BIOGRAPHY – Page 2 – REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE

HITLER/STALIN

Alan Bullock reflects on Hitler and Stalin’s differences which in some ways are greater than their similarities.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Hitler and Stalin

By: Alan Bullock

Alan Bullock (1914-2004, Author, British historian, died at age 89.)

Alan Bullock was one of Britain’s leading historians. His most renowned work was “Hitler: A Study in Tyranny”, published in 1952. At a book sale, Bullock’s “Hitler and Stalin” is purchased because of a recently reviewed history of Stalin and an interest in Bullock’s comparison of Stalin to Hitler.

Bullock reflects on the two dictators’ differences which in some ways are greater than their similarities. Bullock’s history is an informative history of WWII and the failed alliance of two of the most reviled leaders of the 20th century. Stalin and the Russian military are justifiably praised by Roosevelt and the Allied powers for his contribution to Nazi Germany’s defeat. Later in the twentieth century, the West’s view of Stalin changes.

At first glance, Hitler and Stalin are more different than alike in Bullock’s characterization.

Hitler is a master orator that enlivens Germany with a preternatural ability to influence and motivate his audience. Stalin is a communist influencer but holds his opinions to himself in addressing an audience or convincing the Communist Polit bureau of his legitimacy and intent. Stalin rules the Communist Party with an iron fist by exiling or executing anyone who becomes an influencer of the Party. Stalin creates fear among Party members while creating an image of strong leadership and infallibility among the Russian people.

Both Roosevelt and Harry Truman are initially impressed by Stalin’s personality, if not his leadership. Stalin is not a dynamic speaker who motivates an audience of followers. However, as Russia becomes an ally of the West, he develops a personable relationship with both WWII’ American Presidents. Churchill has reservations about Stalin’s political objectives but becomes reconciled to Stalin’s influence on Roosevelt to smooth the relationship among the three national leaders.

Truman eventually comes to understand Stalin’s true nature as Churchill’s “iron curtain” speech is given in 1946.

When Roosevelt dies, just before the end of the war, Stalin endears himself to Truman. Truman responded to Stalin’s insistence on splitting Germany by authorizing the Berlin Airlift in 1948. With the help of the UK and France 2.3 million tons of supplies are delivered to West Berlin between 1948 and 49. Germany is split between two spheres of interest, the U.S.S.R. and Europe, in 1949 that lasts until 1990.

Hitler has Nazi Party members as his enforcers.

Bullock explains how both Hitler and Stalin depend on a cadre of enforcers that align with their leadership. Hitler has Nazi Party members while Stalin has Communist party members. Both have military leaders in their respective parties. In contrast to Stalin, Hitler gains the support of industrialist and business leaders while Stalin relies on the intelligentsia and workers. Both used propagandas to support their positions but Stalin backs up propaganda with constant disruption of party leadership with often false accusations that end with exile or assassination. Hitler uses the SS for his enforcement but limits leader disruption while creating a cult of personality by presenting himself as the savior of Germany. Stalin is highly paranoid about usurpers of power while Hitler becomes more paranoid as the war begins to turn against him. Neither leader plans for leadership succession.

Hitler’s industrial and business leaders willingly choose to support rearmament of the military.

Because of Germany’s weakened condition after WWI’s punishing demands for war reparations, Hitler’s industrial and business leaders willingly choose to support rearmament of the military. In contrast, Stalin’s close association and identification with Leninist Communism garners support of non-professional Russian citizens who commit themselves to industrialization of Russia.

A cult of personality helps both Hitler and Stalin but the basis upon which the cult is formed is different. Hitler’s cult is internalized by industrial and business leaders who, along with Hitler, believe Germany has been unfairly treated by reparations and poorly ruled after WWI. In contrast, Stalin’s cult is based on Russian peasant beliefs in the ideals of communism by a leader who is perceived as a Leninist successor. Stalin systematically exiles or murders any Party leaders who are intent on rising in the Party.

Both Hitler and Stalin exercise centralized control.

Both Hitler and Stalin exercise centralized control, but the internal motivation of their citizens is different. Germany’s citizens identify with the unfairness of reparations and the rearmament of the country. Russian citizens identify with modernization and improved productivity based on the ideals of communism. Most citizens of both countries seem to internalize motivation to industrialize and modernize their countries but for different reasons.

Bullock shows both Hitler and Stalin are antisemitic.

The nature of failure is to have someone to blame. The only difference in these leaders’ antisemitism is that Hitler more systematically than Stalin incarcerated and murdered Jews. Hitler codifies his antisemitism in “Mein Kamph” and chooses to use his power and influence to create the holocaust. As the war ends, Stalin looks for excuses for the hardship of Russian citizens and uses antisemitism as an excuse for communism’s failures. The atrocious treatment of Jews is an unforgivable guilt for humanity which explains why the Balfour recommendation is made by the UK. The ramification of that decision lives in the world today.

Germany’s invasion of Russia is a surprise to Stalin because of their non-aggression pact.

Bullock does not spend much time with a report of Stalin’s reaction. However, some historians suggest Stalin retired to his Dacha when the invasion became known and only returned to lead Russia when a delegation of Party members came to ask him to return.

The author suggests Lavrentiy Beria, a brutal enforcer of Stalin’s dictatorship, is at his side when he dies and expresses disgust with Stalin’s leadership while leaving the room with intent to seize power. Beria was executed by the Soviet Union on December 23, 1953.

As is well known, Hitler committed suicide in his underground bunker on April 30, 1945. Bullock suggests Hitler’s remains were found by the Russian Army and taken back to Russia. Since Bullock’s book, forensic evidence confirms Hitler’s remains were taken to Moscow. The last days of Stalin were in 1953. Bullock notes Stalin had a stroke but had for months, if not years, lost much of his memory and forceful personality.

Truman

Truman’s presidential accomplishments were not done alone but he managed highly educated and experienced people who got things done. He had the respect of people who reported to him, and he was tough, pragmatic, and willing to make hard decisions when circumstances required leadership.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Truman

By: David McCullough

David McCullough (1933-2022, Author, historian, winner of a Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and later given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006.)

One of the great historians of the modern age, David McCullough received the National Book Award for “Truman” in 1982. As a biography of an American President, it is among the best ever written about a President whom few regard as being in the category of Washington, Lincoln, or FDR. Every chapter is a pleasure to read because it reminds one of why many consider America the best country in the world in which to live. This portrait of the 33rd President of the United States shows a man of modest means, without a college degree, who grows to become a great manager of others and leader of a post WWII world.

President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972, President from 1945-1953.)

Thrown into the Presidency after 82 days as Vice President of the United States, Truman became President. FDR died April 12, 1945. Germany was near defeat by the Allies. Within a month, on May 8th, the Allies celebrated what is known as V-E Day, Victory in Europe Day. Truman is faced with a decision on how best to end WWII by defeating Japan. Though when he rose to the Presidency, he had not been informed about the Manhattan Project. He was fully briefed on April 25, 1945, by Henry Stimson and General Leslie Groves, leaders of the Manhattan Project. In mid-July of 1945 the first atomic bomb was successfully tested and Truman described it as “the most terrible bomb in the history of the world”.

Captain Harry Truman November 1918.

As a former veteran and captain in WWI, Truman knew what continuing the war meant to the lives of American soldiers.

As a former veteran and captain in WWI, Truman knew what continuing the war meant to the lives of American soldiers if Japan were conventionally attacked by Allied forces. He ordered the use of two atom bombs, one on August 6, 1945, on Hiroshima and a second on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. There was no official warning. Leaflets were dropped over some Japanese cities on August 6, but one suspects that was just a precedent to instill fear about further destruction if Japan refused to surrender.

TRUMAN’ CABINET IN 1945

President Harry S. Truman meets with Cabinet members in the White House. From left to right: Postmaster General Robert Hannegan; Secretary of War Henry Stimson; Secretary of State James Byrnes; the President; Secretary of the Treasury Fred Vinson; Attorney General Tom Clark; and Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal.

Truman took complete responsibility for the decision to drop the bombs.

As shown in the movie about Truman’s meeting with Oppenheimer after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Truman was put-off by Oppenheimer’s concern over postwar use of nuclear weapons. Presumably, Truman’s feelings were that many lives were saved despite the loss of Japanese citizens from the use of atomic weapons. McCullough’s depiction of Truman is that he was tough, pragmatic, and willing to make hard decisions. He took personal responsibility for the use of atomic bombs to end the war.

Truman’s whistle-stop campaign in 1948.

McCullough goes on to explain Truman’s second term election effort that began when Dewey, his Republican opponent, looked like a sure winner. Truman campaigned across the country by train. Truman’s victory and what seemed an interminable train ride was a testament to the grit and determination of this 5-foot, 9-inch dynamo.

Truman’s character description is reinforced with McCullough’s history of Truman’s relationship with General McArthur. In the early days of the Korean war, McArthur took charge of American forces and made decisions that seemed to bode well for the end of the conflict. McArthur reversed the course of the war by insisting on a risky reinforcement of American forces. It was the right move and Truman admired McArthur’s grit in insisting on the reinforcement. However, McArthur overstepped his position when he insisted on bombing Chinese cities when China escalated the Korea war. McArthur publicly criticized Truman’s administrative opposition to escalation.

Truman relieved McArthur of his command in Korea and pursued a negotiated peace at the 38th parallel. This was another tough, pragmatic, and unpopular decision by Truman. In retrospect, one recognizes it was the right decision, but Truman was markedly criticized by the press and public for his decision.

In the early days of the Korean war, McArthur took charge of American forces and made decisions that seemed to bode well for the end of the conflict. McArthur reversed the course of the war by insisting on a risky reinforcement of American forces.

One can argue McCullough’s history places Truman in the pantheon of the greatest Presidents of the United States since Washington, Lincoln, and FDR. Truman ended WWII, agreed with and supported the Marshall plan that rebuilt Europe, created the Truman Doctrine to contain Soviet Expansion, desegregated the military, established the CIA, NSA, and NSC by signing the National Security Act of 1947, approved the Berlin airlift when the Soviets isolated West Berlin, and banned discrimination in the federal workforce. Truman managed some of the greatest minds of his 20th century administration to make America the preeminent leader of the western world.

REAGANOMICS

Homelessness, illegal immigration, and America’s budget deficit will not be cured by reducing taxes on the rich or by tariffs that artificially increase the cost of living, or by cutting the labor force of farmers through mass deportations, or by making it easier to do business in the U.S.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Reagan (His Life and Legend)

By: Max Boot

Narrated By: Graham Winton

Max Boot (Russian-born naturalized American author, editorialist, lecturer, and military historian, writer and editor for The Christian Science Monitor.)

Not being a fan of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, there is some reluctance in reviewing Max Boot’s biography of the man. However, Boot’s writing and research offer an understanding that makes one separate Reagan’s political life from his experienced life. Boot explains Reagan’s life during the years before and after the depression.

Reagan’s father was an alcoholic which reminds one of how one’s childhood is rarely idyllic. Boot’s biography of Reagan shows one becomes who they are–despite the human faults of their parents. The way a child matures is only partly defined by parents’ influence. Reagan’s father’s alcoholism did not carry through to his son.

Boot’s biography shows Reagan to be an affable, well-adjusted, teenager and young adult who has a strong sense of what he believes is right and wrong.

Reagan is a football athlete in high school that grows to become a 6′ 1″ handsome young man from a relatively poor middle-class family. He aspires to college and works to have enough money to attend Eureka College in Illinois. He graduates in 1932 with a BA in Economics and Sociology. Reagan is remembered by classmates and teachers as a smart student and determined football player that gave him the grit and experience to become a movie star in the 1940s.

The first chapters of Boot’s biography of Reagan are about his break into the entertainment industry as a sports caster.

Reagan had a nearly photographic memory. He used that skill to recall a football game he played in college to impress a radio station manager with broadcast details of a game. He recalls a game he played in college and purposefully embellishes his role in the game. Reagan’s skill as a radio announcer led to a screen test with Warner Brothers in 1937 that launched his film career.

As WWII approaches, Reagan enlists as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Force. (The Air Force in these early days were not a separate branch of the service.)

Reagan’s experience in the entertainment industry led to producing training and propaganda films for the Army Air Force. Boot explains Reagan had significant vision problems with nearsightedness in his youth and presbyopia (difficulty of focusing on close objects) as he got older. Reagan never served in a combat role. He eventually adopted contact lenses to correct his vision; partly to please film producers who disliked the “coke bottle” lenses he needed to see properly.

Four issues that are interesting and informative in the first chapters of Boot’s biography of Reagan are 1) how affable, and well liked Reagan was to people who met him, 2) that he was well-read, 3) very handsome with a respect for women that carried through to several relationships, and 4) that though he had a sense of right and wrong, his moral center seemed to waiver between concern and indifference.

During the depression, Reagan was a strong supporter of Franklin Roosevelt’s efforts to resurrect the American economy.

Reagan seemed more like a liberal Democrat than the conservative Republican he came to be as Governor of California and President of the United States. The remainder of the book shows how that change came about. Boot notes several factors that influenced Reagan to change from a Roosevelt to Goldwater supporter. The movie industry and the growing anti-communist era of the fifties influenced many former liberals. Reagan’s experience in Hollywood reinforced conservativism.

Reagan became rich from his relationship with Gerneral Electric. The corporate culture of GE in the 1950s and 60s was decidedly conservative. When Reagan became the host of “General Electric Theater” that culture seeped into his consciousness.

In 1962, Reagan switched from the Democratic party to the Republican party. He supported the election of Goldwater who ran against President Lyndon Johnson who was mired in the Vietnam war while promoting big government social welfare programs. The influence of Goldwater and the liberalism of the Johnson polices drove Reagan to believe big government was ruining the wealth and opportunity of Americans. He adopted conservative beliefs for economic deregulation, tax cuts that largely benefited the rich, and promoted anti-communist foreign policies. Reagan’s support for conservative policies is exemplified by his “A Time for Choosing” speech supporting Barry Goldwater’s campaign for President in 1964.

In the political climate of the 1960s, Reagan, with the support of GE, runs for Govenor of California. His position as president of the Screen Actors Guild, support of Goldwater, and the public’s perception of inefficiency of state government provided a platform for Reagan to run. The civil rights movement, Vietnam protests, the free speech movement, the Watts riots in LA, and the hippie movement in San Francisco created an environment ripe for conservative reaction. Reagan is elected Governor of California twice, to serve from 1967 to 1975.

Reagan as the Governor of California.

Reagan described his time with GE as a “postgraduate course in political science”.

Reagan’s experience as Governor of California, his Hollywood image, the support of big companies like GE, and the economic issues confronting Carter, give him a platform to run for President of the United States. Todays’ Republicans hold Reagan in high regard. Some view Reagan as one of the best recent presidents of the United States. Those who hold him in high regard cite his economic policies, strong national defense and leadership during the cold war. He believed in small government, lower taxes, and conservative values. Some suggest Trump is Reaganomics second coming.

Reagan runs for President of the United States in 1976. He wins and is re-elected in 1980.

What is not fully understood by some Americans, is the accomplishments of Reagan held some very negative consequences. Some argue he was the prime mover in nuclear weapons reduction. The biography of Gorbachev suggests the prime mover was Gorbachev and his support of glasnost with an opening of Russia to western ideals.

Some, like me, would argue Reagan accelerated economic inequality by giving tax cuts to the wealthy and deregulating the economy.

The federal deficit increased from $70 billion dollars to 152.6 billion dollars during the Reagan presidential years. In comparison to Carter’s administration, the deficit was less than half of Reagan’s at $74 billion dollars. Today’s deficit has grown to 1.83 trillion dollars. Four out of seven presidents (including Trump’s second term) since Reagan have been Republican. The deficit lays at the feet of both parties.

With the election of Trump, who emulates Reagan’s policies, one wonders–how much greater the deficit will be with reduced taxes for the rich and a renewal of economic deregulation.

POWER IN INTIMACY

Purnell’s biography implies the drive to succeed for women is based on intimacy rather than inherent human equality. Though that is not the intent of Purnell, intimacy has historically been the avenue women have had to take in society to open opportunity’s door.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Kingmaker (Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Power, Seduction, and Intrigue)

By: Sonia Purnell

Narrated By: Louise Brealey

Sonia Purnell (Author, British journalist, worked at the news magazine “The Economist”)

Every writer is influenced by the country in which they were born. Sonia Purnell writes an interesting biography of Pamela (Digby-Churchill) Harriman in “Kingmaker” but from the perspective of a British journalist. This is not to argue Purnell’s interesting perspective is wrong but that there is a spin that is nationalist, more than objective, about Pamela Harriman’s life.

During the beginning years of WWII, America avoided the war until Pearl Harbor when it became clear that a policy of isolationism would not work.

The reluctance of many American businessmen and industrialists like Joseph Kennedy and Henry Ford would not see Hitler for what he was, a fascist racist planning to dominate as much of Europe as Germany’s war machine would allow. Some in the American government, like Franklin Roosevelt, understood Hitler was a threat to all of Europe if not America. Roosevelt maneuvered the government to support England with a Lend/Lease program to defend themselves against German aggression, despite a political majority’s desire for isolationism.

A SIDE NOTE: Donald Trump believes a negotiated settlement to cease hostilities, even with losses for Ukraine, is best for America. Trump reminds one of Joseph Kennedy and Henry Ford who implied peace and appeasement would avoid war.

Getting back to Purnell’s history of Pamela Harriman, Purnell explains the important role Pamela played, before Pearl Harbor, that mobilized America’s entry into the war. Pamela Harriman is unquestionably an English patriot. Her close relationship with Winston made her an ideal conduit and influencer in smoothing the relationship between America and the British government. The intimate relationship she developed with Harriman is a tribute to her contribution to the formation of an allied force to defeat Germany.

The massive Lend-Lease program is created in the late 1930s because of the Neutrality Acts that kept America out of direct engagement in the early days of WWII.

The program began in 1939 as a cash and carry program that evolved into a Lend-Lease program in 1941. American could lend or lease military equipment and supplies to any country that allies themselves with the U.S. if it were to enter into the war. The United Kingdom, Russia, and China were considered crucial to any alliance that might be created to defeat Germany. The complexity and logistics of Lend-Lease required astute management by American managers. Harry Hopkins was its first administrator, but Averill Harriman was needed to become a diplomatic political expediter for the process.

Purnell argues the political process in the American/United Kingdom relationship was smoothed and improved by Pamela Digby Harriman who was married to the son of Winston Churchill, Randolph Churchill.

Randolph has at best, a mixed reputation. He was a heavy drinker, reckless, and rude. He was married and divorced twice and had gambling problems that were a constant debt problem that disrupted Pamela’s life. She became closer to Winston Churchill than to her husband and became much more politically involved and astute than her husband in government affairs. That experience made her a perfect match for building a closer relationship with Avrill Harriman that became an affair between two married adults. Harriman was twenty-eight years older than Pamela but had a reputation as a suave ladies’ man.

Purnell reflects on the many affairs of Pamela Churchill Harriman beginning with Averell Harriman, then Edward R. Murrow, and proceeding to John Hay Whitney, Prince Aly Khan, Gianni Agnelli, Alfonso de Portago, Baron Elie de Rothschild, Frederick L. Anderson, Sir Charles Portal, and William S. Paley. The story becomes stale.

There is a cloying sense of unfairness in “Kingmaker ” because Pamela’s skill seems trivialized by her sexuality.

Pamela simply wanted an equal opportunity to succeed in the pursuit of money, power, and prestige, i.e. all the secular objectives men take for granted. Purnell’s biography implies the drive to succeed for women is based on intimacy rather than inherent human equality. Though that is not the intent of Purnell, intimacy has historically been the avenue women have had to take in society to open opportunity’s door.

ROYALTY

Much may be learned in Adam Zamoyski’s biography of Napoleon Bonaparte but too much detail makes it a slog for non-historians.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Napoleon (A Life)

By: Adam Zamoyski

Narrated By: Leighton Pugh

Adam Zamoyski (Author, British historian, descendant of Polish nobility.)

Adam Zamoyski overwhelms reader/listeners with Napoleon’s military campaign details which tempt amateur history buffs to put his book aside. Yes, there was the French revolution but understanding the role of Napoleon’s many military campaigns is too complex for an amateur’s understanding of France’s history. Napoleon’s relationship with famous movers and shakers of his time are important, but Zamoyski’s military campaign details are too much. Napoleon’s break with Paoli and Corsica’s ambivalent relationship with France is interesting but Paoli is a largely unknown person to the general public. International relations between France, Great Britain, Poland, Germany, Prussia, and Russia are left to history buff’s inadequate knowledge of history.

In a number of ways, Zamoyski’s biography of Napoleon is disappointing. It is a definitive biography of a legend, but Zamoyski’s history of Napoleon’s life is too complex for a lay audience.

To a historian, Zamoyski’s book is undoubtedly important but to an amateur it is too detailed. For a dilatant of history, the best one gets from the author is that Napoleon was a tactical genius, a great leader who oddly eschews domestic or war-related violence, while becoming among the greatest conquerors of nations in history. After his many campaigns, he turns his genius into a micro-manager of household concerns, international relations, and France’s disorganized governance. Without a military campaign, his tactical brilliance is wasted on vendettas, extra-marital liaisons, and personal expenditures. On the other hand, Napoleon creates a French financial system that supports a massive miliary force with over 60% of its national budget while reorganizing its government’ inefficiencies.

Napoleon descends from a royal family that endeavors to confirm its paternal and landed interests in Corsica. Not clearly coming from royalty is an obsession that follows Napoleon throughout his life. Since, 1769, Corsica is recognized as a region of France, but it is geographically closer to Italy with a rich history of Italian influence.

There is much in Zamoyski’s biography that one learns about Napoleon Bonapart. The young Napoleon is noted as well-educated self-confident, shy-with-women’ person who has interest and understanding of mathematics and a genius for military tactical plans and maneuvers. Napoleon eventually overcomes his shyness with women but only after becoming a leader of men. His extramarital affairs are noted throughout Zamoyski’s book.

At the age of 9, Zamoyski notes Napoleon is sent to a military academy at Brienne-le-Chateau, and later to the Ecole Milita ire in Paris. In his younger years, Napoleon is characterized as a Corsican patriot who admired Paoli, a leader of Corsican independence from France. However, he chooses to follow France and eventually breaks with Paoli and the history of Corsica. Paoli never gives much attention or respect to Napoleon despite his effort to endear himself.

Pasquale Paoli (1725-1807, Corsican patriot, statesman, and military leader who flees to London after failing to rid Corsica of French rule.)

Bonaparte first develops a relationship with the Robespierre brothers (Maximilien and Augustin) in 1793. Great Britain and Spain were allied with French rebels in southern France and Bonaparte met the brothers in opposition to Royalist rebels. Bonaparte’s tactical brilliance routs southern France rebels and forces the Anglo-Spanish fleet to depart. This became the beginning of Napoleon’s rise to prominence in the French military. He is 24 years of age.

Maximilien Robespierre, a friend of Napoleon. (1758-1794, leader of the Jacobin republican movement in France, is condemned and beheaded on July 28, 1794,)

The Robespierre’ brothers, of which Maximilien is the best known, are associated with the Jacobins, an extreme egalitarian group that fomented a French revolution in 1793-94. Maximillian Robespierre instituted the Reign of Terror with mass executions for which he is eventually guillotined in 1794. With the seeds of rebellion planted by the Jacobins, the French Revolution occurs in 1789 through 1799. Napoleon distances himself from the brothers and the Jacobin movement in 1794. He became a “blue-blooded” Frenchman and abandoned his Corsican roots.

Charles Maurice Camille de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1938, French clergyman, statesman, and leading diplomat. Died at age 84.)

Another interesting relationship noted by the author is between Napoleon and Charle Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, more commonly known as Talleyrand. Talleyrand and Napoleon had a close relationship between 1799 and 1807. Talleyrand acts as France’s Foreign Minister negotiating many treaties that increased Napoleon’s power in both France and Europe. However, Talleyrand becomes critical of Napoleon’s aggressive expansionist policies. He is eventually removed from his ministerial position in 1807.

Czar Alexander I (1777-1825)

In 1805, Czar Alexander joins Russia with Austria in the battles of Austerlitz against Napoleon. However, he switches sides to join Napoleon after Napoleon’s success in Austerlitz. He switches sides again to defeat Napoleon with the British at Waterloo in 1815.

The author notes Talleyrand speaks to Czar Alexander about his concern over Napoleon’s ambition and is alleged to have said he would collude with the Czar to defeat Napoleon. Talleyrand by any measure is a traitor to Napoleon, if not his country. Not surprisingly, Talleyrand (though he remains in Napoleon’s government) had a role in the Bourbon restoration in France after Napoleon’s abdication in 1814.

The diminutive Napoleon next to Czar Alexander I.

One might argue Napoleon did not restore a traditional monarchy but created the First French Empire in 1804. However, this Empire led to the return of the Bourbon monarchy in 1814. Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, Napoleon’s nephew, became Emperor Napoleon III in 1852, and remained so, until his defeat in the Prussian War of 1870. France did not truly become a Republic until 1870.

Considering the origin of the Bonaparte family, it comes as little surprise that Napoleon decides to return France to monarchy by another name by becoming an emperor.

Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (1808-1873, initially became the first president of France in 1848 but became its second Emperor in 1852. He was deposed in 1870.)

Despite Napoleon’s predilection for royalty, Zamoyski notes numerous improvements made by Napoleon’s new role in the governance of France. He established the Napoleonic Code that provided a government framework designed to ensure equal treatment by law, protection of property rights, and individual freedom. He centralized government functions within departments to streamline governance. He instituted educational reforms by establishing secondary schools to train future government employees and military officers. He established a banking system to stabilize the economy. Though Napoleon detained the Pope for interfering with French governance, he liberalized control of church appointments by allowing the state some control.

One comes away from Zamoyski’s Napoleon biography with a deep appreciation of a legend in his time and for all time. As a tactical genius, Napoleon sometimes failed to look beyond an immediate problem, but when it came to understanding what is needed to manage a huge organization, Zamoyski shows Napoleon to be a visionary.

As is well known, Napoleon is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Zamoyski notes Napoleon is exiled to Elba where he escapes and is then interned on Saint Helena where he dies in exile from what is believed to be stomach cancer. He died at the age of 51. Napoleon’s confinement at Saint Helena is a sad end to an incredibly brilliant life.

Much knowledge is provided by Adam Zamoyski’s biography of Napoleon Bonaparte, but too much detail about specific battles makes the book much too long for non-historians.

FRANTZ FANON

Frantz Fanon decried colonization and racism to promote individual dignity and family reconnection in his psychiatric practice

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“The Rebel’s Clinic” The Revolutionary Lives of Frantz Fanon

By: Adam Shatz

Narrated By: Terrence Kidd

Adam Shatz (Author, editor, professor at Bard College)

Adam Shatz introduces Frantz Fanon to listeners. Fanon was a Black Frenchman, born in the colony of Martinique, an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies. Fanon may be classified in many ways but first and foremost one understands he would want to be known as a Frenchman, i.e., a Black individual of French heritage.

Frantz Fanon (1925-1961, graduated from the University of Lyon in France.)

Shatz tells the story of Fanon’s life. Fanon is educated as a psychiatrist who was influenced by Aimé Césaire, a leader of a movement titled Négritude. Négritude was a protest against French colonial rule and assimilation in the early to mid-twentieth century. Fanon lives life by asserting himself as a Black Frenchman with a sense of Black cultural pride.

After an affair with Michele Weyer in college, a daughter is born. The daughter becomes Mirelle Fanon Mendes-France.

Mirelle Fanon Mendes-France (Born in 1948 to Michele Weyer and Frantz Fanon.)

Fanon later marries Marie-Josephe Duble in 1952. Duble was an intellectual, a journalist, and liberation fighter who died in 1989. Fanon and Duble have a son named Olivier who is thought to be engaged with his father’s legacy. Weyer’s and Fanon’s daughter is a scholar and member of the Frantz Fanon Foundation who also works with a United Nations Working Group on African Descent.

Fanon marries a Marie-Josephe Duble. Duble, aka Josie, married Fanon in 1952.

Shatz explains how much more Fanon was than a psychiatrist. Some suggest Fanon was a Marxist because of his anti-colonial beliefs but Fanon’s philosophy extended far beyond Marxist belief in society as an economic class struggle. Fanon was equally concerned about sexism, racism, and colonialism. He embraced a form of humanism. Fannon believed in self-identification as an acculturation process. He considered himself a Black Frenchman, born on a French colonialist island in the West Indies. His life experience as a minority in a colonial country led him to become a practicing psychiatrist in Algeria.

In the 1950s, Algeria was largely populated by Muslim Arabs with a minority of European nationalities.

Arabs in Algeria were poorly treated at a hospital Fanon joined in 1953. He gradually improved their treatment by opening doors to their ethnic identify. Algeria began a fight for independence in 1954. The movement was for social democracy within an Islamic framework that would offer equal citizenship for all citizens of the country. Fanon did not align himself with any religion in what became a violent conflict between French colonization and those who identified themselves as Algerian.

Fanon conflated imperialism and colonialism with racism by institutionalizing control over another based on cultural and/or racial bias.

Shatz shows who Fanon became in the way he treated his patients in Algeria. Fanon argued mentally troubled patients needed to be reconnected to their families and community rather than institutionalized.

Fanon’s focus was on the psychological impact of human torture and the tit for tat revenge of French occupiers and the Algerian resistance.

Fanon was sympathetic to the Arab desire for freedom and independence for citizens of a country searching for its own identity. Shatz shows Fanon abhorred colonization and its social restrictions. Shatz infers he equally abhorred the revolution’s leaders and followers who tortured and murdered non-combatants, including children. What happened in Algeria reminds one of today’s daily slaughter of children and non-combatants in Ukraine and Gaza.

Algeria became an independent nation in 1962 with its own government, culture, and identity. Its ethnic and cultural identity remains the same today as then. It is considered a Muslim country with a majority being Sunni Muslims whose practices play a prominent role in their daily life.

Frantz Fanon dies at the age of 36 from leukemia in 1961, 7 years after the Algerian uprising.

An interesting point in the biography of Fanon is that he recognizes himself as Black in a country that does not commonly describe themselves as people of color but as Algerian Arabs, Berbers, or Europeans. Fanon grows to believe he is Algerian but identifies himself as Black. Black is a broader category of race that makes his story applicable to a wider world but magnifies real-world discrimination based on the color of one’s skin rather than the truth of equal humanness. Of course, as the author notes, the color of skin in Africa is predominantly black and became a frontier for colonization between 1884 and the 1960s.

AFRICA BECAME THE FRONTIER FOR COLONIZATION BETWEEN 1884 AND THE 1960s.

Shatz infers Fanon fought the good fight. He decried colonization and racism to promote individual dignity and family reconnection in his psychiatric practice. He wrote about and aided people who were different, underserved, and underrepresented. He wrote two books about his life experience to explain why colonialization and racism were culturally wrong and socially destructive. “Black Skin, White Masks” was published in 1952, and “The Wretched of the Earth” in 1961.

LIFE’S DEMONS

A sad ending to a remarkable human being.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“Robin”

By: Dave Itzkoff

Narrated By: Fred Berman

Dave Itzkoff (Author, American journalist, former culture reporter for the NYT.)

Dave Itzkoff produces an insightful and well written biography of Robin Williams. Robin Williams was a spectacular actor and comedic genius who brightened the lives of many while hiding a personal insecurity and a self-critical demon.

The author’s story is an audiobook delight because of its author and narrator. The narrator, Fred Berman, offers a reminder of Robin Williams incredible ability to entertain an audience with human observations and ethnic expressions that make one laugh.

Berman is not Robin, but he is enough of a mimic to help listeners understand the ways in which Robin was a genius. Itzkoff completes that categorization by explaining how Robin could read a script in one sitting and recite it verbatim at a next day’ rehearsal.

Williams became friends with famous future actors at Julliard.

Williams was admitted to Julliard as a promising actor. Julliard is noted for rigorous training, and imaginative daring. Julliard was an introduction to performance opportunities in New York city. However, his undisciplined character cost him the opportunity of graduating. Nevertheless, association with Julliard paid dividends in later years because of its reputation. One close friend was Christopher Reeves of Superman fame who, as is well known, became paralyzed later in life from a horse-riding accident. Reeves died in 2004, ten years before William’s suicide.

Williams was a father of two boys and a girl, born from two marriages. His first marriage ended after ten years with one child born in 1983, Zachary Williams. His second marriage to Marsha Garces lasts for two decades with the birth of a girl and boy, Zelda and Cody. Itzkoff implies both marriages end because of Robin’s self-critical demon. Robin lets the demon loose with insobriety. Drugs and alcohol magnify his fears and distort his relationship with others. Both marriages failed as alcohol and drugs entered, left, and reentered his life.

What was surprising to some who read this biography, were the number of movies Robin Williams worked in either as a lead or supporting actor.

Williams was in over 70 films, some of which became block busters. Some were duds but others received high acclaim. Among the most memorable were “Good Morning, Vietnam”, “Dead Poets Society”, “Awakenings”, “Mrs. Doubtfire” “Good Will Hunting”, and “Aladdin”. Some were bombs at the box office while these six had some negative reviews but blockbuster revenues. Williams received an Oscar for best supporting actor in “Good Will Hunting”.

Some think of Williams as a stand-up comic that reminds one of Jonathan Winters, a close friend of Robin’s.

Others remember the television show “Mork and Mindy” where Robin played a space alien coming to earth. The versatility of Williams is revelatory in Itzkoff’s biography. Itzkoff notes the many friends Williams had and how generous he was with his time and support of others. When Cristopher Reeve’s accident happened, the support offered by Williams is touchingly explained by Itzkoff.

Throughout the biography, a listener becomes aware of the destructive impact of drugs and alcohol on William’s life.

In his first marriage, William’s growing fame gave him access to all the cocaine he wanted. He comes to a realization that his addiction was out of control when John Belushi, his friend, dies in an overdose on the same night they were together. This was 1982. In 1988, his first wife, Valerie Velardi divorced him. In 1989, Williams married Marsha Garces.

Robin Williams’ demon does not disappear but becomes quiet in his mind as he becomes sober.

Williams life with Marsha broke him away from drugs and alcohol for several years. Williams and Marsha succeeded in having a daughter and son together. Marsha managed to get him away from the life of drugs and alcohol. The demon in Williams’ mind returned in the last years of his marriage to Marsha when he returned to drugs and alcohol. Williams hanged himself in 2014. He and his wife, Marsha were divorced. Sometime after his second divorce, Williams was married a third time.

A few months before his suicide, Williams was misdiagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

It was found in autopsy that Williams had Lewy body dementia, a debilitating brain disease that is symptomatically similar to Parkinson’s. Williams’ demon was Lewy body dementia, a brain disorder that causes depression, anxiety, and paranoia. Clinically, LBD is caused by abnormal proteins. One wonders whether those abnormal proteins were always in Williams’ body. Were they always there or stimulated by his addictions? In any case, it was a sad ending to a remarkable human being.

NUCLEAR RISK & REWARD

The two edges of nuclear physics that may save or destroy the world is still with us. The best humanity can hope for is balance between human nature and science.

Blog: awalkingdelight

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“American Prometheus” The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

By: Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

Narrated by: Jeff Cummings

Kai Bird (American author and columnist who wrote about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Born in 1951.)

Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin tell the story of America’s “god of fire”. Like the myth of Prometheus who reveals Olympian gods’ knowledge of fire, J. Robert Oppenheimer reveals physicists’ secrets of nuclear fission that give atomic power to humanity. Their history tells listeners of the risk entailed in research and production of nuclear bombs.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967, Died at the age of 62.)

Bird and Sherwin offer an intimate and revealing story of J. Robert Oppenheimer that reveals his genius, his human frailty, his growth as a project manager, and the abysmal way American government treated his historic achievements.

Like Promethius’s fire, the heat of atomic power can destroy or benefit humanity.

Every student of history knows of atomic powers potential to destroy.

NEVER AGAIN?

Though Bird’s and Sherwin’s history is more about Oppenheimer’s life than his discoveries, it seems prudent to note Oppenheimer discovered the Born-Oppenheimer molecular wave functions about how electrons and positrons work. Oppenheimer also worked with fellow physicist William Phillips on the Oppenheimer-Phillips process in nuclear fusion with work on what is called quantum tunneling. Though Oppenheimer was nominated for a Nobel Prize three times, he never won. Phillips and Steven Chu receive the Nobel in 1997.

Max Born (German/British physicist, 1882-1970)

The great controversy surrounding Oppenheimer is his association with communism. Bird and Sherwin clearly acknowledge the association but convincingly argue Oppenheimer was an American patriot who contributed to communist social welfare programs without being a card-carrying member of the CP.

“American Promethius” illustrates Oppenheimer’s growth as a consummate manager of a complex organization that could successfully develop a weapon of mass destruction, an atomic bomb that can end war. However, as history shows, the atom bomb may end a world war, but nuclear bombs become a threat to human existence by any nation that acquires the same technology.

Los Alamos National Laboratory entrance located a short distance NW of Santa Fe, NM

The first atomic bomb exploded on July 16, 1945 in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

The authors show Oppenheimer’s understanding of an atom bomb’s threat by quoting the Bhagavad Gita. “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Oppenheimer refuses to continue research on Edward Teller’s plan to create a fusion bomb of even greater destructive potential. Teller succeeds in creating that bomb. Oppenheimer recognizes any small or large nation that gains fusion bomb technology increases a threat to humanity.

The second atomic bomb test at Bikini Atoll was a fusion bomb released on July 25, 1946. The Marshall Islands, where Bikini is located, is suing the U.S. for what it calls a violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Edward Teller was a leading physicist who worked on the Los Alamos project. Teller’s difficult interpersonal relations and volatile personality made him an important influencer, and defamer of Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer refuses to continue research on a fusion bomb because of its destructive potential and its potential influence in an arms race.

Edward Teller (1908-2003) Hungarian American, theoretical physicist who was the principal inventor of the hydrogen bomb based on the principle of fusion. It’s destructive potential from heat and light are substantially greater than the two nuclear bombs dropped on Japan.)

Teller and an American German physicist, Hans Bethe a team leader, come to lager heads when Bethe agrees with Oppenheimer’s’ focus on a fission rather than fusion bomb. Teller fell out with his team leader, as well as Oppenheimer, over the disagreement.

Hans Bethe (1906-2005, received a Nobel Prize in 1967 for the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis.)

The arrival of Niels Bohr (1885-1962) at Los Alamos in 1943 raises a fundamental concern about creation of a weapon of mass destruction. Bohr’s concern is a nation’s failure to share nuclear physics technology about the bomb with allied forces, particularly Russia, to avoid an international arms race.

Bohr believes scientific cooperation would reduce the probability of an arms race. Bohr’s view seems idealistic in light of today’s history, but the idea is adopted by Oppenheimer. Nuclear weapons have become widely coveted by weaker economic nations of the world because of their political systems failure to improve the lives of their citizens.

Human nature is not overcome by technological sharing because of differences in fundamental religious and political beliefs.

Pursuit of the bomb is just another tool to accelerate national leaders’ political or religious beliefs. Niels Bohr’s noble idea and Oppenheimer’s acknowledgement of the value of sharing science is victim to national leaders’ beliefs and human nature.

A nation like North Korea covets the bomb because it gives them the ability to punch (negotiate or fight) above their weight. A nation like Iran is led by a religious leader who only views the modern world in light of a beneficent afterlife.

Katherine Oppenheimer. Robert’s wife (1910-1972, German American biologist, botanist, and member of the Communist Party.)

A disturbing note about Oppenheimer is his marriage to his wife, Katherine “Kitty” Puening whom he married in 1940. Kitty became pregnant before they married. They had two children, a boy and girl. This is Kitty’s fourth marriage. Neither parent seems to show much interest in their children. Kitty is shown to be a free spirit, beautiful and charming who generally supports Oppenheimer in his job at Los Alamos. One wonders how their children were affected by their parents’ neglect. Their daughter committed suicide in 1977. The boy still lives in New Mexico and makes a living as a carpenter.

In 1947, Oppenheimer is recruited by Princeton to head a new organization that is called the Institute for Advanced Study. Because of frequent trips to Washington D.C. and the attraction of running a broad organization for the study of science and humanities, Oppenheimer chooses to take the position. His team management experience at Los Alamos and his broad interest in the humanities make Oppenheimer a perfect match for the position. With millions of dollars set aside for the Institute, Oppenheimer attracts the best and brightest science and humanities luminaries from around the world. Einstein, Kurt Godel, John von Neumann, George Kennan, T.S. Eliot, and too many more to mention, were recruited by Oppenheimer. Some were at the height of their professions and became Nobel Prize winners.

The last chapters of “American Prometheus” address the investigation of Oppenheimer’s communist associations during the McCarthy era.

His greatest initial concern was for his brother, Frank, who had joined the communist party. However, the wide range of the investigation and the zealous pursuit of Lewis Strauss, a former shoe salesman who chaired the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), results in Oppenheimer’s security clearance being stripped. His reputation is unfairly diminished by overzealous politicians and investigators ranging from the FBI director to the AEC chairman.

One leaves this history with a feeling of shame about how Oppenheimer is treated by some and over-praised by others. No human being is without faults, regardless of their intelligence and ability. Oppenheimer was an American patriot who served America with what it needed in the circumstances of his time.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (center) receives the 1963 Enrico Fermi Award from President Lyndon B. Johnson at a White House ceremony on December 2, 1963, as then AEC chairman Glenn Seaborg (left) looks on. (Photo: DOE). He died at age 62 in 1967.

The two edges of nuclear physics that may save or destroy the world is still with us. The best humanity can hope for is balance between human nature and science.

SCHIZOPHRENIA

Being one of “The Best Minds” is of little help in coping with schizophrenia’s symptoms.

Blog: awalkingdelight

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“The Best Minds” A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions

By: Jonathan Rosen

Narrated by: Jonathan Rosen

Jonathan Rosen (Author, Yale graduate–Accepted but dropped out of a PhD English program at Berkeley.)

Jonathan Rosen tells the story of his boyhood and adult friendship with Michael, a boy of his age who excels academically and professionally as a young graduate of Yale. Michael has a mental breakdown in his early twenties. He is diagnosed as schizophrenic. Rosen compares his years of adolescence with Michael’s.

Rosen’s stricken friend excels in every academic and business pursuit he undertakes before his slip into schizophrenia. In reflecting on the boy’s relationship, Rosen explains his perception of himself is as a grade school and high school plodder who prefers literature to math and the sciences. In contrast, Rosen suggests Michael’s academic qualities give him the ability to read, understand, and recite literary and science subjects with the ease of a savant. Michael reads everything with speed and understanding while Rosen labors over his studies.

The irony of Rosen’s perception of himself is that despite their differences, both he and Michael are accepted at Yale.

Rosen becomes an editor of the University’ newspaper, and later, a published author. Michael aspires to the editorship of the Yale paper, tries to become a published author, but is unsuccessful. Before graduation, Michael is recruited by a prestigious publicly held investment firm and seems on his way to great wealth and success. Instead, Rosen explains Michael leaves the investment company and begins to lose his way in life. Michael slips into a schizophrenic state that diminishes his eidetic memory and gives him a combination of debilitating psychological symptoms. At the height of Michael’s illness, he threatens his mother with a knife. With the persuasion of his father, Michael agrees to admit himself to a psychological ward which finally diagnosis his schizophrenia.

Michael, Rosen’s brilliant childhood friend, is admitted to a psychiatric ward for treatment designed to isolate and medicate its patients into a fog of confusion that is designed to lessen paranoid depression.

Rosen’s long introduction of himself and Michael seems prelude to an explanation of the ineptitude of the American psychiatric industry. Michael’s journey is an indictment of the American system of treatment for mental dysfunction. Michael is eventually discharged but is placed in a group home with other patients suffering from mental dysfunction. They share bedrooms with medications designed to isolate and offer palliative care that deadens their psychological symptoms.

Michael continues his treatment with the aid of minimal income from a government disability program that helps pay for his accommodation and psychoanalytic therapy.

He is directed to reengage life by his therapist with work as a clerk at a Macy’s Department Store. Michael’s father is incensed by the therapist’s diminishment of his son’s accomplishments and begins a campaign to have Yale reengage his son in pursuit of a law degree. With the help of Yale’s faculty, Michael is readmitted to the University.

Ironically, the Yale faculty and students become a caring haven that helps Michael cope with his medical condition.

However, Yale’s help is only palliative, not curative. Michael remains schizophrenic, only ameliorated by drugs and the calming influence of Yale students and faculty. His paranoia continues and becomes more severe when his father dies.

Schizophrenia affects only 1% of the population but has a higher risk of contraction from first degree relatives. (Michael’s grandmother was diagnosed with the disease.)

Michael seems on a road toward managed recovery with a detailed intellectual explanation of what schizophrenia is to him and how it creates delusional images that threaten his existence. His intellectual ability to explain his illness to the public attracts book publishers and the film industry to offer him over a million dollars for a book and film about his life. As this financial windfall becomes real, Michael and his fiancé plan to marry.

On June 17, 1998 Michael B. Laudor stabs his pregnant fiancé, Caroline Costello.

In a schizophrenic episode, Michael grabs his fiancé from behind, stabs her several times, and cuts her throat. Michael leaves her to die on their kitchen floor. Rosen notes that Michael quit taking his medication. He lost control in an episode of paranoia that viewed his fiancé as a maleficent alien presence. It seems a recurrence of what happened with his mother when he was thankfully convinced by his father to voluntarily commit himself to a hospital ward.

What becomes increasingly clear in Rosen’s biographical story is that there is no cure for schizophrenia.

Schizophrenic treatment is a life-long process that requires medication and a support system from caring caregivers, both professional and familial. Being one of “The Best Minds” is of little help in coping with schizophrenia’s symptoms. It requires lifelong assistance because it affects a person’s thinking, emotions, and interactions with the world.

Michael is charged with second-degree murder but is found not guilty by reason of mental defect. He is eventually committed to the Mid-Hudson Forensic Psychotherapy Center in New Hampton, New York in which he remains as of 2023.

(This is a terrible and tragic story. Rosen’s detailed research shows Caroline Costello was a good person, willing to help others, intending to adopt her husband’s faith, and trying to care for Michael in his struggle with an incurable brain dysfunction.)

NORTH KOREAN LEADERSHIP

Like the longevity of Putin, and Assad, Kim Jung-Un is as likely to stay in power as long as the people who protect him are living better lives than the majority of their country’s citizens.

Blog: awalkingdelight

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

“The Great Successor”

“The Divinely Perfect Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jung Un”

By: Anna Fifield

Anna Fifield (Author, Asia-Pacific editor at The Washington Post.)

PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA: This file picture dated 15 April 1992 shows North Korean President Kim Il-Sung waving during the celebration marking his 80th birthday at Kim Il-Sung stadium in Pyongyang. The Chinese government announced last week it would not send “anyone” to attend Il-Sung’s 92nd anniversary in response to North Korea’s refusal of international nuclear inspections. (Photo credit should read JIJI PRESS/AFP/Getty Images)

Anna Fifield offers a cloudy picture of today’s authoritarian leader of North Korea in “The Great Successor”. The reclusive and secretive nature of North Korea’s leadership makes Fifield’s analysis of Kim Jung-Un somewhat compromised. Her analysis is based on interviews of estranged North Korean’ exiles, other book writers, and news reporters about a regime that is notoriously opaque.

Despite the potential bias of secondhand information, Fifield shows a leader who exercises despotic control over 26 million people.

Kim Jung-Un (Supreme leader of North Korea.)

Fifield argues that North Korea’s government control is based on a cadre of carefully screened and highly benefited sycophants that obey Kim Jung-Un’s orders. At the age of 28 or 29, on December 17, 2011, Kim Jong-Un became the leader of North Korea after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.

Kim’s most definitive action after appointment is to discredit his uncle, Jang Song-thaek who had government power and great influence in North Korea’s relationship with China and other sympathetic countries.

Fifield suggests Kim Jong-Un’s youth required assertiveness for him to show leadership legitimacy. The 67-year-old, Jang Song-thaek is accused by Kim of attempting to overthrow the state. He is executed on December 11, 2013, two years after Kim’s ascension. Fifield argues this action by Kim sent a message to his government employees and the public that he is in charge of North Korea.

**Though the North Korean economy is nearer third world standards, the underground economy helps the poor raise their standard of living.**

Fifield notes two critical factors that aid Kim Jong-Un’s control of North Korea. One is the fear created by his governments control of surveillance and propaganda. The other is his tolerance for an underground capitalist movement that bribes public officials while providing citizens added income.

**Kim Jong-Un’s successful drive for a nuclear bomb gave him a position in the world of nuclear threat that tempers any nation-state’ action against his regime.**

Fifield infers Kim Jong-Un is smart, his actions calculated, and his control of the country formidable. A primary example of Kim’s calculation is the story Fifield tells of his negotiation with President Trump. Kim manages to be the first leader of North Korea to meet with a President of the United States. Trump complimented Kim as a “strong guy”, a “great negotiator” and that he had a “very good relationship with him”. Fifield explains Kim’s success with the nuclear bomb program encouraged him to redirect his focus to modernizing the country and its economy.

Kim praised President Trump while leaving the idea of nuclear disarmament as a possible negotiable issue in return for American help with the economy. Fifield suggests Kim has no intention of abandoning his nuclear bomb program.

Fifield suggests Kim’s focus became the economy with an increased incentive to normalize relations with America. (In 2023, Kim’s failure to improve relations seems to have reignited his nuclear bomb ambitions with more testing and further rocket delivery tests.)

Very little was known about Kim Jung-Un before his ascendence to leadership. He received his early education in North Korea and Switzerland. He was strongly supported by his mother who promoted him to the then leader of North Korea, Kim il Sung, who wanted continuation of the Sung dynasty, the Mount Paektu bloodline, of which Kin Jun-Un represents.

Kim Jung-Un has two sisters, one half-brother, and one brother. The younger brother, born in 1981, Kim Jong-chul (on the lower right), lives a low-profile life in Pyongyang with no interest in government. The half-brother, Kim Jon-nam, was assassinated in Malaysia in 2017. The older sister, Kim Sul-song (upper left) is a worker in the propaganda department that supports Kim Jong-Un and his leadership but has more recently been sidelined. A sister who is younger than Kim Jung-Un is characterized as a publicity diplomat. She appears accommodating within the limits of Kim Jun-Un’s influence and control.

Fifield’s book is interesting but not particularly enlightening. Kim Jung-Un may be on the world stage for a long time. The Ukraine invasion by Russia, along with China’s support gives North Korea added weight in world affairs. Like the longevity of Putin, and Assad, Kim Jung-Un is as likely to stay in power as long as the people who protect him are living better lives than the majority of their country’s citizens.

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