A DANGEROUS PLACE

by Daniel Patrick with Suzanne Weaver Moynihan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 20, 1978

No, not Harvard--the world. An expert at making a career out of timely shifts in expertise, Republocrat Moynihan--New York's junior Senator--here chronicles his zigzag course from urban advisor to JFK through Nixon to the UN and beyond. The journey is marked by important stopovers. Disenchanted with the expectations engendered by Great-Society liberalism, Moynihan stayed on in Nixon's White House until the Cambodia invasion prompted him to resign, only to be offered the post of UN Ambassador, which he declined after the New York Times declared him unfit. After a stint back in academe, he became Ambassador to India, a job which afforded him the opportunity to reflect on America's place in the world, and it was then that he took up the cause of unflinching support for ""democracy""--a word, like ""totalitarian,"" which he leaves unspecified--and human rights (also unspecified) in the face of Third World challenges to U.S. hegemony. His aggressive battle plan was put forward in an attention-getting article, ""The U.S. in Opposition,"" and eventually resulted in his acceptance of the UN job in 1975. His brief tenure in that political graveyard was marked by an acerbic spirit of defiance and the discovery of the perfect issue on which to do battle: Israel. Moynihan admits that he knew little about Israel, except that it was a democracy--as he repeatedly called India before he served there--and under attack from the Third World bloc. He denies that he was running for the Senate already in the UN; it just sort of worked out that way. His heavy-handed tactics eventually led to a falling-out with Kissinger--to whom Moynihan attributes a ""Politburo style""--and his one-issue run at the Senate. Judging by this memoir, he is still running, and still on the same issue: the U.S., champion of freedom and capitalist efficiency, doesn't owe anything to anybody, especially the inefficient crypto-totalitarian nations of the Third World. Moynihan dishes up this individualistic Manicheanism with characteristic wit and equally characteristic immodesty.

Pub Date: Nov. 20, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atlantic/Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1978

Categories: NONFICTION