of history, and a direct link with the people and places that have defined our nation and established its unique role in the world.
But Walter Cronkite is also the man who loved to drive race cars "for the same reason that others do exhibitionist, dangerous stunts. It sets us apart from the average man; puts us, in our own minds, on a level just a little above the chap who doesn't race." He is also the man whose "softheartedness knows no rational bounds" and who always had "great problems at the theater, tearing up at the slightest offense against animals and people, notably the very old or the very young." He is the man who could barely refrain from spitting on the defendants at the Nuremberg Trials, and who could barely announce President Kennedy's assassination over the air for the sobs in his throat.
Walter Cronkite helped launch the juggernaut of television, and tried to imbue it with his own respect for quality and ethics; but now he occupies a ringside seat during the decline of his profession and the ascent of the lowest common denominator. As he aptly observes, "They'd rewrite Exodus to include a car chase."
Still, the American people know the difference. They know that for decades they have had the privilege of getting their news from a gentleman of the highest caliber. And they will immensely enjoy
A Reporter's Life.
Customer Reviews:
Modern American History Through the Eyes of Walter Cronkite.......2006-05-19
To live the life of Walter Cronkite is to live a thousand years. For nearly half a decade Walter Cronkite served as the voice of reason to millions of Americans who looked to his print, radio, and television reports for information and reassurance. This autobiography covers the life of Walter Cronkite from his early life as a lowly radio announcer to his ultimate stand at the pinnacle of journalism.
As usual, Cronkite's wit is second-to-none and comes through clearly in his prose. Still, he never pulls punches and minces no words regarding the multitude of famous and powerful men and women he met along the way. His engrained honesty and objectivity is a refreshing look to when journalism was an honest art, plagued not by corporate sponsorship.
Cronkite's work not only serves as an interesting look at "Cronkite, the man," but is a work of modern American history, written by the man who lived and reported it all. For a readable, enjoyable look at Cronkite's America, "A Reporter's Life" is one of the best.
"Revolutionary forces are already at work [outside the US] today, and they have man's dreams on their side.".......2006-04-05
In a fascinating and thought-provoking autobiography (1996), Walter Cronkite reflects on his career in journalism, from the earliest days in which he listened to radio on a crystal set, through his own participation in world events as a television journalist. Without the ego one usually associates with newscaster-celebrities, Cronkite gives the history of journalism--radio, newspapers, news syndicates, and television--by giving anecdotes from his own long career, always showing what he learned from his mistakes (which he is remarkably candid and often humorous in describing), and giving ample credit to the people who helped him. His thoughtful observations about the impact of television and its negative effects on voting participation, along with his predictions for the future of this country, offer a broader perspective and warning about our national vision.
Cronkite's sense of excitement about journalism is obvious from the earliest days of his career, when he used brief, coded teletype messages to invent play-by-play accounts of football games for his radio audience. By career's end, he was participating in world events, his interview with Anwar Sadat and its follow-up bringing Sadat to Israel in a precedent-setting meeting with Menachim Begin and an eventual peace treaty. As he takes the reader step-by-step through this career, he describes his goals as a young man, his earliest jobs at local newspapers and radio stations, his work with United Press, his press responsibilities overseas during World War II, his work in Russia, and his early foray into television, when other serious journalists were avoiding this medium.
The landmark TV coverage of the 1952 political conventions opened the eyes of the country to how the political system worked in reality. The Nixon and Kennedy interviews in 1960 (and Theodore White's book, The Making of the President), show the power of television to affect outcomes. He gives candid, personal insights into various Presidents, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt through George Bush Senior, including fascinating insights into Eisenhower (far more aware of issues than often thought), JFK (with whom he had mixed experiences), and Jimmy Carter (in his view, the most intelligent President).
It is Cronkite's candor and his ability to see himself as a facilitator of communication, rather than as an ego-driven reporter looking for the landmark "scoop," that makes this autobiography so compelling. When, in his conclusion, he modestly offers his own observations about the end of the twentieth century, based on his experience, the reader pays attention. Mincing no words, Cronkite describes the social, political, and economic evolutions taking place around the world and their potential as revolutions, warning, "They have man's dreams on their side. We don't want to be on the other side." Elegantly written, this is a landmark book in the history of journalism. n Mary Whipple
very good but could be better organized.......2006-02-20
For me who watched Walter Cronkite almost every night from the 1960's to the 1980's when Dan Rather took over, this is most enlightening book. Behind the scene stories were given for a lot of news stories. Unlike Eric Sevaried, Cronkite never stated any of his personal feelings and comments on the air. Quite a lot of them were found in this book.
Two things bother me. None of the chapters in this book had a topic so the reader is completely unaware of what is in there when he/she starts reading a chapter. In addition, no index is avalable and locating a topic or name is very difficult and time-consuming
Fascinating.......2005-12-09
This book contains the memoirs of Walter Cronkite, pioneering television journalist. Cronkite begins by describing his childhood briefly, noting that even as a youngster, he was pulled to journalism. He credits a volunteer journalism teacher in his high school for introducing him to the rigors of print journalism, but once started, he was hooked. It was this teacher who taught him the prime importance of getting the facts correct, a value that he would hold primary throughout his career. As a high school student, Cronkite competed in statewide journalistic writing tournaments, and won. After high school, he enrolled in college for a while, but decided that pulling in an income was more important than getting a degree (this was during the Great Depression), a decision which he later came to regret. On a lark, he landed a radio news announcer job in Oklahoma City. Later, he worked for UPI, where he honed his collating and rewriting skills under pressure of constant deadlines. The experience from all of these jobs was to prove invaluable later when he landed a job announcing the news on CBS television. Cronkite was not only one of the first early TV news broadcasters, but the word `news anchorman' was even invented just to describe what he did (or so he claims).
In this book, Cronkite reminisces not only about his career, but also about the big news stories of day. He discusses how television came to play a strong role in politics, starting with the 1952 party conventions, which were the first to be televised. He enumerates the presidents he has known, from Hoover through George Bush, senior, and he compares the effectiveness of each, as well as their relations with the media. He analyzes the forces behind the fateful American build-up in Vietnam, and the eventual pull-out. He also relates how he inadvertedly became involved in negotiating peace between Egypt and Israel. All in all, his tales are fascinating. I usually find political discussion hideously tiresome, but Cronkite manages to make even politics interesting.
Strong look at Journalism and 20th Century USA .......2005-05-07
This is an engaging biography by the CBS journalist/broadcaster who was once called "the most trusted man in America." The book pretty much matches Cronkite's TV image; decent, fatherly, and surprisingly modest.
Cronkite recalls his boyhood in Missouri (he was born in 1916) and Texas, his early reportorial days, and his long career with CBS radio and television. Cronkite also takes a long look at U.S. history during the post-war period, including the end of World War II, the Cold War, Civil Rights, Vietnam, etc. He also devotes strong attention (and opinions) to America's Presidents in that era. Most would consider Cronkite politically centrist, but some conservatives (including TV's mythical Archie Bunker) despised his pro-UN, and eventual anti-Vietnam view. Readers get a feel for what it's like to have access to the high and mighty, as well as the sense that politicians see reporters as people to be used for their ends. Cronkite also reveals such personal issues as his family life, and his love for race cars and speed.
This is an informative and engaging read, yet a bit shallow for one who moved in the constellations of power. Perhaps that comes from the author's status as America's anchorman, a task requiring one to strive to be calm, level and centered.
Book Description
Until now, the brilliant methods and tactics that world-renowned investor and hedge fund king George Soros used to amass billions have remained a closely-guarded secret. In Soros: The Unauthorized Biography, renowned biographer and former Time reporter Robert Slater has looked behind closed doors to reveal the unique philosophy and investment strategies that have given this Hungarian-born billionaire enormous influence over world financial markets. This intimate and insightful biography examines SorosÕ extraordinary life, his outspoken opinions, and the hundreds of millions of dollars in philanthropy that have made George Soros an influential business, social, and political figure throughout Eastern Europe and the world.
Customer Reviews:
THIS BOOK IS AWFUL.......2004-06-02
This book was a complete waste of money. Dr Seuss could have written better finance non-fiction.
Soros' biggest coup was his billion dollar + profit on the pound - he runs through the story in lightening speed with very little explanation or technicals of the mechanics. No insight. Very bad.
Soros was convicted of insider trading in 2002.......2004-05-24
Being a "great" investors is pretty easy if you know how to cheat. Soros was convicted in December 2002 for insider trading in Societe Generale stock.
An interesting story book, but not for trading.......2003-07-18
Although quite out of date, this is the most interesting amongst all other bibliographies of Soros I ever read. This could be attributed to that the author could not get direct info from Soros or his associates at all. Without the burden of returning any favor, the author could quote whatever and whoever (some ex Soros partners) he liked, particularly criticisms, which were the most interesting parts of the book. Other parts, like how Soros broke the Bank of England, how he identified with his Hungarian Jewish identity, how he failed to become a philospher and turned into a trader, should be good enough to satisfy most readers' curiosity on the early part (on or before 1994) of Soro's life. For those traders who want to know the trading secrets, go somewhere else.
p.s. As a trader, I still would like to quote something from the book for my fellows' reference:-
1. Page 60: What Soros understood better than most were the cause and effect relationships in the world's economies. If A happened, that B must follow, then C after that.
2. Page 83: The stock market is always wrong, so that if you copy everybody else on Wall Street, you're doomed to do poorly.
3. Page 85: In 1979, Soros renamed his fund...Quantum Fund, in tribute to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics. That principle asserts that it is impossible to predict the behavior of subatomic particples in quantum mechanics, an idea that meshed with Soros's conviction that markets were always in a state of uncertainty and flux that it was possible to make money by discounting the obvious, and betting on the unexpected.
4. Page 92: Soros always says that you shouldnt be in the market unless you are willing to take the pain.
5. Page 110: Short term volatility is greatest at turning points and diminishes as a trend becomes established.
6. Page 159: It is not whether you are right or wrong, but how much money you make when you are right and how much money you lose when you are wrong....If you have tremendous conviction on a trade you have to go for the jugular.It takes courage to be a pig. It takes courage to ride a profit with huge leverage.... When you right on something, you cant own enough.
No many secrets to be shared...........2000-07-24
The author seams try to hide the little information he was able to gather from outside the Soros's circle with a poetic writing about his rise to be a "Master of the Universe". But the fact remain that the book give only a very superficial idea about Soros and for sure do not address the big question about him: "Devil's Master of Globalization or Saint of a New Economy?"
Primer of Thought.......2000-06-01
This book helps decipher the code of a great speculator. Financiers like Soros help keep the financial and economical mkt mesh in sync. Recent news on the dismantling of his Quantum (largest hedge fund in the world) and Quota funds has many on the street bewildered about his authority, but it should be understood that Soros publicly announced about two years ago that he no longer meddled in any of the funds' investments. This is a good book that explains the why's of a worldly speculator.
Book Description
"The native American Voltaire, the enemy of all puritans, the heretic in the Sunday school, the one-man demolition crew of the genteel tradition."-Alistair Cooke
Fiercely intelligent, scathingly honest, and hysterically funny, H.L. Mencken's coverage of the Scopes Monkey Trial so galvanized the nation that it eventually inspired a Broadway play and hit movie.
Mencken's no-nonsense sensibility is still exciting: his perceptive rendering of the courtroom drama; his piercing portrayals of key figures Scopes, Clarence Darrow, and William Jennings Bryan; his ferocious take on the fundamentalist culture surrounding it all-including a raucous midnight trip into the woods to witness a secret "holy roller" service.
Shockingly, these reports have never been gathered together into a book of their own-until now.
A Religious Orgy in Tennessee includes all of Mencken's reports for
The Baltimore Sun, The Nation, and
The American Mercury. It even includes his coverage of Bryan's death just days after the trial-an obituary so withering Mencken was forced to rewrite it (both versions are included, although the rewrite seems, if anything, even less forgiving).
With the rise of "intelligent design," Mencken's work has never seemed more unnervingly timely-or timeless.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant...Classic Mencken.......2007-01-16
I am a huge fan of H. L. Mencken and this addition to the library doesn't disappoint. Mencken was one of America's most respected, despised, and feared journalists. As the number one literary enemy of the fundamentalist most of his career, Mencken was in his element at the John Scopes trial that pitted the science of evolution against the mythology of fundamentalist Christianity.
In 1925, Mencken drew the nation's attentions to a trial taking place in Dayton, Tennessee that would test the boundaries of a new law (the Butler Act) that prohibited the teaching of: "any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." One enterprising individual set about testing the law by asking a local teacher (a friend sympathetic with the cause) to teach Darwin's theory of evolution. That teacher was 24-year-old John T. Scopes. Lasting eight days in the courtroom and eleven days in total, the weather was painfully hot probably irritating Mencken even more.
Writing for the Baltimore Evening Sun, Mencken's verbal energy and acute wit are stunning (no journalist, pundit, or commentator today even comes close). And much of his sarcastic eloquence comes, of course, at the expense of the key figure at the trial William Jennings Bryan. As the billing promises, these reports are by the most famous newspaperman in American history are vivid, highly intelligent, scathingly honest, and hysterically funny.
Mencken saw the transparent attempt at keeping evolution from being taught in schools contemptible, and the Scopes trial as ample opportunity to ridicule the "yokels," "half-wits," and "buffoons" who believe that man is not a mammal and the earth is less then 6,000 years old. But Mencken left his most venomous criticisms for those representing the prosecution, especially Democratic presidential candidate and fundamentalist Christian William Jennings Bryan. Five days after the end of the trial, Bryan died. In writing one of three scathing Bryan obituaries, Mencken opines:
"The meaning of religious freedom, I fear, is sometimes greatly misapprehended. It is taken to be some sort of immunity, not merely from governmental control but also from public opinion. A dunderhead gets himself a long-tailed coat, rises behind the sacred desk, and emits such bilge as would gag a Hottentot. Is it to pass unchallenged? If so, then what we have is not religious freedom at all, but the most intolerable and outrageous variety of religious despotism. Any fool, once he is admitted to the wholly orders, becomes infallible. Any half-wit, by the simple device of ascribing his delusions to revelation, takes on an authority that is denied to all the rest of us."
"I do not know how many Americans entertain the ideas defended so ineptly by poor Bryan, but probably the number is very large...though they are thus held to be sound by millions, these ideas remain mere rubbish. Not only are they not supported by the known facts; they are in direct contravention of the known facts. No man whose information is sound and whose mind functions normally can conceivable credit them. They are the products of ignorance and stupidity, either or both."
"What should be a civilized man's attitude to such superstition? It seems to me that the only attitude possible to him is one of contempt. If he admits that they have any intellectual integrity whatever, he admits that he himself has none. If he pretends to a respect for those who believe in them, he pretends falsely, and sinks almost to their level. When he is challenged he must answer honestly, regardless of tender feelings. That is what Darrow did at Dayton, and the issue plainly justified the act. Bryan went there in a hero's shinning armor, bent deliberately upon a gross crime against sense. He came out a wrecked and preposterous charlatan, his tail between his legs. Few Americans have ever done so much for their country in a whole lifetime as Darrow did in two hours."
This volume includes all of Mencken's daily reports for The Baltimore Sun, as well as additional stories filed for The Nation and The American Mercury. It also includes his coverage of Bryan's death just days after the trial, plus numerous rare photos, and the full transcript of Darrow's historic cross-examination of Bryan. Oh wouldn't Mencken have a field day with with our fearless fundamentalist leader were he alive today! Alas, journalists like Mencken just don't exist anymore. Highly recommended reading and very contemporary as it seems little has changed in the "bible belt."
Average customer rating:
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Muddy Boots and Red Socks:: A Reporter's Life
Malcolm Browne
Manufacturer: Crown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
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ASIN: 0812963520
Release Date: 1993-08-17 |
Book Description
This is a biography of Mark H. Kellogg, a frontier journalist reporting for the Bismarck Tribune, who in May and June, 1876, accompanied the military column of Lt. Col. George A. Custer from Fort Abraham Lincoln to the Little Bighorn River, sending stories back to his newspaper along the way. On June 25, 1876, he remained with Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment as it attacked a large Indian village. All 210 men with Custer, including reporter Kellogg, were killed.
Customer Reviews:
This Book's a Go.......2003-06-02
I purchased the story of Mark Kellogg, the newspaper reporter who died at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, because I always wanted to know about him. Who was he? What was he doing there? Did he leave a safe desk job for adventure? Or was he terrified of going? Unfortunately, I did not learn much about Mr. Kellogg. No fault of the author's, who did a fantastic job researching this man with a rather obscure background. There just isn't much information about him as a person to be found. Yet Mr. Barnard pieced together the best story he possibly could thru newspaper accounts, many sources he found and contact with the Kellogg descendants (who did not know they were related to him until the author told them!). The book is not terribly entertaining, but it was not written for that purpose. All four of Kellogg's columns he wrote on the Last Stand march are reprinted, along with what was left of his diary. We get a personal look at General Custer - the last written look at him in life. And we learn some new things about that expedition, as we feel as if we are riding right along with them. Well worth the money for this important addition to a Custer library.
Book Description
With the success of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, Christians everywhere saw Jesus as a real man, perhaps for the first time. They were captivated and wanted to know more. Now, The Jesus Conspiracy, a modern dramatization of the known facts of Jesus' life, digs even deeper to present a startling vision of Christ through the lens of the historical Jesus. By pairing modern and historical investigation, Thomas offers readers current archaeological and anthropological discoveries that fulfill the desire to know more about the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. He draws from non-canonical works, such as the Gospel of Nicodemus, to bring the social and cultural world of the first century alive for the modern reader. With some surprising conclusions, this book is an excellent resource for skeptics and believers, especially those who want to gain a deeper understanding of the world in which Jesus lived and died.
Customer Reviews:
Not Impressed at All.......2005-05-08
This book isn't any where close to being an investigative reporter's probe into the life and death of Jesus Christ, as is "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel. Instead this title is written from the standpoint of higher biblical criticism, looking down on the Scriptures, determining what is and isn't truly historical. The underlying premise of the author is fatally flawed -- he implies the biblical account is not to be taken as reliable without somehow having to verify it.
There are far better treatments of the life of Christ that aren't so undermining of Scriptural authority. Lee Strobel's work is one example. Strobel's investigative approach is far more scrutinizing than the approach of Thomas, and at the same time is honoring of Scriptural integrity.
ECCE HOMO!.......2002-09-20
"Behold the man!" The words of Pontius Pilate reverberate in my mind upon reading this book, a superlative study on the life of Jesus Christ, the central figure of the human race. Gordon Thomas presents the Nazarene and His times unlike any other book I've read to date, with such painstaking realism as to allow the reader to be present during Christ's ministry. One can nearly smell the odors of Jerusalem's streets, hear the bustle of people as they gather to listen to the words of the young rabbi, and witness the events leading to His crucifixion and subsequent Resurrection .
This book is noteworthy for numerous reasons, among these Thomas extensive reasearch -spanning decades- on all extant texts related to Jesus and the events surrounding him: the Bible and the numerous apocryphal and pseudepigraphal books on Christ, early Judaic and Christian histories such as Josephus and Eusebius, and even Talmudic tractates that articulate Jewish law and custom.
THE JESUS CONSPIRACY (previously titled THE TRIAL; the current title is somewhat misleading and ambiguous) is centered on the murderous conspiracy by the staus quo against Jesus and the revolutionary message He spread. It explores the mentality and motives of those who participated in Christ's passion: Pontius Pilate, Roman procurator; Herod Antipas, Idumean tetrarch of Galilee; and Joseph Caiaphas, Rome-appointed high priest of the Temple. This Unholy Triumvirate were responsible for the most infamous show trial in history (covered in great detail in this book) which ultimately condemned an innocent man to one of the most barbaric deaths in human experience and centuries later provided an unjust excuse for anti-Semitism.
The Passion is described with riveting detail; Thomas' vivid descriptions of Christ's flogging (which literally shred the flesh with barbed and weighted thongs) and mockery with the Crown of Thorns is disturbing. The Crucifixion is HARROWING. It is impossible not to be shaken when visualizing these events, and not be left with awe and admiration for the Nazarene, who despite all this exclaimed from the Cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Verily, one is overwhelmed by Christ's magnanimity and salvific love for humanity.
The events following the Crucifixion are demonstrated to impossibilitate any action by the disciples on Jesus behalf. Yet the events on that fateful Sunday morning forever changed the history of humankind.
Gordon Thomas, as a liberal Catholic, is far from dogmatic or confrontational: he actually attempts an unbiased, objective, even-handed examination of Christ's life and times. In his extensive introduction and epilogue, he articulates his research and addresses the numerous concerns and debates, and rightly takes issue with extremist reactionaries (the "Jesus Seminar" and others FARTHER to the left) who are more focused on smearing Christ and the Church than biblical scholarship.
He does question the Bible's authority and disagrees with some important teachings, but this is done in the spirit of objectivity, not theological agenda. What is noteworthy is that in the end of his rigorous scrutiny of Scripture, the fundamentals remain: Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who came into the world to save us from sin by His death on the Cross, and that He rose on the third day. As a result, whether one is a seeker or a seasoned Christian, one comes out of reading this book a changed person. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Jesus in focus.......2000-08-29
The Jesus Conspiracy
A Book Review
When we, in the 21st Century, seek to understand the life of Jesus it can be helpful to look at Him in the historical setting of His day. It was a time vastly different from what we face today, at least in terms of day to day things and the relationship He and others had to the Roman government and to the prevailing religious environment.
In his recent book, The Jesus Conspiracy, Gordon Thomas takes his readers back to the days of some 2,000 years ago. Thomas is identified in this Baker Book House (1999) publication as a "highly successful British investigative journalist." This book of some 300 pages turns the clock back so that the reader is an eyewitness of sorts to the things Jesus said and did, as they occurred in their proper historical contexts. Along the way Thomas provides some insights about that culture which many of us would find very interesting. The book has been compared to Who Rolled Away the Stone by Frank Morrison, a work by another Englishman who had questioned the validity of the Gospels and their accounts of Jesus, especially the events surrounding the crucifixion and resurrection. Morrison began his work as an unbeliever but finished as part of the Family!
Why Thomas selected this title (conspiracy) is not very clear from the text. It may that many, in that time when Jesus was walking this earth, felt that what He was attempting to do was to establish a new order of things, especially of a religious nature. What was taking place, some surely seemed to believe, was a plan to replace much of the established way of doing things in the temple. He presented a threat to the status quo. The so called trial Jesus experienced seemed to have that as the motivation. Thomas, much like Morrison in the earlier work, takes his readers step by step through this trial and shows the many illegal moves made and how those moves were tolerated. The trial was a sham! Many boundaries used to protect people were set aside.
Thomas brings an additional perspective to many of the same events addressed by Morrison so that a reader can come away with a deeper appreciation, especially, of the pain and suffering Christ endured. There are some problems along the way in Thomas' attempt to bring clarity to such an important time of history. He apparently has some difficulty in accepting what the Bible says about things. He notes that "faith does not stand, or fall, on the details of history." Later he says that the "message of God's revelation, while indeed founded on fact, does not depend on each precise detail of fact." This seems to leave the door open for error to enter, especially when someone disagrees with what the Bible might say. Apparently Thomas stands outside the concept that the Bible is God's word because if God wrote the scriptures there would be no room for any mistakes, even in what Thomas may regard as less than precise detail of fact. It is agreed that the things God has told us may not be the exhaustive report. Nevertheless we have little reason to doubt that we have been told is true.
For example, when discussing the trial of Jesus, he says the Biblical accounts speak of this taking place during the night, at least the accounts by Matthew and Mark. Thomas maintains this to be incorrect. Luke, says Thomas, speaks of no proceedings during the hours of darkness. Thomas calls this an "unimportant mistake." While the importance of this trial occurring at night or in the daytime may not, in the grand scheme of things, be all so great, such thinking could easily encourage a person to consider other Biblical passages as being wrong too. Why these accounts don't seem to agree may not so much be mistakes but differing perspectives.
One disturbing section occurred when Thomas discussed the event when Jesus was visiting in the home of Mary & Martha. This is where Mary received a scolding from Martha for not helping. Thomas paints this event as being one in which Mary's attention to Jesus was on the verge of being a sexual thing. Thomas hints that Jesus was unaware of Mary's heart and, in fact, enjoyed the attention. Thomas contends that Martha's concern was not so much that she needed help with things in the house but that Mary refrain from what she was doing. This seems to be reading something into the text that is highly questionable and it might make a person wonder about the ability of Jesus to know a person's thoughts and motivations.
There are at least two serious problems with the book. Thomas speaks of Peter as being the rock upon which the church would be built. This is, at best, a potential misunderstanding of this crucial passage in Matthew 16:18. The "rock" upon which the Church was to be built was not Peter but upon the truth Peter had expressed, that Christ was the Savior. The way this particular verse has been handled has been a major issue dividing the Roman Catholic Church from others who embrace Christianity. Thomas implies that there is no doubt about this verse. Thomas makes this same reference to Peter several additional times.
Thomas, in my opinion, ended the book to soon. He ended it at the cross, but the cross is not the end of the message. There is no reference given to the resurrection. Without the resurrection, the cross is meaningless. Without the resurrection, the figure on the cross was only a man who died. The resurrection is the important part and it is difficult to understand why Thomas stopped before the end of the story. To stop before the end is to present an incomplete account.
However, even given these shortcomings, the book is a good read and can be helpful in understanding the days & times of Jesus.
Dan Schobert Plover, Wi 54467
Disappointing.......2000-04-01
This narrative reads too much like devotional literature. It does not present a historical study of the life of Christ as is purported by the book's jacket. Admittedly, there were portions that contained some interesting historical information, but nothing new to a long-time Bible student like myself. The comparison to Morrison's "Who Moved The Stone" is not a fair representation of this book. In addition, the title of the book is very misleading. Overall, if you are looking for a nice devotional read, this book will suit your needs, but if you are looking for a historical study of the life and times of Jesus Christ, you will find that this book will fail to meet your expectations. I was greatly disappointed!
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