AS IT WAS: An Inside View of Politics and Power in the '50s and '60s

by Henry Cabot Lodge ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 15, 1976

An addendum to Lodge's fuller reminiscence of his 40 years in public service The Storm Has Many Eyes (1973), this focuses on the Eisenhower period when Lodge, as US Representative to the UN, guided the President through the diplomatic shoals of Suez, Lebanon, Hungary, the McCarthy attacks, NATO schisms, and the late-colonial problems of Britain and France. The book, a hodgepodge of letters and memoranda to the White House, is difficult to read since Lodge mixes up the trivial with the consequential, rarely amplifying the cold war jousting. Two themes do stand out: Lodge's ongoing push for a ""UN multilateral"" third world development program (at that time meeting stiff resistance in Congress) and his effort to steer the Administration toward firmer anticolonial stands. A 1956 letter to the President notes prophetically ""that the young people think that we are supporting outgoing regimes--the Colonel Blimps."" At the time, Lodge was hoping for settlement of France's Indochina dilemma under UN aegis. The subject is unfortunately dropped, to reappear briefly in the account of the abortive 1965 ""Marigold"" talks in which Lodge participated. For foreign affairs analysts, a cluster of footnotes.

Pub Date: Nov. 15, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION