Clark Clifford: The Wise Man of Washington [Hardcover]

John Acacia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 25, 2009

One of the most renowned Washington insiders of the twentieth century, Clark Clifford (1906--1998) was a top advisor to four Democratic presidents. As a powerful corporate attorney, he advised Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Jimmy Carter. As special counsel to Truman, Clifford helped to articulate the Truman Doctrine, grant recognition to Israel, create the Marshall Plan, and build the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). After winning the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination, Kennedy asked Clifford to analyze the problems he would face in taking over the executive branch and later appointed him chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Johnson named Clifford secretary of defense in 1968, but their warm relationship was strained when Clifford concluded that there was no plan for victory in the Vietnam War and that the United States was in a "bottomless pit." Even Carter, who kept his distance from Washington insiders, turned to Clifford for help. In Clark Clifford: The Wise Man of Washington, John Acacia chronicles Clifford's rise from midwestern lawyer to Washington power broker and presidential confidant. He covers the breadth and span of Clifford's involvement in numerous pivotal moments of American history, providing a window to the inner workings of the executive office. Drawing from a wealth of sources, the author reveals Clifford's role as one of the most trusted advisors in American history and as a primary architect of cold war foreign policy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although not a household name, Clark Clifford (1906–1998) advised Democratic presidents from Truman to Johnson. Acacia, American history professor at William Paterson University, has absorbed a mass of material and delivers an insightful if not always flattering biography. Fiercely ambitious, Clifford was a successful St. Louis lawyer when fellow Missourian Harry Truman became president in 1945. A senior colleague invited Clifford to Washington, where within a year his organizational skills won him promotion to Truman's special counsel. Happy to take credit for Truman's spectacular 1948 election upset, Clifford kept his reputation as a political genius for the next 20 years, although his opposition to sending troops to Vietnam put him in LBJ's doghouse until 1968, when—thanks to the possibility of peace talks and his own deft maneuvering—he replaced Robert McNamara as secretary of defense. This astute political biography concentrates on Washington infighting, position papers, memos, debates and quarrels on subjects ranging from trivial to world-shaking. Clifford comes across as a clear-eyed political strategist with genuinely noble ideals, but who looked after his own interests, often claiming others' ideas as his own and parlay[ing] his government service into a lucrative private legal career. (Oct.)
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Review

""An impressive book of large importance that will be welcomed by historians and political scientists who recognize the great significance of the American presidency." --Richard S. Kirkendall, Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor Emeritus at the Unive" --

""A deftly written account of the rapid rise of a young St. Louis attorney from a temporary wartime appointment in Truman's White House to a position of wealth and power without exception in the nation's capital.... Superbly researched, objectively presented, Clark Clifford is an exciting account of an extraordinary life." --George M. Elsey, former aide to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, president emeritus of the American Red Cross, and author of An Unplanned Life, Roosevelt and China, and The President and U.S. Aid to China, 1944" --

""For a long time we have needed a biography of Clark Clifford.... Acacia has filled that need with a book that is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the politics of foreign policy." --Lloyd C. Gardner, professor emeritus of history at Rutgers University and coeditor of Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam: or, How Not to Learn from the Past" --

""Acacia offers us a valuable view of presidential politics, decisions, and policies through the eyes of their trusted counselor Clark Clifford. The chapters on Vietnam decision-making and the role of the Wise Men are especially illuminating, providing new documentation on Clifford's role in influencing Lyndon B. Johnson's turnaround on the war." --Larry Berman, professor of political science at UC Davis, author of No Peace, No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger, and Betrayal in Vietnam and Perfect Spy: The Incredible Double Life of Pham Xuan An" --

""Acacia has pried open the mind and motives of Washington's premier insider." --Warren F. Kimball, Robert Treat Emeritus Professor of History at Rutgers University, author of The Juggler: Franklin Roosevelt as Wartime Statesman, and editor of Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence" --

""This astute political biography concentrates on Washington infighting, position papers, memos, debates and quarrels on subjects ranging from trivial to world-shaking." --Publishers Weekly" --

"This astute political biography concentrates on Washington infighting, position papers, memos, debates and quarrels on subjects ranging from trivial to world-shaking. Clifford comes across as a clear-eyed political strategist with genuinely noble ideals, but who looked after his own interests, often claiming others' ideas as his own and "parlay[ing] his government service into a lucrative private legal career." --Publisher's Weekly" --

""A biography of the Washington lawyer and power broker (1906-98) who was a top advisor to Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter." --The Chronicle Review" --

""[Acacia asserts that Clifford] was the "prototype" for the influential lawyers and political aides now populating Washington." --U.S. News Weekly" --

""Acacia masterfully explores Clifford's ability to persuade the powerful. The descriptions of White House tussles between advisers competing for the president's ear...are riveting...Acacia's book shows just how much power advisers can wield." --Washington Post" --

""The Book is balanced and well documented throughout. Most importantly, Acacia leaves no doubt as to why Clifford became such a key advisor to Democratic presidents for better than two generations." --Diplomacy & Statecraft" --

""John Acacia... produces a fascinating story of personality and power." -- Historian" --

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 456 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky; 1 edition (August 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813125510
• ISBN-13: 978-0813125510
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,125,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Essential Companion to Clifford's Memoirs, February 4, 2011

By 

Dude the Obscure - See all my reviews

This review is from: Clark Clifford: The Wise Man of Washington (Hardcover)

The story of Clark Clifford is, from some perspectives, a great American story. Humble beginnings, hard work, and especially, making the most of one's opportunities, it is the kind of story we were told by our parents, and which perhaps we tell our children in an effort to inculcate those values which we believe will lead to professional success. Clifford was a 30-something St. Louis lawyer working to build his practice and make partner, when he joined the Navy to serve in World War II. After Truman became president, a friend and client of Clifford's who happened to be Truman's Naval Aide, requested that Clifford come and serve for about a month in the Naval Aide's office in the White House, while Truman was away at the Potsdam Conference. But Clifford made such an impression on the White House staff that he ended up staying in the Truman White House for five years as a top advisor, and subsequently became a renowned (and wealthy) Washington lawyer, an outside advisor to Kennedy, Johnson and Carter, and Johnson's Secretary of Defense in 1968/69 after Robert MacNamara departed. In these capacities, he was a witness to and participant in the development of policies, political strategies, crisis management and the colorful host of characters of those years.

In 1991, Clifford, with the assistance of Richard Holbrooke (the recently deceased diplomat), published his memoirs: Counsel to the President. This is very engaging reading, and highly recommended. However, the personal memoirs of any political person must be read with a degree of skepticism, as the capacity for slant and self-justification in such authors is quite high. John Acacia does a fine job in this biography of delivering a more balanced and realistic portrait of Clifford. In addition, Acacia's biography has the advantage of covering the last decade of Clifford's life, which includes Clifford's unfortunate entanglement in the BCCI scandal.

Acacia provides sources, many from the papers held by the Truman Presidential Library, which give different views of Clifford's role in certain events than Clifford himself gave in his memoirs. It is significant that one of Acacia's lead sources in this regard is George M. Elsey, who served as Clifford's assistant during the Truman years and during his tenure as Secretary of Defense. Elsey's own endorsement of the book on the back cover also speaks to the book's fairness and value. Clifford had a tendency in the early years to take credit for the work of others, and Acacia shows how Clifford exaggerated his own role in the first strategic review of U.S.-Soviet relations, and in the development of campaign strategy for the pundit-embarrassing election of 1948. It was the latter especially that contributed immensely to Clifford's reputation in Washington, yet he was not the true "Wise Man" behind it.

Nevertheless, this is not a Clifford-bashing book. Acacia finds Clifford's role in the Vietnam debate to be courageous and admirable. He draws us a complex picture of Clifford -- someone who certainly looked out for his own interests and grew rich from his connections, but who also had an enduring respect for the office of the President and did not hold back from giving his best advice, even to a mercurial and volatile Johnson. Indeed, there is fairly close agreement between Clifford's memoirs and Acacia's assessment of the '65-'69 period.

I give this book a strong recommendation as a companion to Clifford's memoirs. The book does have a few shortcomings. It is for the most part an academic biography, which is not a criticism in any way, but it is less engaging, certainly, than Clifford's own memoirs. (With the exception of the Vietnam-era chapters; in both books the story of this time is riveting, an outgrowth of the fact that the reader knows how it turned out in the end, and keeps hoping that the players will make the right decisions, but alas, they do not.) I found the section on the BCCI scandal to be difficult to follow and would have preferred a bit more elaboration. Occasionally, Acacia's evaluations of Clifford rely a bit too much on questionable psychological hypotheses, but he is nowhere dogmatic about such opinions, and is generally well researched and balanced. He has made a most valuable contribution to our understanding of this prominent American.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wisdom of the Wise, January 26, 2010

By 

Billy J. Mondy "Socrates Mondy" (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Clark Clifford: The Wise Man of Washington (Hardcover)

How we should long for the days when a President of the United States could "phone a friend" and receive "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth". Clark Clifford was such a man. Beginning with his close friendship with Harry Truman and extending into the 1980's he seemed to offer practical advice for the powerful. Throughout my reading, I seriously wondered what a "President Clifford" might have been like. It appears that we would've avoided such a major commitmemen in Vietnam and the Democratic Party would've been spared many of its 20th century divisions.

Anyone interested in "How Washington Really Works" should read this & recommend it to friends.