Customer Reviews

A Political Odyssey

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you watched the Democratic primary debates you probably saw two Mike Gravels.

One was the candidate who most directly spoke truth to power: he challenged Hillary on her preparedness to nuke Iran, challenged Obama for voting to fund the Iraq war, challenged the "mealy mouthed" Democratic Congressional leadership, condemned the `war on drugs,' condemned Bush for creating "a nation ruled by fear" and denounced America for allowing itself to become Number One in production of weapons, consumer spending, debt, people in prison, energy consumption, and environmental pollution.

The other Gravel came over as the crazy uncle who should have stayed locked in his attic.

This book helps us to understand why. Lauria manages to get Gravel to confess to all his human flaws: his vanity, his ambition, his opportunism, his naiveté. Would that all our politicians were so honest. But he also reminds us of his lonely fight to end the draft in Vietnam, his determination to stand up to Nixon over the Pentagon Papers and his vehement opposition to American militarism. For all his foibles, the man is a genuine hero.

The book is written with a light touch. It captures Gravel's voice and his no b-s attitude perfectly and it reads in places almost like a novel - who knew that Gravel was once a New York cabbie, a railroad brakeman in Alaska, much less an American spy in Europe? Yet Lauria also manages to interlace it with some heavy-duty historical research into the birth of the military-industrial complex and the way in which so many of our presidents have chosen to exploit fear and twist our Constitution in order to justify huge arms expenditures and bloody foreign adventures that have generated huge profits for the weapons merchants back home.

Gravel's solution to the way in which our democratic republic is periodically hijacked by what is in effect a fear-mongering elected monarch and a Congress in thrall to its corporate backers and their imperial ambitions, is government by national initiative - legislation initiated by The People and voted on in national referenda.

At first blush it is hard to see how such an idea could ever gain traction. And when one thinks of initiatives like California's Proposition 13 which decimated the best public education system in the country, it's hard not wonder if direct democracy might not be worse than the (un)representative version we have now. But it does make one think. America's revolutionary experiment was supposed to be a permanent revolution... ever more perfectible. And, given the way the Internet is tying us all ever closer together in a network of instant communication and given the galvanizing effect of online organizing evident in Obama's campaign, it makes one wonder if Gravel will simply prove to be a prophet before his time.

If we could all vote directly, would we really spend close to 50% of our national budget on the Pentagon, national security and war, as we do today? It is that monumental folly that seems to unite Gravel and Lauria in their passion and that makes this book such a good read.

This book masterfully weaves together the life of Senator Mike Gravel and numerous key moments in the evolution and growth of the Military-Industrial-Complex. From his formative adolescent years in Springfield, Mass to years as a spy in Cold War Europe to staring down Vietnam as a US Senator, Gravel has been in the thick of it for much of his life.

Without citing specific examples (many great moments, no need to spoil them), the book is a swift, pleasurable read. Joe Lauria really channels Gravel's no-nonsense attitude and unabashed criticism, often sarcastic and hard-hitting, towards our culture's obsession with war. Ever since WWII, American military has maintained a positive image and been able to push war after war onto the American people. Gravel cuts right through to who really amped up the Arms Race (USA, as we're doing again today) and the shortcomings of our leadership when they had the opportunities to steer our society away from war. Reading about Gravel's battles fought and his personal experiences really gives a sharp insight into how the Congress can buckle on such fundamental moral issues as life & death. Sufficed to say, most politicians and nothing like Gravel, and that's a very sad thing.

The book is rife with personal reflections and candid stories from a man whose life path has been so dramatically involved with the core force in American society. Sadly, it is a heart beating to the pulse military-industrial-complex and its warmongering desires. Read about Mike going toe-to-toe with Scoop Jackson, an unabashed warhawk (and a fellow Democrat). Candid encounters with Ted Kennedy and Frank Sinatra--the book has some real gems. Gravel's life really represents the French "bon vivant" spirit. That, combined with his ferocious moral courage, show how a real leader of the American people can be.

Gravel's life story and the history of American militarism really flow together seamlessly thanks to Joe Lauria's masterful writing. I am also currently reading James Carroll's "House of War," nearly 600 pages on the rise of the military-industrial-complex post-WWII. In 250 satisfying pages, this book gives a good run-through of how arms manufacturers have crept their influence deeper and deeper into our society (starting soon after the country's founding, often intertwining with executive power being stretched (starting even with Washington) to its rampant abuses today. Read this book as a primer and THEN read House of War if you want to read up on US militarism.

I'd recommend A Political Odyssey to not just followers of Gravel's recent presidential campaign, but anyone looking for some insight into how the military-industrial-complex controls American society, and how one citizen can work within that system and achieve massive successes. Gravel's story is as American as anyone's. First-generation-immigrant, scrapping different jobs together, enlisting in the Army, moving to the frontier of Alaska and becoming a self-made-man, it illustrates a fascinating life guided by the same human strengths and vulnerabilities that we all possess. Senator Gravel is a great patriot and hopefully this book cements that for perpetuity.

Overall a very satisfying read exclusive of the subject matter, so I sincerely recommend to anyone looking for a good historical-political read. If you're in the slight bit suspicious about why America is so war-hungry, read this book. It won't knock you over the head about why it's wrong or not--but it will show how Gravel came to realize how it has affected us and why he has fought so fiercely against it. You make your own decision, and the read will be worth it.

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Tuesday, August 5, 2008
GREENYA: Righteous anger

OP-ED:

You have to admire a man who can stay mad for almost four decades. No matter how dedicated and fired up most of us may be initially, we cop out, wear out or burn out long before that. Not former Democratic Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska, again this year, long-long-shot presidential candidate. Mr. Gravel gets mad, usually for good reason, and then, eschewing the conventional wisdom, never gets over it. You gotta like the guy, and thanks to his able co-author, Joe Lauria, you gotta like his book.

What made Mr. Gravel mad back in 1971 was the arrogance of power, especially as wielded by democratically elected leaders to favor the defense industry over the common good. "The separate histories of my life and American militarism collided in 1968, when I arrived in the Senate at the age of thirty-eight," he writes. "My fight against militarism turned into a personal battle with Scoop Jackson, the senator who personified the military-industrial power even more than I personified its opposition."

In the Senate, Mr. Gravel was never a go-along-to-get-along kind of guy, displaying an independent streak right from the start. Eventually, he was a major thorn not just in the side of other senators, but also in that of the president of the United States, Richard Nixon, whom he infuriated by reading into the public record 4,100 of the 7,100 pages of the Pentagon Papers. By publishing the Pentagon Papers, Mr. Gravel cast a very large and ominous die that didn't stop until the war in Vietnam came to its ignoble end.

"A Political Odyssey" lays out Mr. Gravel's thesis that, far more often than not, our leaders have used fear - of the British, the Indians, the Communists, the radical Islamic terrorists - to justify ever larger outlays for defense, whether we happen to be at war or not. During his time on the national stage, however, Mr. Gravel's main causes were the war in Vietnam and nuclear testing. But after fighting those battles throughout the 1970s, he was "swept out of office when Reagan and resurgent militarism were swept in. I sank into a long political and personal despair, only to start climbing out of it in the '90s, seeking ways to reform the political system."

Mr. Gravel's main reforms are direct democracy, the national initiative and the flat tax. Before you groan, stop and think what a transformation these ideas would produce in this country. (Better yet, read this book, because it is filled with information and insight.) As a prime example of the workability of the first of his ideas, Mr. Gravel cites Switzerland: "In 168 years of direct democracy, the Swiss have built the most peaceful and prosperous nation in Europe. The United States would become unrecognizable, if the people would have this same power."

There are several other good reasons to read this book. One is that it's very well-written (Mr. Gravel's collaborator, Mr. Lauria, is an experienced New York-based journalist whose specialty is foreign affairs). Another is that it's refreshingly candid. He says that Republican Sen. William Saxbe of Ohio "really loathed me," Jimmy Carter was "more Stevenson than Eisenhower," Bill Clinton "was the first president since FDR who did not feel obliged to scare that hell out of people to pump up profits and power," and he describes the late Rev. Jerry Falwell as "the extreme-right political operative masquerading as a preacher."

It's difficult to sustain anger, even righteous anger, for almost 100,000 words, and yet Mr. Gravel manages to do it without sounding shrill, probably because he doesn't take himself anywhere near as seriously as he takes the issues.

By the end, the tone is, to my ear, just right, as when he tells us, "History is irrational. Powerful people think they can control it. They are fools. The lawlessness unleashed by the supposedly rational schemes of American, Pakistani, and Saudi intelligence beginning in the 1970s, in which terrorists and extremists were used for short-term political gain, resulted in September 11, 2001."

And don't make the mistake of thinking Mr. Gravel is impressed by all the current talk about "change." This is how he ends "A Political Odyssey": "[Americans] cling to anyone who promises them change, however superficial. Under the current system that's all they've got. They deserve more. They must participate in power to alter this nation's march to disaster. That's the only change we can believe in."

John Greenya is the author of "Silent Justice: The Clarence Thomas Story."

http://www.politicalodyssey.com

ADDITIONAL PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

A Political Odyssey is a parallel history of one man's political career and the rise of the American military industry, the expansion of US territory and the growth of presidential power. Conceived and written by Joe Lauria, it is told through the eyes of Senator Mike Gravel. The stories collide when Gravel enters the Senate in the 1970s. After every war the US had demobilized and returned to a civilian economy, until after the Second World War. To avoid a new Depression and to keep the enormous profits from defense spending, false fears of an exaggerated Soviet threat were trumped up through the news media to induce Americans to support a war economy in peacetime. After three decades of coups, assassinations, wasteful weapons systems and invasions American militarists were defeated in the jungles of Vietnam. That opened a unique period of national self-examination: what had America done with the unprecedented power and wealth it accrued in a world devastated by World War Two? Was it used for human progress or simply to multiply that wealth and power? Congressional commissions in the mid-seventies unearthed the misdeeds of U.S. power wielded in the fantasy of continually re-fighting WWII.

In the Senate at that time, Gravel fought the militarists' by opposing their nuclear weapons tests; filibustering against the military draft and releasing the top Secret Pentagon Papers, which caused Nixon to sue Gravel to the Supreme Court. But militarism was restored when the Reagan counter-revolution swept out Democrats like Gravel and gave Congress to the Republicans. The fear mongering and militarism of the 1950s were back, the cloud under which we still live. The victors in that militarist restoration started with small probes: a landing on Grenada here, an invasion of Panama there, working themselves up to a limited ground campaign in Iraq in 1991. By 2003--just 23 years later--the resurgent militarists, with support from their courtiers in Congress and the press, felt bold enough to try for a Vietnam-sized invasion--in Iraq. The rise of the Cold War and the War on Terror--in personalities and tactics--are closely linked in the book. As the replacement for Communism, terrorism is the exaggerated threat to justify outlandish military spending leaving health care, transportation, education and alternative energy in crisis.

The book is full of gossip too: It delves into Gravel's private life, his affairs and his friendship with Frank Sinatra and other Hollywood stars. Gravel and his nemesis Scoop Jackson have it out in the Senate cloakroom after Jackson had taken Gravel to a private meeting in the Oval Office with Nixon, but Gravel still voted against Jackson on the militarists' prize ABM system. Gravel tangles with Ted Kennedy too, swearing at him to get his people off his back because he wouldn't become a Kennedy Man. Gravel and Carter did not get along and Reagan is called one the biggest knaves to occupy the White House.

After deep personal depression during the Reagan resurgence, Gravel makes a comeback arguing for a new form of citizenship, having been convinced through his experiences that representative government has failed. He runs for president in 2007 confronting the militarism of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the stage of the Democratic primary debates, which is where the book opens and closes. Gravel looks forward to the 2008 election and beyond, offering what he sees as a last hope for Americans to reject militarism, the central problem of our day.

Mike Gravel spoke truth to power in the Senate and he spoke truth to power during the early presidential debates in 2008. He speaks the truth as he sees it in this book with Joe Lauria. That is no doubt why Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and General Electric, which owns NBC all conspired to ban him from those debates. People who say the Emperor has no clothes are uncomfortable to be around, especial when you are aspiring to be Emperor or are a company that supplies the Emperor's weapons.

What was it Gravel said that got him bounced from most of the debates in 2008? Read this book and you'll find out.

Here is a little preview. The Democrats and Republicans running for office are fond of telling their audiences and voters America is #1 and they intend to keep it that way. Gravel said, sure America is # 1. It is #1 in defense spending, #1 in prison population, #1 in consumer spending and #1 in debt. Gravel also honestly pointed out that we aren't #1 in literacy, infant health, math or savings. Gravel didn't paint the typical pretty picture.

Gravel also offered real if unorthodox solutions such as: End the drug war, abolish the income tax, implement the FAIR tax, bring the troops home now and let the people decide political policy by enacting the National Initiative. Say what you will about the fixes, but you must admit Gravel advocates real change. For Mike Gravel "Change" isn't just a slick slogan.

This book by Gravel and Joe Lauria will evoke the political odyssey any of us of a certain age in the U.S. lived in the 40+ years since Gravel first won a seat in the United States Senate. Mike Gravel was called a "maverick" then and he still is after all these years.

The folks in power in DC don't want to hear the truth. What this country really needs is more mavericks like Mike Gravel and Ron Paul who are willing to tell the truth.

It is said that knowing the truth will set you free. If you want to know the truth, "A Political Odyssey" is a good place to start.

Reading this well-paced exploration of Gravel's life and beliefs saddened me because I now wish I'd voted for him. Not that he's perfect: Gravel is far too colorful. But I already regret the vote I did cast, and a vote for Gravel would have meant something.
Having lived through the furor of the Pentagon Papers, I was astonished to learn so much more about those events. Gravel's account of how the big newspapers snatched glory from a confrontation they subsequently ducked comes as a sharp corrective to History as the media recite it.
I really enjoyed reading about a genuine maverick whose achievements in the Senate remain shockingly commendable and yes, entertaining. Things were very bad in the early 1970s. How could they have gotten so much worse?
This country needs leaders who rate beliefs above polls (watch the excellent documentary, CENTURY OF THE SELF), politicians who yearn to be more than ciphers in a pathetic, self-erasing code. The only standing senator who reminds me at all of Gravel is Russell Feingold, abandoned on FISA by colleagues who rush to say they care about personal freedom until called upon to prove it. They 'reluctantly' play along while our hollowed-out economy becomes ever more militarized.
Gravel wanted to provoke a referendum on this process. Dazzled by hype, we ignored him. It's not too late to read this book, then start demanding that these slugs account for themselves.
Enjoy.

A revealing book... The fact is, representative government is broken, and there are only two venues for change: One is the government, where the problem exists, and two is the people. Correction can only take place with the people of America to buy and read this GREAT book.

If all you remember is what Dwight D. Eisenhower said about the military-industrial complex almost half a century ago, A Political Odyssey by Sen. Mike Gravel is a Must Read. Investigative journalist Joe Lauria wrote this book, and the Senator said so at a Meet the Author event at Barnes & Noble's Upper West Side store in Manhattan in early July. Lauria shows, through Mr. Gravel's eyes, how difficult, and indeed impossible it is for a junior senator to fight the cozy relationship between the government and the defense industry. Nothing has changed really since Eisenhower's days. That isn't new, of course. But Mr. Lauria manages, in very readable prose, to bring back to life the Pentagon Papers and point out the relevance of this episode today. Sen. Gravel's conclusion at the Meet the Author event: Representative democracy doesn't work.
Walter Pfaeffle
Journalist, New York

Gravel would indeed appear to be a rare cocktail of vanity (Hillary Clinton: my part in her downfall) and humility (the wilderness years). But that's his problem.
The central theme of the book, conversely, is everyone's problem: that the North American political establishment's embrace of the continuum of fear-mongering, military spending to propogate war or - when none is readily available - to "prevent" war has warped and wounded a nation that might have been entitled to expect far better.
Lauria performs a masterful task of marshalling (no pun intended) the evidence to support a case that is undeniable unless, of course, you are one of those who believes that Granada, for instance, ever posed a threat to the United States.
Gravel's remedy - and credit where it's due: at least he has one - for this monumental waste of human and financial resources, though, is a little naive. Power To The People made a very fine title for John Lennon. But does anyone really doubt the outcome should "the people" be offered the choice between a new car and universal health care? In effect, that choice is exercised every two or three years at a Toyota dealership near you.
Anyone with only a passing interest in events beyond the scope of Nascar racing and Entertainment Tonight was well aware by the presidential election of November 2004 that the Iraq war was a monumental blunder and that weapons of mass destruction were as readily identifiable in that country as is an avowed aetheist running for Congress. So they - or at least the 50 per cent who could be bothered - gave our hero another chance to compound his, and his coterie's, self-serving errors.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, the Obama campaign is so terrified - probably correctly, in the context of his new job - of the "low-information voter" demographic that it feels obliged to simulate outrage at a satirical New Yorker cartoon about the Democratic candidate and his wife.
That this sort of fluff might detain a reader/viewer for the merest fraction of a second makes Lauria's endeavour all the more worthwhile. Someone has to fight the good fight (without guns). Oh, and A Political Odyssey is written with a clarity and style that would not alienate many of those reading the top story on Yahoo news right now :'Ugly Betty' Gets Dumped.

Mike Gravel, A Political Odyssey: The Rise of American Militarism and One Man's Fight to Stop It (Seven Stories Press, 2008)

Every once in a while I will break my self-imposed no-memoir rule for something that's either entirely on point with my life (memoirs from chefs, poker players, jockeys, that sort of thing) or something that's so completely off-point that I find myself attracted to it in a weird way (David B.'s Epileptic is the first one like this that springs to mind). Never, though, have I encountered a memoir that embodies both of those concepts until this one. It's on point because I voted for Gravel in '08 (though by the time the election rolled around I had to write him in), and not on point because I've never been what you might call a dove, where Gravel has always personified that characteristic, and as you can tell by the subtitle of the book, he focuses on his anti-war activities, when discussing himself, in this larger introduction to the rise of the military-industrial complex in America.

There's not really a huge amount of info in the history bits the average American who's kept his ear to the ground, especially since the beginning of Gulf War I (when the anti-military-industrial-complex folks started really publicizing a lot of this stuff), won't already know, but it's nice to have it all wrapped up in one package. And I'm sure Vietnam War historians already know the story of the leaking of the Pentagon Papers, though I didn't and I found those bits just as fascinating as anything in All the President's Men. What ultimately saves the book from being dismissable as simply a rehash or a survey is Gravel's ability to tell a story; the guy simply keeps you wanting to read by sounding like the raconteur sitting next to you on a barstool, sipping Calvados and regaling everyone around him with the tale of his latest conquest on the golf course or at the races or what have you. Not a bad little book, this. ***

Mike Gravel was a refreshing change from the bland establishment hacks who made up the 2008 primary. What he and Dennis Kucinich said was more important, more prescient, and more true than anything that any of the so-called "realistic" candidates said during those months. Hearing patronizing idiots ask what Gravel was doing up there was positively infuriating.

The book is a brutally honest recollection of Gravels experiences on the campaign trail, and in the Senate. Gravel eloquently, but simply explains his most controversial political actions in a way that makes you wonder how anyone could possibly have seen it any other way in the first place. The book recounts his decision to read the most complete version of the Pentagon papers into record. A move which almost destroyed his political career, but which had to be done, as it was the only decent thing to do.

Gravel is a man who should have aroused the excitement on the left that was generally reserved for Obama or at least Edwards. Yet he ended up pulling in fewer votes than --spits out name-- JOE BIDEN. That... poofy-haired, logorrhea afflicted, establishment hawk of all people.

This principled brave man deserved better than he got. From pundits, from the press, and from voters.

PS. Alaska, for electing this man, and Ernest Gruening Senator, you are officially absolved for Sarah Palin.

But seriously though, what happened since then?