Looking closely at the list of Georgetown neighbors, one can easily recognize familiar names: Kennedy, Frankfurter, Bradlee, Acheson, Graham, Alsop(2), and Dulles. The other named residents don't necessarily stand out, but they, nonetheless, were part of the group.
Author/ historian Gregg weaves these names together throughout the book as he astutely examines the period through letters, memoirs, official documents, and news reports of their activities as America stumbled forward as the leader of the new post war world order. It becomes clear in a short time, that the influence of the Alsop brothers and their thrice weekly newspaper columns on America was profound. These brothers, similar but quite different, told stories and expressed opinions that reverberated down the halls of federal institutions that established policy for the entire nation. To say their position(s) were conservative is understatement.
The author begins with the development of Joe Alsop as a writer /correspondent who had served in WW II. He was a WASP, well connected through family ties, and of course, by virtue of his Harvard education that placed him among the most privileged WASP's. After graduation, he went to work for the Herald Tribune at the behest of his mother, Corinne Robinson, the daughter of grandmother, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, Teddy Roosevelt's sister.
Joe's wartime experiences were different: while a Navy officer, he was interned by the Japanese at the outbreak of hostilities, repatriated to the US in a 1942 prisoner exchange, and then he promptly returned to China to serve with Gen. Claire Chennault and his group of Allied airmen operating with Gen. Chiang Kai Shek and the Nationalists.
Historian Herken proceeds along a familiar timeline: postwar relations with Stalin's Russia, the Korean War, the atomic bomb, the space race, elections of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. We become witnesses to late 20th century American history as baby boomers come into their own and the old generation passes on.
His writing of this story that focuses on diplomatic history is fascinating in every respect, and sheds light on how America became what she is today.
5 *****'s
No comments:
Post a Comment