Books: April 3, 1996

A Political Doer Extraordinaire
Short Takes


A Political Doer Extraordinaire

Former Secretary of State James Baker '52 recounts pivotal world events

The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace, 1989-1992
James A. Baker III '52
with Thomas M. DeFrank
G. P. Putnam's Sons, $32.50
James Baker '52's memoir of his years as secretary of state, 1989-92, is aptly titled, with the priority given to politics. It bespeaks both the book's and the man's parameters.
The Baker of this book is a political doer extraordinaire, not given to sustained reflection, moral insights, or a writer's eloquence. Consequently, one accepts as a matter of course this same man milking the Willie Horton episode in the 1988 presidential-election campaign and his creating the coalition that routed Saddam Hussein's forces in the Persian Gulf War. The latter is the dominant episode of his memoir. For this alone, The Politics of Diplomacy is an important book, for history and for understanding how international diplomacy is actually carried out.
Baker's political prowess as a deal maker is exemplified in his account of the Madrid summit conference, where he advanced the Middle East peace process. He sensed that the time was right for resolving the Jewish-Palestinian problem in the West Bank. That conference set in motion a process that has led to the virtual autonomy of the million stateless Palestinians who now rule the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. His book will remain an invaluable source for understanding this milestone. Baker's perceptions of the principals are instructive, too, not least his reading of Hafez al-Assad, the ever- guileful Syrian ruler. Valuable, too, are Baker's perspectives on Tiananmen Square, the end of apartheid in South Africa, the USSR's collapse, the end of Communist rule in Albania, the reunification of Germany, and the cessation of wars in Central America, all on his watch!
Baker's accounts are straightforward, with few surprises for readers who have been attentive to public events. Nuance is not in Baker's armamentarium. The role and character of the Contras, for example, is hardly addressed. He paints a picture of the Nicaraguan rebels that is black and white, pro-Contra, no discussion needed.
In light of developments in the Balkans, the secretary's role there is of considerable interest. The Yugoslavian crisis also began on the secretary's watch, and the Baker-Bush efforts to ameliorate it were perfunctory. Baker seemed oblivious to the enormities beginning to be perpetrated and the obligation to stop them. He abruptly dismissed concern over the Balkan war the moment Bush asked him to coordinate the President's reelection campaign. The horrors have continued, of course, well into the years of the Clinton administration.
Such reservations aside, this reader put down The Politics of Democracy feeling indebted to James Baker for his conscientious labor in writing this earnest, detailed account of extraordinary experiences, and for having given so much of his life to public service.
-Edward T. Chase '41
Edward Chase is a former editor-in-chief of New York Times Books and of The New American Library. He was also senior editorial vice-president of G. P. Putnam's and senior editor of Scribners/Macmillan.

Short Takes

In a Dark Wood: The Fight
Over Forests and the Rising
Tyranny of Ecology
Alston Chase *67
Houghton Mifflin, $29.95
Harvesting redwoods, according to loggers, is like mowing the lawn, because they grow back so quickly. Alston Chase *67 uses this viewpoint to demonstrate the chasm between loggers, who see themselves as caretakers of the forest, and Earth First!ers, who believe in "biocentrism," which holds that human beings are no more important than other living things. In a Dark Wood tells the story of loggers and environmentalists and the roles they play in the controversy over the spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest. By looking closely at the genesis of their ideas, Chase levels some serious accusations against the modern environmental movement, and he questions the science behind "ecosystems," the historical existence of old-growth forests, and the need for pure preservation. Abandoning the old method of forest management in the West in favor of new preservation policies, he notes, brought on the crisis that occurred in 1994 when 3.5 million acres of forest burned, killing firefighters, destroying homes and habitat, and sterilizing the soil. Chase, whose reputation for controversial environmental journalism was established in his 1986 Playing God in Yellowstone (Atlantic Monthly Press), has written another provocative book, which raises serious questions about what environmental organizations and the media tell us about saving the Earth.

Dead Reckoning: A Novel of Suspense
Susan and Pierre LaTour, Jr. '65
St. Martin's Press, $21.95
A jar of marmalade left in a Cape Cod cottage arouses Nancy Mulholland's suspicion that the disappearance of her aunt, chemistry professor Catherine Lakey, may have been planned. Dead Reckoning, the fast-paced, first mystery by Susan and Pierre LaTour Jr. '65, quickly draws the reader into the possibility that Catherine is alive and not the victim of foul play, as the local police and Frank Simco, a college dean, believe. Marmalade, Nancy explains to Simco, was her aunt's code word for "anything that was different from what you'd expect," and soon the pair is off looking for other "marmalades" that only someone who knows Catherine well would understand. The authors manage to weave the perspective back and forth between Nancy, Simco, and other characters, including the missing woman. By returning to Catherine's point of view toward the end, the novel's focus shifts from solving the mystery of her disappearance to wondering why she chose to disappear. The climactic scene between hunter and hunted is wrapped up in a surprising and wholly satisfying end.

The Boy with Paper Wings
Susan Lowell *79
Milkweed Editions,
$14.95 cloth, $6.95 paper
Kron and the evil Braindrainers are taking over, and it's up to 11-year-old Paul and his paper airplanes and creatures to save the planet in The Boy with Paper Wings by Susan Lowell *79. In her novel for young readers, Lowell combines narrative, math, and origami in a fanciful tale that is fun and mostly believable. Home sick with a virus and bored, Paul makes a paper airplane that crashes into the battlefield in his closet with him on board. From there, Paul drifts in and out of fantasy and reality and becomes engrossed in wiping out Kron-a creature of his own making-who steals brains and implants them in machines in a quest for total control. Paul and his green army soldiers are fighting for survival, and his knack for making airplanes, boats, and a manta ray out of paper saves them. Each of these folding projects is wonderfully illustrated, and the author has included paper-folding instructions and diagrams so that the reader can make them, too.
-Jennifer Gennari Shepherd
Jennifer Gennari Shepherd is a freelance writer living in Natick, Massachusetts.


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