NO FINAL VICTORIES: A Life in Politics -- from John F. Kennedy to Watergate

by Lawrence F. O'Brian ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 4, 1974

O'Brian's first introduction to working politics came from his immigrant father in Massachusetts. But he was to learn what politics could do for the Irish from James Michael Curley; the excitement, promise and glamour of it from the Kennedys (and the tragedy, as he was to witness in Dallas and again at Los Angeles); its possibilities from Johnson with whom he stayed on as congressional liaison despite strong disapproval from the Camelot set (Vietnam, O'Brian observes, has unfairly obscured the accomplishments of the Johnson administration); its disappointments and frustrations from the Humphrey and McGovern campaigns which he ran; its dangers and abuses from the Nixon presidency (as a prime target of the Watergate break-in and White House induced IRS harassment) -- and from his experience as National Chairman he realized the difficulty of making his Democratic Party truly democratic. Memoirs of public life by a controversial, middle-of-the-road politician, occasionally self-serving and back-biting, but readable and worthwhile for its strong point of view -- a book by a man who's political involvement has been as motivated by memories of those ""Irish (read also blacks, women, etc.) need not apply"" employment signs as by careerism.

Pub Date: Oct. 4, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION