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5 comments about Talking Back... to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels.

1. Talking Back: ...to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels
   
   By Andrea Mitchell
   
   A Review
   By
   Colin J. Edwards
   
   Whenever possible I avoid reading autobiography. I rarely read fiction, and essentially autobiography is fiction. Who can resist fine tuning ones achievements or smoothing the bumps of a relationship; not to mention flat-out lies? If such a paragon of virtue existed, writing an autobiography would be an anathema to them.
   
   "Talking Back: ...to Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels", is an exception in so far as it is more a journalistic memoir than an autobiography. However, there are chunks of personal history that Lady Greenspan (Alan Greenspan was knighted by the Queen of England in 2002), chose to omit. Perhaps the most telling of these is the not inconsequential matter of a first marriage. There were also children, though non-biological, that she treated as her own. It is poignant that while she extols the virtue of her friends; even labelling their offspring as "...children she never had", she is silent about her own children. Would it be unreasonable to suggest that this might betray a propensity to edit out inconvenient truths? Alan Greenspan doesn't mention it either in his book "The Age of Turbulence". "But then statements of fact pertaining to both parties have been scrupulously edited and they don't differ even by a comma.
   
   That said, Andrea Mitchell describes her three or more decades of journalism in a modest, balanced narrative which moves along at an exhausting pace. She resists the temptation to `drop names', but she does inflate the purity of journalism. I wonder how many people would crave a career in journalism if their contributions lacked a by-line? I have the feeling that the insatiable desire for a scoop would loose its appeal if the story was anonymous.
   
   Ms Mitchell's volume does not betray anything about her. She tells us that she is Jewish. We can deduce that as a couple they are very rich because they don't spend any of their own money. Every event she describes; including her honeymoon, was funded by someone else. All their travel is tacked-on to official business somewhere in the world. If there is ant `self-funded' travel, she doesn't mention it.
   
   After reading her book, you come away with the impression that she is a very modest person in most things. There is one area where I perceived a little insecurity. She wants to be judged as an intellectual. She reminds us that she went to an Ivy League college. Whilst this is technically true, it is stretching the distinction a little. She tells us that she was accepted for a woman's college at Cambridge, but she doesn't tell us which one - and there are only three. Her attention for detail in other areas exaggerates her amnesia about Cambridge, even though she mentions it twice.
   
   Her writing style is predictably journalistic and a little tedious, but none-the-less an excellent commentary on current affaires of the last three decades. There are no attempts to take credit for successful events; indeed she describes everything with brutal honesty - warts and all.
   
   Ms Mitchell shares few personal details with us, and the work is the poorer for it. One is left with the impression that she is the definitive spinster married to the definitive bachelor. She does her thing and he does his and they meet occasionally at the White House for dinner.
   
   If you are already a student of current affaires, then this volume will add nothing to your fund of knowledge. However, if you need a crash course in the happenings of the last thirty years, then this is a book for you.



2. This is a fabulous read...you can hear Andrea speaking as you read ...descriptive, exciting and historically fascinating.



3. And people who are expecting a tell-all, fully detailed account of Andrea's life had better look elsewhere. This book is about her rise into the national broadcasting media. (If people want a detailed account they should read Magdaleine Albright's book "Madame Secretary.") This is not a book revealing every secret, ever detail of every person she interviewed or her feelings of all the events she covered. She's more "Just the facts, Sir" type of writer.
   
   Now, with that out of the way, this is an easy-to-follow chronology of events as Andrea Mitchell saw them starting her days as a Philadelphia reporter for KYW and then the Jonestown massacre in late 1978. But it was later with Three Mile Island in March 1979, her first national exposure as an energy correspondent that brought her to the forefront as an aggressive reporter. It was a line on page 46 that summed up Andrea's personality, when she wanted to be there to cover the Three Mile Island melt-down but was denied her chance to report because her supervisor, an elderly and paternal Sid Davis didn't want Andrea, as a woman of child-bearing age, be exposed to potential nuclear radiation: "Men's testicles were as vulnerable to radiation as women's ovaries. I was on a plane to Three Mile Island the next day."
   
   She was there for the rise of Ayatollah. She spoke well of Reagan as a gentleman, but also reported on his often-noticed fatigue, disorientation and his lack of detail which he delegated to his advisors. She was much less forgiving of Reagan's Chief of Staff, Don Regan.
   
   Had Mitchell written with greater detail there's no doubt that this book would have required many more pages. One thing I can fault her with is not revealing much about her personal life and how her profession often dictated her personal life. She was very careful not to reveal too much about her early years with her now-husband Allan Greenspan.
   
   The Paperback edition also provides additional reporting since the hardback book was published, which gives Condoleeza Rice much credit for her stance in the Middle East.
   
   I will agree with Bill O'Reiley when he described Andrea Mitchell as one of the more non-partisan reporters. This book reflects that.



4. If you enjoy a mix of autobiography, history and current events, this book will delight you. Andrea Mitchell covers the American scene through the eyes of a journalist who, as husband of Allen Greenspan, was, at times, participant. Fair and balanced. Goes well with a shade tree and glass of lemonade.



5. I thoroughly enjoyed the approach of this book, reading about her experiences as a journalist & working with various presidential administrations. I never felt mislead as some others have written, that she was going to write an autobiography; she calls it a memoir.
   This book seemed very objective until it hit the Clinton section. In my opinion, it became extremely evident Ms. Mitchell is not a fan of the Clinton's. That would not be an issue, had she not attacked them as she does, taken this section to also delve into her personal relationship & in future chapters, brag about White House get togethers with the Cheneys, Rumsfelds & Bush's.
   It's too bad Andrea lost her objectivity & took her jabs. She would have had an excellent book, had it been written in it's entirety as a journalist.

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2 comments about P. S.: A Memoir.

1. This book details the life of Pierre Salinger, journalist, politician, and businessman. Salinger grew up in California during the 1930s. After service in the Navy during World War II, he became a journalist (following in his French mother's footsteps). After a few early successes in investigative journalism involving the California prison system, he was assigned to cover the corruption and possible mob involvement in the Teamsters' Union during the 1950s. When he heard that Robert Kennedy was leading a government investigation of the Teamsters' Union, he approached Kennedy with an offer to compare notes and join forces. This began a lifelong relationship between Salinger and the Kennedy family. When John Kennedy decided to run for president, he asked Salinger to help with his campaign, and following Kennedy's electoral victory, Salinger became his White House press secretary. Salinger was also involved in Robert Kennedy's and George McGovern's presidential campaigns. He spent five months in the Senate after he was appointed to fill the term of a friend who had died. When he lost his own bid for the Senate, he departed the US for Europe, where he had a twenty year career as a journalist.
   
   Salinger begins the book by telling us he once considered running for president himself, but decided that the lack of respect today's journalists show for the private lives of public figures would be too daunting for his family. Four times married, Salinger readily admits to marital infidelities in the past. In this book, he juxtaposes the successes in his public life with the shambles of his private life, but he notes that he seems to finally have gotten things straight by his fifth decade.
   
   The Kennedy years were very exciting for Salinger. He had a deep respect for both John and Robert Kennedy based on his observations of how they tackled the nation's problems. Salinger was present when John Kennedy struggled with the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs debacle, and noted how Kennedy seemed to learn from the experience. He was also present during the deliberations between Kennedy and his cabinet over how to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis. These experiences were to give Salinger a unique perspective many years later, as he covered the build-up to the first Gulf War as a journalist. During the Missile Crisis, Kennedy made it clear to the Soviets that continuing their offensive program would result in armed conflict. In contrast, the first Bush administration went out of their way not to send such a message to Saddam Hussein, not to warn him that the consequences of invading Kuwait would be war. Had George Bush Sr. gotten Hussein to settle his differences with Kuwait without an invasion, both Gulf Wars could have been avoided. In Salinger's analysis, Bush Sr. stood to gain popularity points back home by leading the country to battle instead of heading off the battle. Salinger goes on to point out how Bush's decisions degraded our relations with the Middle East and Europe, and encouraged the rise of the violent fringe of Islamic fundamentalism (as of the mid-1990s, when this book was written). And we all know where that has led...



2. I did not know a great deal about the author until I read his book. I knew he had been JFK's press secretary, but that was about it. Pierre Salinger never set out to be a press secretary, serving in World War II, then becoming a journalist along the way.
   Salinger's interesting experiences on the Senate investigation of the Teamsters, and his later involvement with the Kennedys is very interesting, as are the anecdotes he provides about the days of the Kennedy administration. Following those years, he expands again into other ventures, even more surprising, leaving him with a life closer to Forrest Gump than many will ever have.
   For information on the inner workings of the JFK campaign and White House, this book is invaluable, but is unfortunately too short. The book itself is not long, and can be read by a persistent reader in no time.

1 comments about Marilyn Monroe: A Concise Biography (Pocket Biography Series).

1. this biography like so many others just researches movie magazines and gossip colums the only real story is through the marilyn monroe foundation and the play here i am mother by nancy miracle a member of the dramatists guild