The CHAIRMAN: JOHN J MCCLOY & THE MAKING OF THE AMERICAN ESTABLISHMENT

This is a rock solid biography about a prominent and influential historical figure of the 20th century.John McCloy became involved in an amazingly diverse collection of important issues going all the way back to World War I.Mr. McCloy was definitely a member of 'the establishment'.Or as Dwight Eisenhower so ominously called it during his farewell address, the Military Industrial Complex.My main reason for reading this book is because Mr. McCloy turned up on the Warren Commission which Lyndon Johnson set up ostensibly to investigate the assassination of President Kennedy. I've been doing quite a bit of research about the Kennedy assassination in recent years.I would say John McCloy's ability to find middle ground and make compromises on important issues did not serve him well on the Warren Commission. If ever there was a government inquiry that urgently needed someone to step outside the box and ask important questions the Warren Commission was it. But someone with John McCloy's background was not very likely to become one of those voices crying in the wilderness.The Warren Commission was not a serious criminal investigation anyway. Most of the members of the Commission didn't even bother to show up for the hearings most of the time.But I don't think John McCloy could have been naïve enough not to realize that information was being withheld from the Commission and people in high places did not want their investigation to stray from the party line.The conspiracy about the Warren Commission is Lyndon Johnson told Earl Warren that Lee Oswald killed President Kennedy on behalf of the Soviets. Johnson said if the world ever discovered this horrible truth World War III would have begun in earnest and '40 million Americans will be dead in the first hour'.Which they would have.The only problem is that was a lie. The Soviets had nothing to do with the assassination.Over the years people have implicated various individuals as being part of the domestic conspiracy to kill President Kennedy.Some of the most famous names on that list of infamy are Lyndon Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, and Allen Dulles who ironically was also on the Warren Commission.Some people think Richard Nixon was one of the JFK conspirators.Which I wouldn't doubt. Nixon resigned from the presidency in disgrace when all of his lies and evil schemes finally came to light.I don't think John McCloy was directly involved in the JFK conspiracy.Johnson may have put Mr. McCloy on the Commission because he felt Mr. McCloy wouldn't cause any problems with the Commission's agenda.

John McCloy will be remembered in history because of the McCloy Zorin Agreement on ending the Cold War. He was John Kennedy's envoy in negotiating the pact that the UN General Assembly endorsed unanimously. JFK paid for that with his life a year later but the most comprehensive disarmament agreement ever negotiated remains as his legacy. It can still be revived if ever the world comes to its senses

Well, this was quite an interesting read. Mr. Bird did a good job of describing these Establishment men of "yore" as being representative of both the positives and the negatives of human nature, otherwise known as the duality of man. On the one hand they are to be congratulated for getting good educations, working hard and enhancing America's economy and security in a myriad of ways throughout the course of the 20th Century. On the other hand they all seemed to be convinced of their own righteousness to the point of omnipotence. That arrogance (which bordered on megalomania) seems to be a defining characteristic of this group and Mr. Bird gives us plenty of historical examples to support it. From the illegal internment of Japanese Americans during WWII and Mr. McCloy's infamous statement regarding the U.S. Constitution as being a "...mere scrap of paper..." , to the representation of American Corporations to the detriment of stockholders and the public alike to the overthrows of foreign governments it is pretty clear that these guys did a good deal of harm as well as good in the pursuit of the Establishment's interests. They proclaimed themselves to be Christians whose primary concern was service to the nation but Mr. Bird provides us with ample evidence to support a contrary view as well. Indeed, a convincing case could be made that they were racists and anti-Semites who served themselves and their elitist clientele to the exclusion of all others and to the detriment of the masses of the people world-wide. This would be indicative of a totalitarian world view that has nothing to do with Christian or democratic values and it could further be argued that the enemies that have been created as a direct result of it are now seeking to avenge themselves upon us within the parameters of the War on Terror. Of course, in the interest of fairness all of these proposed negatives must be viewed through the lense of the times in which these men lived as well as with the realities of 20/20 hindsight in mind and this is where the author does an outstanding job of bringing to bear the cause and effect relationships inherent to past actions verses modern day realities within the parameters of this thought provoking work.

Very good book. I had read it before and only bought it for reference and to read some of the chapters I skipped before. It is a very good book and a necessary addition to any contemporary history library.

Excellent.

Condizioni anche migliori di quelle che mi aspettavo essendo un libro usato. In condizioni ottimali, cosi pulito da sembrare nuovo