Customer Reviews

The Halliburton Agenda: The Politics of Oil and Money

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Regardless of your political persuasion, I recommend The Halliburton Agenda. Author Dan Briody follows Erle Halliburton's career from the oil fields as a driver in the early 1900's to the boardrooms where in the 1920's Halliburton was already a millionaire. During the same era brothers, Herman and George, founders of Brown & Root, the predecessor of the modern day Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR) that is now a subsidiary of Halliburton, began as road builders and garbage haulers in Texas and graduated to dam builders and became a major government contractor as they learned to work the political system.

The ties between the Brown brothers and politicians, most notably Lyndon Johnson, are revealed in some detail. It is a fascinating view. The ups and downs of KBR are followed through the decades as the construction firm lands contract after contract.

Early on, author Briody makes a strong effort to keep his opinions - if not his perspective - off the pages. Unfortunately later in the book, he does not stick to the facts, but occasionally opines. An example of this editorializing is found on page 211 when discussing Dick Cheney Briody states "Either way, he's not the man I want bending the president's ear on a daily basis." I would have preferred coming to that conclusion on my own.

Overall, the book has a good deal of balance with Briody giving space to others praising Halliburton's while raising questions about the LOGCAP (Logistics Civil Augmentation Program) design and bidding process.

I like timelines, charts and pictures. Unfortunately, this book has none. A timeline of the successes and failures with a listing of the contracts would be a nice addition to the book. Also, photographs of the major players and construction projects would add flavor.

Political cronyism has been part and parcel of western democracy since the hay days of the Roman Empire. It is extremely naïve to believe otherwise, "jobs for the boys"; political portfolios for the "mates", and lucrative contracts for family members are an unfortunate aspect of the system, which has not changed, and will not change, in the foreseeable future. Moreover, another unfortunate reality is that war is good business. One only has to look back at the Civil War, those "damn Yankee carpet baggers", filtering down from the north at the end of the war and exploiting the defeated Southerners, in the name of "reparations". Many made a fortune from the defeated south, just as a few companies are currently making millions from the spoils of the Iraqi war. What Briody calls in this book, the "iron triangle", the collusion of government, military and corporations, he targets the Halliburton Corporation and its subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown & Root, describing a long history of political back scratching, war profiteering, illegal campaign contributions, and a long and lucrative relationship with key political figures, such as Lyndon B. Johnson and currently, Vice President Cheney, which is making a few individuals extremely rich, unjustly, from the hard earned tax dollars of the American people.

Most of the book is devoted to illustrating the business history of Halliburton and Brown & Root, providing a long and entrenched business practice of political back scratching through illegal campaign contributions, in this case, the long and successful relationship between Lyndon B. Johnson and the Brown brothers through the 40's 50's, 60's, turning Brown & Root into one of the most successful construction companies in American history. The evidence of this collusion between the company and Johnson is without question. But the current relationship between Halliburton and Vice President Cheney, once CEO of this lucrative corporation, to my mind, is even more ethically devastating, as their relationship continues today, while the company has sole contractual rights with the government, supporting the military and "rebuilding" the war torn country of Iraq.

Why has Halliburton been given these lucrative contracts while other companies are pushed out of the bidding process? One can say that they have a proven track record of getting the job done, but there is also evidence of over charging (gas supplies to Iraq) that is currently under investigation. It is also well know that Halliburton has done business with known terrorist countries such as Libya, and manage to wriggle out of the legal spotlight. One would have to be a blind man not to see the connection between the Bush administration and these companies, no matter how many times Cheney denies the relationship exists in present time. As an ex CEO, he continues to be on their payroll and is in possession of numerous stock options. These facts should certainly raise a few red flags.

This book illustrates the political and corporate machinations that go on behind the scenes, and that "jobs for the boys" is an unfortunate reality of our system, and war, regrettably, is a profitable business option.

Recommended.

Briody has done an excellent job of proving a full accounting of Halliburton and it's subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, to uncover the dark side of capitalism and democracy -- where there is no competition and all the benefits of democracy accrue to one company. That the public, politicians, and even the Pentagon haven't seen the dangers here is baffling. Hopefully this book will help open more eyes.

Who could believe the clandestine relationships betweeen big business, politics and the armed forces could exists to this degree outside of a Tom Clancy novel, but Briody reveals through careful research that indeed it does. This book was a real eye opener!

I actually enjoyed his book about Carlyle and it's the reason I bought this book. But there should have been another 300 pages. It did a pretty good job of describing the origins of Halliburton and Brown and Root and described the relationship both Brown and Root and later the combined company had with Lyndon Johnson. But it's other political relationships of the time were not fleshed out, and only briefly mentioned. Basically anything about the companies histories after the late 1950s was brief and I felt shortchanged once I got to this part of the book. (3/4 of the way into it) The change of name to Kellog, Brown and Root was not mentioned, nor were contracts such as Guantanomo or the base on Diego Garcia which sounds to me like it could have warranted quite some ink. Also Kellog, Brown and Root's bankruptcy was glossed over leaving me wondering what the story is on this. The asbestos issue was only briefly mentioned, and Cheney's attempts to reduce these losses by changing the laws wasn't mentioned at all. Information about the companies contracts in Iraq is almost non-existant and the reputed contracts the Company did with countries in Cheney's era under US sanctions (ie Iran) by diverting the contracts via it's overseas subsidiaries gets not even a fraction of a page.

Basically if you after information on these companies after 1962 you're better off researching it on the internet.

Did I get the wrong book from Amazon.com? The book is advertised to be a book about Cheney and Halliburton - it is about Halliburton but not Cheney. For example, pictures of Cheney appear on both the front and back covers of the book jacket. But that is very misleading. The book is not about Cheney per se; there are in fact only a dozen or so pages dealing with Cheney near the end of the book and he plays only a minor role; he finally appears on page 191 of the 237 added seemingly as an afterthought. Surprisingly, the dominant politician in the book is the former president and Texas native Lyndon Baines Johnson or LBJ. By my estimate and it is confirmed by looking at the index, LBJ takes up three times as much space in the book as Cheney, and furthermore he plays a much more important role in setting any "agenda" at Brown & Root - a subsidiary of Halliburton. Even though the book even if falsely promoted it is still an interesting read about two old US companies and their eventual merger; but at just 237 pages long in medium font is not a 5 star effort, just 3.5 stars, maybe only 3 stars at best.

The first company described is the oil well services company Halliburton started in approximately 1920 by Erle Halliburton in Oklahoma. Erle Halliburton died in 1957 leaving a successful and financially strong and independent business enterprise as his legacy. The second company is Brown & Root (B & R) that developed from being a Texas road construction company that was started around 1917 to become a major defense contractor. The business grew through political connections and after many decades B & R had become the largest engineering and construction company in the USA, boosted by the Vietnam war effort, and fed by a series of domestic and foreign construction and defense contracts stretching around the globe.

The book tells (very briefly) how these companies developed, merged in 1962 with R & B being bought by Halliburton, and how they became a major defense contractor. It also contains many side stories such as the influence of the rising political star LBJ in Texas, dam construction, back room operators such as A.J.Wirtz, political intrigue, the milking of Roosevelt's New Deal money, navy boat building, the fall of Leland Olds who was a bureaucrat blocking their expansion, the Johnson Space Center contract, Vietnam contracts, the LOGCAP contract, the Dresser merger, Henry Waxman's congressional charges against Halliburton and the sole sourcing, etc. Cheney appears near the end of the book and I did learn that Cheney flunked out of Yale and was arrested twice for DWI in his youth. There are a number of insights and comments on the current contracts to Halliburton. But since Halliburton had the LOGCAP contract before Cheney, it seems to me that Cheney played no more a dramatic role - I suspect - than any other good CEO or "rainmaker" might have played at Halliburton to boost its revenues.

As a book I would say it rates just 3 or 4 stars since as the author acknowledges that he uses and number of existing books such as "Erle P. Halliburton: Genius with Cement" and other publications, and most of the book is about the older history - as I said Cheney does not even appear until page 191 out of 237. So even when he appears the information is scant. Having said that it is clear the author has done extensive research, he has a nice reference section for further reading, he brings the story together, but overall it seems like a short collection of historical facts and tidbits. As it stands, it is more of a "gateway" book or introduction and it would have been a 5 star book if it was about 400-500 pages long and was more complete. But some of the references and 40 pages of notes at the back are worth a follow up read.

Author Dan Briody has written a book that goes beyond pundit finger-pointing over the controversial "no-bid" contracts relationship between Halliburton and Vice President Dick Cheney. This is a serious examination of the high-octane blend of profit and politics that fuels the Bush administration's agenda. Briody begins with an extensive history of two Texas companies, Halliburton and Brown & Root (now KBR). He deftly portrays how they made their fortunes despite Great Depression hardships, World War II and political intrigues aplenty. Briody pulls no punches while maintaining a reportorial (if not totally objective) tone, although people who hold different political views might argue with his opinions and conclusions. We recommend this saga to anyone looking for a deeper understanding of the ongoing tryst between corporate America and its politicians. While this book is not presented as a smoking gun, it portrays insider politics that smolder like an oil fire you can't quite extinguish, leaving sort of an ugly haze.

Dan Briody has done his research. He provides a thorough and thought-provoking account of Halliburton and its subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root. Briody takes us from Halliburton's earliest historical context to its current influence. If you want to be educated on the influence of business on politics, this is a must read.

This book makes it clear that Hailiburton would have had nothing to do with the outfit that bears his name. He was a different kind of guy.

Actually, there was nothing particularly shocking. The scandal of Halliburton's involvement in Iraq is pretty obvious, and the author adds no information about that. I would guess the more scandalous aspects will come out in the future. When it is clear that we went to war solely so that Halliburton could have the pipeline work, then I'll be mildly perturbed, but not surprised. There must after all have been some real reason.

If one is looking for dirt on Cheney, there really isn't much. He is completely overshadowed in this book by LBJ, Herman Brown, Alvin Wirtz and others, and actually, Robert Caro's books on LBJ are much more enthralling accounts of all that. Still, it's fun to read about these tough Texas mothers with their whiskey and bags full of hundred dollar bills. In fact, now that I think about it I highly recommend all of Caro's books about LBJ.

Coming back to this one, it kind of fizzles out. Halliburton and Brown & Root have interesting histories. People who naively suppose that modern day public officials are honest and that their words are related to their motives in any way may be alarmed, but I would guess that most people reading this book in the first place aren't expecting a tale gleaming with moral gems. And Cheney as a rogue is a humorless dud. The most surprising thing I learned about him was that he had his first heart attack at 37!