Status: Completed (160 pages)

Recommend: Yes (especially the last chapter)

Review: This was a very quick read, and I stuck with it until the end because I knew I'd finish quickly. Otherwise, I may have put this one down early. This is the first work by Gore Vidal I've read, so I can't state whether this piece is similar in style to any other works. He's clearly a gifted vocabularist and historian, not too showy as to be standoffish, which is a very difficult task. So I will give him credit for that. He seemed to repeat arguments and premises a bit too much for my preference, but that could have been a product of the style of the book, which included portions from essays in Vanity Fair.

This is good old fashioned conspiracy theorism. I'm glad I read this book when I did. I'm just now coming to grips with the reality that there are likely forces at work which are highly secretive, likely illegal, and morally bankrupt. And I should care about this. I should worry about the draining effect on privacy rights and civil rights that such clandestine operations have. My (weak) argument has always been: "Well, what can I do about it anyway?" For starters, I can stop acting like it doesn't matter. Abuse of power is a real intolerant behavior in my moral system, one which I've fought throughout my life with varying levels of success and smartness. So why stop at the local range of abuse? Likely because I didn't want to be considered a nut, which is the label I assigned to conspiracy theorists at the national level. Wrongly. I've begun to realize this recently, and reading an erudite presentation of a conspiracy theory (vix, that Timothy McVeigh did not act alone or perhaps did not act at all in the Oklahoma City bombing) is a good push for me. I won't pick up arms after reading it, but I am less likely to let fear keep me from having these discussions with others.

The last chapter of the book, a letter to then President-Elect Bush in 2000, melts my heart and fires up my peace levels. In it, Vidal implores Bush to end the dominance of the military-industrial complex, and he does it from multiple angles including economic, social, and historical. If you only read a small portion of this book, read the last chapter.