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Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Working largely from congressional testimony and private depositions, Draper ( Abuse of Power ) reconstructs the Iran-Contra affair, showing how a handful of little-known officials, in defiance of the law and without the knowledge of any other branch of government, took control of U.S. foreign policy. The study adds thinly to what we already know about President Reagan's (and then-vice-president Bush's) knowledge of and involvement in the arms-for-hostages deal and the diversion of funds, but Draper's scholarly efforts deepen our understanding of other major elements of the affair: for example, the exclusion of secretaries of State and Defense Schultz and Weinberger after January 1986, the role of CIA director William Casey, and the administration's attempt to shift blame for its Iran policy to the Israelis. This is the fullest and most authoritative account to date of the usurpation of power by a small, strategically placed group of insiders--lieutenant colonel North, admiral Poindexter et al.--and is also an instructive exploration of the line that separates the legitimate from the illegitimate exercise of power. Photos. BOMC alternate. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A step-by-step explanation of the labyrinthine scandal that briefly unnerved the Reagan presidency, presented with all the crushing force of a prosecutor's 650-page brief. Sifting through a staggering amount of source material--50,000 pages worth of Congressional testimony and trial documents--veteran journalist/historian Draper (A Present of Things Past, 1989, etc.) meticulously follows the serpentine twists of the two separate covert activities conducted, and later fatally linked, by National Security Council staffer Oliver North. For all its self-delusions about creating an opening to Iranian moderates, he shows, the Reagan Administration was engaged in an arms-for-hostages deal characterized by ""obstinate gullibility and ineptitude,"" including blind dependence on an Iranian go-between who failed 13 of 15 questions on a polygraph test. Draper also spotlights other key issues in the scandal, including the attempt to make Israel the scapegoat for the Iran fiasco; the abdication of responsibility by the hostage deal's two biggest Cabinet foes, George Shultz and Caspar Weinberger: the fear of impeachment that seized the administration; and the roles of CIA director William Casey (not the mastermind depicted by North) and Vice-President Bush. Above all, Draper argues persuasively, even if President Reagan was not aware of the diversion of funds from the Iranian arm sales to the contras, he bears responsibility for the affairs because of his obsession with freeing the hostages and keeping the Nicaraguan ""freedom fighters"" together ""body and soul."" A compelling warning about the Constitutional dangers posed by presidential overreaching in foreign policy--overwhelming at times, but with all the insistent urgency of a fire alarm in the night. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
After signing his book contract, Draper blinked at the brink: Should he go through with smelting down the 50,000 pages of documents mined by the four separate investigations into the Iran-Contra scandal? Persevere he did, and be the results ingots or dross, its mere 600 pages are guaranteed to thrill anybody still obsessed with the wacky world of Ollie North and his confederates. Cheer their valiant intention to free hostages! Gasp as they sell arms in the effort! Snigger as they rip off the Ayatollah! Groan as they skim the profits for the Nicaraguan Contras! Frown as they cover up malfeasance! Laugh as Fawn Hall stuffs her underwear with secret documents! Was the whole ludicrous affair a serious threat to the Constitution, as liberals claimed? Or was it all a criminalization of political differences, as High Tories insisted? To resolve this conflict, let Draper's facts be submitted to a candid world, whose capacious maw has yet to tire of masticating the subject. ~--Gilbert Taylor
Library Journal Review
Veteran writer Draper has reconstructed from the voluminous documentary records the Washington connection that linked the arms sales to Khomeini's Iran with the support of the anti-Sandinista forces in Nicaragua. With keen analytical insight, he seeks out ``a very thin line'' that ``separates'' the legitimate from the illegitimate exercise of power in our government'' and portrays these tangled events as ``symptomatic of a far deeper disorder in the American body politic,'' a disorder based on the assumption of ``a president almighty in foreign policy.'' While Stephen Kinzer's Blood of Brothers ( LJ 3/15/91) and Joseph P. Persico's The Lives and Secrets of William J. Casey: from the OSS to the CIA ( LJ 10/1/90) cover specific aspects of these events, Draper's work will stand as the definitive source on the constitutional consequences of the Iran-Contra affairs for decades to come. Highly recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/91.-- James Rhodes, Luther Coll., Decorah, Ia. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
