Just Finished Reading: Franklin and Winston – An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham (FP: 2003) [370pp]

It is more than arguable that the modern world would be a very different place indeed if either Franklin Roosevelt or Winston Churchill had either never existed or had failed to live long enough to gain great office. It is probably as arguable to contest that if their friendship had not been so close, or if it had not existed at all, that much of the post-1939 history we take for granted might not have happened. Looking back to those dangerous days from 1940-45 it is tempting to see the elevation of Churchill in Britain to the post of Prime Minister whilst Roosevelt sat in the Oval Office as something more than fortuitous. It was most certainly anything but ordained. Both incumbents followed a tortuous and often troubled path to those positions. Maybe this is one of the reasons that they became, in the most part, fast friends. But that was not always the case nor did the friendship go exactly smoothly during those dark days.

Roosevelt met Winston Churchill, then Minister of Munitions, towards the close of WW1 and took an instant dislike to him. Winston was, of course, known for his sometimes abrasive manner and his aura of superiority so any negative impression from short acquaintance is understandable. Reports of Churchill’s drinking habits (also notorious) worried Roosevelt when he was informed of his rise to PM but it quickly became apparent that the two men were on the ‘same page’ when it came to Britain’s stance with Germany. Despite confident assertions that Britain would fall shortly after France (assertions echoed by the US ambassador to the UK one Joseph P. Kennedy Sr, father of JFK) the British fought on. Desperate for American aid – not yet financial but military, political and psychological – and stymied by the US President’s hands being tied by the Neutrality Act(s) the early relations was strained with Churchill wooing and Roosevelt constantly having to resist his attentions. Only slowly, and sometimes behind the back of Congress, did aid start to flow. Fortunately, despite being too little, it did not end up being too late. With the attack on Pearl Harbor at the end of 1941 of course as well as the unnecessary misstep of Germany’s declaration of war on America the floodgates opened and Britain started to receive almost everything she wanted – at a cost. The US had become the ‘arsenal of democracy’.

Both men still had a long war ahead of them. Roosevelts was, as we know, shortened by illness and death but his growing incapacity failed to slow him appreciably as the two western leaders, later joined by the Soviet leader Stalin, planned the prosecution of the war as well as the future shape of the world post-victory. In many ways these were the golden years of their relationship – as Britain retained its place as a major player and as America slowly increased in power, experience and ability on the battlefield. Inevitably, with America’s economic might at its back it was only a matter of time before the US equalled and then surpassed Britain in almost every respect. Britain was, at least from the American viewpoint, looking backwards to her Empire whilst America was focused on the future – a world free from war, the fear of war and one bound together by free trade. Tensions grew between the great men especially when Churchill became increasingly side-lined in favour of Stalin who it now seemed would control a great and powerful ‘empire’ of his own.

Set against the backdrop of a global conflict this is a great ‘sideways’ look at the period focusing on the intimate relationship between THE western leaders of the age. Although I knew the rough outline of this story going in I was most impressed by the level of detail as well as the way the author managed to weave the lives of the two men together without losing any of the power of the overall narrative. Definitely a must read for anyone interested in either man (or both!) or for those interested in a very important aspect of the background to World War 2. Recommended.        

Hail to the Chief (1)

Although I have no intention to read biographies of every US President I will naturally, through other endeavours like the World Wars or the Cold War, come across them from time to time. I’m also interested in some of the characters that have filled that post over time – especially people like Kennedy & Nixon – who have become iconic for a number of reasons. So far, as with most things here seemingly, its early days but who knows where such reading will lead, right? The roll call so far is as follows – and as usual I’ll do an ‘update’ every 6 months to see how we’re doing….

Richard M Nixon (37) 20^th January 1969 – 9^th August 1974

All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

John F Kennedy (35) 20^th January 1961 – 22^nd November 1963

One Minute to Midnight – Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the brink of Nuclear War by Michael Dobbs

Just Finished Reading: The American Presidency – A Very Short Introduction by Charles O Jones (FP: 2007)

..and so to the third (and final) book in my US Politics book ‘blitz’. This was actually the longest (at 165 pages) and probably the driest, in places, of all three books. Starting with the invention of the position – which almost didn’t happen as some of the original drafters of the Constitution wanted a 12 man committee rather than a single man in charge. Plus the role was almost called ‘Governor’ rather than President… Then moving on to how the President found his feet and settled into his constitutional role. Then onto how Presidents are elected (and other ways they gain office!), how the role has changed over time and expanded as the role of government expanded. The final sections (the largely dry bit) looked in more detail of how the President functions within government and how he fits into the larger governmental landscape.

As I’ve still very much a novice in respect to the US political system (something that these 3 books was a hesitant attempt to begin to rectify) a portion of this book passed without much sound over my head. My knowledge of the intricacies of how US Government (or indeed my own Government) operates revolves mostly around pop culture references in TV shows and movies. I’d need to read a lot more than this to truly get my head around things – but little steps and all that. I have quite a few US culture and politics references coming up so I’ll have a greater appreciation of things in the next few years no doubt.

In larger news I thought the book blitz idea worked really well (at least in theory) so I’ll be doing that again. The next one is likely to be in August with a further one over Christmas. The August event – already in the pipeline with be on ‘Empire’ with 4 books planned over 9 days. Should be a good one. More VSI to come no doubt.

Just Finished Reading: All The President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward (FP: 1974)

It started like so many momentous things do – with a sloppy example of overreach, with an arrogant abuse of power and with a reporter sent to produce a nothing story to be tucked way back on page 10. But what that reporter found was a loose thread and, as we all do from time to time when presented with such an enticing thread he pulled on it. The more he pulled the more thread emerged. The identity of the burglars at the Watergate building was intriguing. The fact that their lawyer appeared out of nowhere to defend them and then there was the evidence found on the men themselves, sophisticated bugs, Cuban literature and a strange cheque. More threads to pull, more stories to follow up on, more names, more links – certainly too much for one reporter. So Bernstein was assigned with Woodward to ‘get to the bottom of things’ and report back. Now they were digging as well as pulling on threads and the more they dug and the more they pulled the more was revealed about the seemingly simple attempted break-in. Looked at from a distance the Watergate break-in was like a hill on a flat plain, but with perspective it began to look like a small hill that was part of a much wider range of hills with the faint impression of much larger mountains behind it overshadowing the whole range. The more names they collected and the more links between them pointed increasingly to a truly frightening prospect. The burglars it seemed where only part of a much wider and much deeper conspiracy to manipulate the democratic process in America, to win at all costs, to discredit opponents, to intimidate those who could not be discredited and to ‘do what it takes’ to cover the whole thing up. Some of the names were known in every American household. Most where unelected appointees but some, it seemed had been elected into office and it was just possible that at the very centre of things was the occupant of the highest elected office in the land. If that was true…….

Of course we all now know how it ended for Nixon and his corrupt administration. Oddly we are being reminded of those turbulent times by the echoes of the present corrupt administration. History, we are told does not repeat itself but sometimes it does rhyme. The tune from 1974 and 2018 is similar enough that people from both eras can hum along with relative ease. I found myself more than once gasping at the similarities between Watergate and whatever the hell people are going to call the Trump Presidency. The story reads like a true detective novel which, in a sense, it was as the co-authors of this classic tale of political overreach track down leads, figure out clues and publish their regular findings in the Washington Post. Luckily for them their paper took its duty as the Fourth Estate seriously and despite threats and an increasingly focused dirty tricks campaign continued to post stories about the widening conspiracy until other papers picked up other threads and began pulling on them too. Before long the trickle of bad news for the Nixon Presidency became an unstoppable flood. But, just like the movie starring Redford and Hoffman as the reporters in question, the story portrayed was only half finished. The Watergate hearings, the Nixon tapes and the President’s resignation in disgrace would be reported in other books. This one, however, shows how it all started, how the ground was laid for what came later and what can be done when the media is courageous enough to talk truth to power.

Not being wholly familiar with the details of the events – despite being a teenager at the time - some of this especially early on in the text went over my head a little. I was familiar with the outline (both from basic history reading and from the movie) but the detail, and the names of many of the people involved were new to me. Of course by the end of the book I could ‘see’ the major players in my mind’s eye and was familiar with their individual stories. The book made the whole cast of characters – both good and bad – human to me. It also, like all good works like this, made me want to know more so expect much more of this turbulent era to come. If you ever wanted the inside scoop on Watergate or wondered at the historical echoes to the present this is definitely a good place to start. Recommended (R6). 

Just Finished Reading: The Myth of the Strong Leader – Political Leadership in the Modern Age by Archie Brown (FP: 2014)

Especially in difficult times we need a strong leader. One who can ‘get the job done’, override the criticism of weaker minds, stare down opposition at home and abroad and make the difficult life (or sometime epoch) changes decisions other weaker leaders simply don’t have the stomach for…. Right? Not so, says the author of this often fascinating book.

Looking at leadership across the globe in the last hundred years or so the author dissects the actions of leaders from democracies, authoritarian states, totalitarian regimes and those somewhere in between. Concentrating on four broad-brush themes – Redefining leadership, Transformational leadership, Revolutionary leadership and Authoritarian leadership – he shows how supposedly strong leaders, those who gathered ever increasing power and prestige to themselves believing that they, and only they, could ‘save the day’ repeatedly did more harm than good (most especially in foreign adventures) and ending up as colossal and sometimes catastrophic failures. The list of those examined is both impressive and honestly staggering:

Franklin D Roosevelt
Lyndon B Johnson
Ronald Reagan
Margaret Thatcher
Alex Salmond
Konrad Adenauer
Willy Brandt
Helmut Kohl
Frenando Henrique Cardoso
FW de Klerk
Charles De Gaulle
Adolfo Suarez
Mikhail Gorbachev
Deng Xiaoping
Nelson Mandela
Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk)
Ho Chi Minh
Pol Pot
Kim Il Sung
Fidel Castro
Stalin
Mao Zedong
Mussolini
Hitler
Neville Chamberlin
Anthony Eden
Tony Blair

…and that’s not an exhaustive list – just an exhausting one! The range of the book is very impressive as is the depth of discussion when required. Being that way inclined I did tend to get most from the British and European examples (most especially the Suez Crisis of 1956 and de Gaulle’s France – both of which I’ll be reading more about) but his discussions of the Russian Revolution, the fall of the Soviet Union and the troubled political history of China all kept my attention and those pages turning. Despite only running to just over 360 pages this was a very well argued narrative full of detailed examples and historical lessons. I did more than once wish that the publication date had post-dated rather than pre-dated the Age of Trump to see what the author made of him but I guess that will be covered in future editions. For those interested in the idea of political leadership this is definitely a must read. If, like me, you have developed a passion for political history and political biography (my latest and growing addiction) you’ll love this book. Highly recommended and needed now more than ever.

Just Finished Reading: One Minute to Midnight – Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the brink of Nuclear War by Michael Dobbs

I do find it more than a little odd reading about an historical event I lived through. Not that I actually have any memory of the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was after all only 2 ½ years old in October 1962. What became very clear in this fascinating volume was how close I came to not seeing my 3rd birthday.


I think that most of my regulars know something about the events that almost led up to the world’s first nuclear exchange. Cuba, no friend to the USA, was offered nuclear weapons by the Soviet Union in retaliation for American nukes based on their border with Turkey. A U2 spy plane spotted them before they had become operational and before Khrushchev could announce it to the world. The US responded with a naval blockade, frantic diplomacy and threats of both bombing the sites and an invasion of the island. After several tense days the Soviet Union agreed to dismantle the weapons and sail them home to Mother Russia. The world breathed a sigh of relief; I saw my 3rd birthday and the American nukes came home from Turkey.


Most of the above I was aware of before opening the pages of this book. What I was unaware of was the detail behind those headlines and just how close we came to nuclear war. Not through the acts of desperate or evil men but through accident, misunderstand and fear. Looking back almost 50 years it is difficult to credit just how unconnected the world was back then. At the height of the tensions created by the discovery of nuclear weapons a few hundred miles from American territory it sometimes took days – yes, days – for messages to travel between the major players. When life and death decisions for millions of people could be made in seconds it took hours – yes, hours – for information to pass between President Kennedy, Premier Khrushchev and the troops on the front line. What was even more interesting, to say nothing of disturbing, was the way that decisions on all three sides where being made in either the absence of information or based on the wrong information. From the God’s eye view of an author privy to details of conversations taking place in the White House, the Kremlin and in Havana the reader is allowed to see exactly what all three sides could not see. This ramped up the tension already inherent in a very tense story. Then, if that wasn’t bad enough, the reader is shown a number of isolated incidents that could, if treated differently, have caused buttons to be pressed and missiles to fly. When a U2 spy plane is shot down over Cuba and another strays into Soviet airspace, when a nuclear armed Russian submarine is forced to the surface captained by a man at the end of his tether and when a simulated attack on Miami is flashed to NORAD and believed, for a few moments, to be the real thing. All of these things could have been the final straw.


This is undoubtedly a masterful work of historical writing. Not many history books can claim to be gripping. This was definitely one of them. The first 30 pages set the scene over the preceding weeks. The next five chapters (about 150 pages) covered the time from October 22nd to ‘Black Saturday’ October 27th. You can imagine the amount of detail the author goes into. The next 260 pages cover the weekend of 27-28th October hoping back and forth between events in Washington, Moscow, Cuba and the various military commands. Giving an almost minute by minute account of the events in such a way that the tension is almost overwhelming, this seemed like one of the best political thrillers I’ve ever read – and yet it was all real, which made it both more mesmerising and more appalling. If you know something about the Missile crisis you need to read this book to fill in the gaps to your knowledge. If this incident is new to you then you really need to read this book to see just how close we came to nuclear annihilation. It is a frightening and sobering read but one I enjoyed a great deal. Highly recommended.