Customer Reviews

The Man Who Tried to Save the World: The Dangerous Life & Mysterious Disappearance of Fred Cuny

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first heard Fred Cuny being interviewed on NPR in 1995 about the Chechen war. I was surprised how vivid an impression he made on me based on a short radio interview, his charisma and intelligence came right through. I was very pleased to see Mr. Anderson's book on Cuny's life and tragic disappearance. The book is extremely well researched and written. It paints a picture of man who in a time of manufactured heroes was an authentic, larger than life personality who cared deeply for others and helped save thousands of lives. Mr. Anderson does a fine job of showing us a very complex man who suffered from contradictions, self-doubt and emotional need and who lived his life on an ambitiously epic scale. Besides being an excellent biography, the book also does a fine job of outlining some of the complex forces driving and sustaining the Chechen conflict. Reading the book, you can feel the confusion and frustration experienced by both Fred Cuny and the author as they dig deeper into a brutal, often thoughtless war that Westerners may simply not be equipped to understand. The story of Mr. Anderson's journey to Chechnya to research Cuny's case reads like an espionage thriller. An interesting facet of the book for me were passages near the end when Mr. Anderson would repeat and revise scenarios he had constructed in previous chapters concerning the events surrounding Cuny's last mission. You can almost feel his anger and utter frustration as he attempts to navigate and make sense of the circular and conflicting knot of theories, lies, half-truths, misinformation, omissions, and myths surrounding the events of Cuny's final days. This is a book that succeeds on multiple levels. Highly recommended.

When I arrived in Bosnia in December of 1993, I was stunned to find a lumbering Texan wearing an Aggie sweatshirt in the middle of the wartorn hell that was Sarajevo. Fred and I soon discovered we were both from the same university - Texas A&M. More coincidentally, we both served in the same outfit in the Corps of Cadets - Animal-A; he in 1968, and I in 1984. Fred was the most selfless and heroic man I have known. His personal efforts at INTERTEC to restore drinking water to the city of Sarajevo in itself speaks volumes about this big hearted man. The water purification plant was an engineering marvel -- flown into Sarajevo aboard U.S. Air Force C130 aircraft and installed in record time under cover of the tunnel overlooking the Miljaska River in Stari Grad (Old City), Sarajevo. Fred endured sniper bullets and freezing weather to oversee the monumental effort. More importantly, he dove headlong into many other ambitious projects to release the Serb stranglehold on the largely innocents of Sarajevo. Fred was being considered for a high level post in the Department of State when he tragically went missing in Chechnya. I was stunned to come across this book, and am glad there is a written legacy of this larger than life Texan. Fred's son Craig may be justifiably proud of his brave and optimistic father. Next to the Memorial Student Center at Texas A&M University is a passage from John (15-13) - "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Among all those whose lives Fred touched, there are many friends. Personally, I treasure the photographs of Fred and the insightful memories he left with me. For those who have sought to understand the world's madness and instability, what the military calls Stability and Support Operations, Scott Anderson has hit a home run. An absolutely first class book.

Even though I'd heard of Fred Cuny from a PBS Frontline show about him, I wouldn't have been likely to pick up this biography and account of his dissapearance except that friend had strongly reccomended it. He was a man with a huge compassion toward people in need, and had a comparably huge ego. Anderson makes it clear that Cuny had large dreams, and sometimes altered details about his background and accomplishments to maintain his own mythology. A revolutionary in the field of disaster relief, he was one of the first to recognize the challenges in designing and implementing relief strategies in the post-Cold War era of regional conflicts that would devestate civil societes around the globe. When he dissapeared in Chechnya in 1995 with three colleagues, it eventually triggered a manhunt that escalated to the presidential level between the US and Russia. It's this mystery that drives the book.

Anderson's account begins in standard journalistic fashion, with a "teaser" opening chapter relating the basics of Cuny's mysterious dissapearance. He then goes back to construct a biography of this remarkable man and the disaster relief wolrd he shouldered his way into. There are some interesting episodes along the way, such as Cuny's precience about what would unfold in Somalia, his dominant role in Operation Provide Comfort in Iraq, and his ingenuity in Bosnia--but eveything builds toward Chechnya. Here, Anderson is particularly strong at capturing the horrifying randomness of the war between the Russian army and Chechen sepratists. The vital point about this war, which is made perfectly clear, is that there are a plethora of groups with subtle alliances and unfathomable agendas. There are units of Russian army conscripts (who would rather be anywhere else), elite professional soldier units (who are frightenly autonomous), commando units, Russian intelligence agents (remarkably inept), relief workers, Chechen guerillas, Chechen mafia, regular bandits, politicans in neighboring provinces, refugees, and in the midst of this malestorm of interests strode Fred Cuny.

In detailing this confusion of interests, and the multitude of rumor and disinformation concerning Cuny's dissapearance, Anderson does tend to repeat himself. This gets kind of old, and one wishes for a bit more rigerous editing throughout. His technique of building up various theories only to be able knock them down later also gets somewhat tiresome, but is understandable. In the end, Anderson travels to Chechnya and endangers his life to try and track down the truth and must be commended for that. Unfortunately, as one might expect, many of the people who might have known something of the truth about the matter are killed along way. Anderson's hypothesis that Cuny was dissapeared on the order of Chechan President Dudayev is reasonably convinving, but ultimately ephemeral and unprovable. While Dudayev is obviously unapproachable on matter, one wishes Anderson had spent some time trying to track down Cuny's driver, a man who melted away.

This book documents the amazing saga of Fred Cuny, a person who had no reason to believe he would amount to much, but who through sheer willpower, energy and commitment became one of the most powerful forces for effective responses to disaster in this century.

First: full disclosure -- I knew Fred from work we did together in the Sudan, though I did not know him well and certainly knew nothing of the curious path his life had taken up until that point. I had admired his encyclopedic knowledge and his hard, headed and practical approach to the refugee crisis we faced. Next I heard, Fred had disappeared in Chechnya and could not receive the MacArthur "Genius" award he had been granted because he was missing.

This is a fabulous book, true to Fred's monumental character and true to the passions and contradictions inherent in trying to save even a little piece of the world -- which Fred certainly did. The author combines hard, strong writing with great research and comes up with a moving story featuring a very human character at its center.

Roger Brown

This is a true mystery story about the disappearance of American relief worker (and spy?) Fred Cuny in the cloak-and-dagger environment of Chechnya during the Russian assault in 1995. The book is comparable in many ways to Into Thin Air, although the subject matters are completely unrelated. In both books, the authors themselves took enormous personal risks in getting their stories. Both are true tales of action and adventure incorporating a lot of interesting background information, which is skillfuly woven into the narrative withour slowing down the story. Both read like novels (although they're better written than the vast majority of novels). But Mr. Anderson's book, in the end, is more engrossing and more important. I picked it up on a Friday evening and finished in the early hours of the following Sunday morning; I just couldn't stop until I was done. The book has everything--exotic locales, well-described; bizarre and mysterious personalities; and the constant tension of danger and suspense. Most admirably, Mr. Anderson lays out all of the known facts about Fred Cuny's disappearance, and in the end offers his own conclusion(which is plausible but not airtight), but fully equips the reader to consider the alternative possibilities for him or herself. This is the kind of book that you will devour and then stuff into the Christmas stockings of your friends and family. P.S. In case Mr. Anderson reads this: Why did you attach so much weight in your analysis to the purported fact that the military commander of the Chechens was a "good friend" of Fred Cuny? This "fact" seems to be based on nothing but Cuny's own impression that they hit it off during his first trip in February. But in the environment you have so ably described, where nothing is as it seems and everyone seems to harbor a hidden agenda, Cuny's belief could have been wishful thinking. And if he was wrong, there is no real reason to foist the blame so high up the chain. Great book!

I read this book a couple of years ago, and just recently reread it. What a fascinating story. For those who are interested in humanitarian crises, and what it takes to make things happen; within the myriad non-governmental organizations and governments as well; this is the book for you.

Cuny's CV reads like a laundry list of the disasters (mostly manmade) of our time. Bosnia and Chechenya are the two most prescient issues in this book. Anyone who engages in these types of activities in the future would do well to read this book to see what kind of energy and fortitude it takes to get things accomplished.

Cuny's demise is a tragic story with an even sadder ending, but I will let the reader get there on his/her own...

A joy to read about such a remarkable person.

I selected this book because I'd read the author's previous work, wanted to know more about Chechnya, and was curious about a man who would try "to save the world." Anderson's telling of the tale of Fred Cuny is illuminating and thought-provoking. I wanted to share this story with others who also knew little about the world where Cuny lived and worked. The continuing unrest in Chechnya makes this book as timely as it was on the day it was published.

Scott Anderson leads the reader down the shadowy path taken by Fred Cuny and leaves one with the certainty that uncertainty like that faced by Cuny still prevails in many parts of the world. Recent events demonstate that even between the relatively safe borders of the USA, terror remains a daily concern. The people of Chechnya and other places where Fred Cuny worked to help others have known terror much longer.

Anderson's book is two great tales in one: a brief history of the Chechnyan conflict; and the amazing life of Fred Cuny.

Writing this review right after the conclusion of the recent Chechen-led, mass-hostage-taking in Moscow, I have come to fully appreciate the continued relevance of Scott Anderson's great piece of journalism. Chechnya was, in Fred Cuny's words, the "scariest place I've ever seen." [Read about this guy's incredible life and you'll understand the magnitude of that statement.]

The book is filled with many tales of the desperation, fighting power, guile and pluck of the Chechnyan people. In short, it's no surprise to me (and certainly not to Scott Anderson, I bet) that despite Vladimir Putin's assiduous efforts, the terror has made its way to Moscow.

If you think one life can't make a difference, then you don't know about Fred Cuny. What he did in Sarajevo during the Bosian conflict will blow your mind.

The book reads like a thunderclap. It starts quickly and picks up pace, holding the reader's fascination the entire time. Anderseon summarizes the humanitarian aid community and the situation in Russia well. (Full disclosure: this reviewer is an expatriate in Russia working with refugees.)

The errors in the book are therefore almost unforgiveable. It's simply incredible that someone who supposedly did so much research made such fundamental mistakes as:

1. Referring to the newly constructed Embassy--the one with all the bugs--as "miles" from the older Embassy where he was speaking with the Ambassador. The two buildings are separated by about three hundred meters, and are visible to each other.

2. Referring to a "two-million" dollar ransom for Cuny on one page, and eleven pages later referring to the individual who made it as the man who demanded "three million" dollars.

There are other errors as well, all of them inconsequential to the flow of the story and its overall conclusions. I must admit, however, that it left me wondering what other facts did he get wrong that I did not know about.

A final quibble is that Anderson presents Cuny's positive achievements as simple facts. There is no doubt that Cuny achieved much during his life, and he did a lot of good, but he and his approach to humanitarian aid were (and still are) much more controversial than the author indicates. The people Anderson blithely dismisses as angry at Cuny's accusations of ineptitude should have been given a greater say on how -they- felt about -him-. This is minor, however, and simply means the reader should be aware that the author has a bias, which is neither surprising nor unexpected.

Having recently completed Anderson's marvellous novel "Triage" I was expecting big things of this book. The best indication that I can give of its success is that I feel that I have in some small way emerged from this account of a complex man a great deal more enlightened about both Cuny as a real person and the largely neglected world that he inhabited - and attempted to "save".

Andreson has a real ability to write in a manner that is at once highly informative and yet clear and approachable. In the book's acknowledgement he writes of his occasional despair as he attempted to shape his wide ranging material. It hardly shows in the finished product. What repetition there is seemes to me entirely appropriate in light of the endlessly shifting alliances through which both he and others searching for Cuny in Chechnya are forced to navigate.

In spite of his failings (real and speculative) Cuny seems to have been a truly great man, often achieving extraordinary things in the aid of those most desperately in need. His grim end is a most apalling conclusion to a noteworthy career - though given his personality, perhaps a not entirely unexpected one. It's a measure of the author's achievement that we can share in this sense of loss and urgency that the century into which we are entering is more dangerously unpredictable than ever. We need many more men like Fred Cuny - particularly in high office.

And we need more authors like Scott Anderson who are not afraid to write truthfully of what they see on the ground, unfettered by ideology or hidden agendas. I found it refreshing that he didn't hide behind a veneer of "objectivity", selectively using others to voice opinions that are secretely his. Throughout this compelling narrative I felt that I was in the company of a real person, and while I was at all times aware of his "take" on events I never felt preached to and even felt free to argue with his conclusions on the odd occasion. I also felt, by the way, that there are some real similarities between Anderson and "Mark", the central character in "Triage", far beyond the simple fact they they shared the same job.

If you have any interest at all in the world of relief agencies or in how individuals really can perform true good in our grey and complex world, this is a book to consider. It's well written, canny, human and compassionate without being preachy. Compelling reading.