William F. Buckley, Jr.Critiques

Some nice Buckley snark, but lots of filler too.

William F. Buckley Jr's postmortem of his impossible campaign to become mayor of New York is entertaining, thought-provoking and witty. The Unmaking of a Mayor has no right to continued relevance after the passage of sixty years; the personalities and many of the issues have disappeared like so much subway smoke rising from the grilles of Manhattan's streets. But Buckley's prose (which cascades rather than sparkling) continues to communicate its vital message and delights the reader every step of the way. Though many of the battles Buckley was fighting have been won (and lost again) since the 1960s, The Unmaking of a Mayor remains an enduring record of what happens when the critic mounts the hustings. Highly recommended.

First edition -good

OK review of what happened in Germany with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the politics of how the Cold War ended with Gorbachev etc. Good for an overall view but I learned more details from another book how some misunderstandings led to the opening of the Wall.

A good collection of Reagan stories from Buckley. Showing both the brains and wit of Reagan and Buckley.½

Great. Outstanding antidote to the current (it is always current) imagining that these times (and only THESE times) are seeing the apocalyptic breakdown of political civility. This book reminds that things were in many ways far worse in the 68-72 time period. Skewering portraits of Wm. Kunstler, SDS... even Humphey. Elegant style, though reading so much at one time, I come to expect it almost as a formula from Buckley rather than being amazed at it when I read in small doses. An excellent on the ground history of the feeling / zeitgeist at the time rather than just the too easy recollection and summary of a time.

קשה להאמין ש 75 שנה אחרי שהספרון הזה נכתב הוא עדיין נקרא ומשפיע. קשה גם להבין איך הצליח בקלי להפוך את כתב הפלסטר הזה נגד ייל שכתב בגיל 24 שרובו עוסק ברכילות אישית ובטעונים חסרי היגיון וייסון, לתשתית לא רק של הקריירה של עצמו כי עם גם לאבן היסוד של התנועה השמרנית באמריקה. הדבר היחידי שניתן לומר לטובת הספר הוא העיסוק הרציני בספר ובסערה שעורר בשאלות בסיסיות לגבי החינוך וההשכלה הגבוהה בארה"ב½

Another re-read for me, the third of the four "sailing" books by WFB. (I will reread Airborne, the first, in a few weeks.)

Much like the journey from Honolulu to New Guinea which this book covers, some of the writing is tedious, especially some of the more detailed navigation passages. I come away with more friendship here, but miss more detail about the food, the drink, that games played on board.

It's good, it's consistent in many ways with the others in its class, but it misses a purpose. We don't get a good sense of what sailing the Pacific is there for. Which may be exactly the point, I suppose. There's so much Pacific and 30 days is so little time ... too much of what the crew — and the reader — gets here is the water.

While this was an interesting collection of obituaries, I found the writer rather appealing. Some of the reflections on dead, dying, still living friends, colleagues, enemies and assorted others were certainly quite witty. Many of them were rather self-centered, and all rather elitist and snobbish. If this is the father of modern conservatism then that explains a lot about today’s politics.

Summary: When a charismatic German who fought against the Nazis in the resistance in Norway campaigns to become Chancellor on a platform to reunite Germany, Soviets and Americans come together to block this, with Blackford Oakes at the center, restoring a family chapel of the candidate.

Count Axel Wintergren participated in the Nazi invasion of Poland, disappearing and turning over Nazi invasion plans to the Poles. For the remainder of the war, he fought with the resistance in Norway, returning to his village and family enclosure after the war. Elections for the Chancellorship in West Germany are coming with Konrad Adenauer the leading candidate. That is until Wintergren. Over the months, he has slowly built a following throughout the country, then announced his candidacy. The country is electrified with this youthful face with a radical idea that captures their hearts: reunite Germany. Outside of Germany no one likes this idea. Not the Soviets whose sphere of influence includes East Germany. Not the Americans who recognize the possibility that World War III could break out with NATO dangerously unprepared and the only deterrent being America’s nuclear arsenal.

Enter Blackford Oakes, whose engineering skills qualify him to restore the St. Anselm chapel on Wintergren’s estate, allowing him to get close to Wintergren, to pass along intelligence, to dissuade…and more? There are two surprises for the Americans. One is that Oakes cover is blown. Chief KBG agent for Europe Boris Bolgin know who he’s working on. The other is that the Soviets have their own agent, Erika Chadinoff, working as Wintergren’s translator. The bug in Oakes’ room at the chateau traces back to her room.

All of this brings the Americans and Soviets into a most unlikely alliance. Wintergren must be stopped. When attempts to torpedo his standings in the polls through apparently compromising personal information fail and backfire, they conclude there is only one option left, to eliminate Wintergren. Both Bolgin and his CIA counterpart look to Oakes to do the deed.

There is just one problem. Oakes has come to respect and admire Wintergren as one of a kind in his generation. Meanwhile, Wintergren’s security man has growing suspicions of Oakes, as does Wintergren’s mother. All this with global thermonuclear conflict hanging in the balance.

Actually, it doesn’t fall to Oakes alone. Erika Chadinoff is in on the alliance. Actually, they had already formed an intimate alliance of sorts, the typical spies in bed trope, despite Blackford’s relationship with Sally back home. It almost felt to me a bit obligatory and predictable. Far better, and more consonant with Buckley’s values would have been an unconsummated relationship, albeit with some sexual tension thrown in. That would have been more interesting.

The shame of this is that it wasn’t needed. The build up to the election, the moral dilemma and the international ramifications are plenty to make this an interesting story. The bromance between Wintergren and Oakes is far more riveting than the romance.

Typical Buckley: many fancy words, too long. Story OK, but padded.

This is the third in the Blackford Oakes series of mysteries, written by William F. Buckley Jr. -- yes, that William F. Buckley. Whatever you may think of Mr. Buckley's political ideas and influence, he was certainly a brilliant writer, and that lights up this series. In addition, they have the charm of nostalgia and atmosphere. This one puts Blackie in Paris, involved in a series of machinations in the race to put a satellite in space, as well as in the aftermath of the Hungarian uprising. Didn't like it quite as much as the first and second books in the series, but certainly liked it well enough to proceed to number four.

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I was interested in reading this book because I had heard that it had an LDS protagonist. After reading it, I have to say that it is one of the oddest books I've ever read. It's an historical novel whose apparent purpose is to give a behind-the-scenes look at the American conservative movement from 1960 to 1965, with particular emphasis on the marginalization of the John Birch Society and the self-destruction of Ayn Rand's Objectivist movement. There are 4 pages of notes at the end, which Buckley includes to show that he's not making the important parts up.

The parts that Buckley did make up, including the LDS protagonist Woodroe Raynor and his Objectivist girlfriend Leonora Goldstein, are remarkably bland. Maybe I've been reading some really well-written books recently, because, in comparison to what I'm now used to, the writing in Getting It Right seems mediocre at best. I've been a Buckley fan for over 40 years and own lots of his books, so I was quite shocked at how little I cared for this latest one.

I remember a Buckley newspaper column that appeared in the 1980s (I think) that praised the selfless labors of LDS missionaries. I appreciated the plug, but the column left me with the impression that Buckley didn't know much about what Mormon missionary service was really about. Getting It Right strengthened that impression. Woodroe served his mission in Austria in 1955 and, as far as I can tell, did absolutely no proselytizing but instead taught English classes. Maybe restrictions on the Church in Austria at the time prevented tracting, but it seems odd that Woodroe has no companion, has practically no apparent involvement with religion, and apparently gets to do pretty much what he wants where he wants when he's not teaching class.

Woodroe has sex with a girl he meets in Hungary during his mission and is apparently best described as a lapsed Mormon in the account of his post-mission life, in which he drinks, swears, and fornicates fairly regularly. There is, however, a curious conversation he has with Theocritus Romney, a (lapsed?) Mormon professor at Princeton, in which Woodroe says: "I can't remember if in your course you commented on how the Chinese railroad workers were treated when they crossed God's country. That's *our* *God*, Theo. I haven't forgotten. Other Christians get it almost right. We get it *all* right." I didn't read this remark as sarcastic. Does he still believe? If so, why all the wayward behavior, behavior for which he apparently feels no guilt whatsoever?

Some random comments:

(1) Why the name Woodroe? Sure, Mormons have weird names, but that doesn't sound much like anything on the Utah Baby Namer to me.

(2) There are interesting references to Utah geography. Woodroe is allegedly from Salt Lake but he shows the people he meets in Hungary where that is by making "a pencil dot on the north end of the Great Salt Lake". North? Theocritus Romney is painting a mural on his (New Jersey) ceiling that is supposed to show "the view of the Rockies as seen from the window of his parents' Utah house", including "eleven peaks he had framed in memory". The 3 peaks mentioned by name are Provo Peak, Mt. Timpanogos, and Mt. Olympus. I'm not sure that there was a populated location that long ago from which you could see Provo Peak and Mt. Olympus.

(3) In 1962, Theocritus makes some comment to Woodroe about visiting a lady friend in New York and adds, "I know what you're thinking. I'm rather old for that. Well, I'm only seventy-two. Your Ezra Taft Benson is what, a hundred and seven?" Why the impression that President Benson was old in 1962? He was 63 at the time. Comparing that to the age of some of the major real-life characters in the book, Robert Welch (founder of the JBS) was only 3 months younger, Goldwater was 10 years younger, Rand was 6 years younger, and Eisenhower was 10 years older, but Buckley didn't make a big deal about their ages.

(4) Most interesting fact I learned from this book: Alan Greenspan was once part of Ayn Rand's inner circle.

(5) It is *really* weird hearing the omniscient narrator repeatedly refer to "Bill Buckley" in the third person.

This is the second in William Buckley's series of spy thrillers, and is at least as good as the first. The post-war setting is vividly presented, the characters are interesting and well-rounded, and the plot makes the book hard to put down. The book also looks explicitly at a question that usually lurk well below the surface of spy novels -- what happens when national interest runs into personal morality? On to the next --½

This is the first in William Buckley's series of spy novels, and it starts the series off with a bang. The evocation of time and place are brilliant, the characters are engaging, and the plot is compelling. Buckley was of course an extraordinary writer, but he also had CIA experience to bring to bear. Finding this novel was a treat for me -- there are ten more in the series!

Nothing new here except a grand tour of William F Buckley's circle of personal friends, acquaintances and, of course, his polysyllabic reflections on their lives. Much of this is repeated from Buckley's "Miles Gone By," but much was new to me, especially James Rosen's commentary and fluid prose. Mr. Buckley would approve, and so do I – not that it matters. A must for all readers of William F. Buckley.

Summary: Oakes becomes involved in a plot to abduct a Soviet scientist couple involved in the research to launch Sputnik.

CIA agent Blackford Oakes leaves Hungary with the memory of the execution of Theophilus Molnar during the quenched Hungarian uprising of 1956. Having provided access to a "safe" house, somehow his safety is betrayed, Molnar is arrested, and executed on the spot.

Vadim and Viktor sustained each other through eight years in the Gulag. Both were scientist arrested for "anti-Soviet" agitation. Viktor believes Vadim saved his life by giving him hope. Later Vadim defects, and becomes involved with the CIA as "Serge."

The Soviet Union and the United States are in a mad race for space, to put the first satellite in orbit. Each has technical problems, which if solved would clear the way to launch. Each has the answers the other needs.

All these factors come together in Paris when Viktor and his wife Tamara are in Paris for a scientific conference. It is decided to abduct the couple, who are working on the critical research, using the friendship with Vadim to elicit their co-operation. Oakes is enlisted as a taxi driver to abduct them during a staged bus breakdown, with a cover plot of an Algerian radical group seeking an exchange of weapons for hostages.

Unbeknownst to Oakes, KGB agent Bolgin knows Oakes is in Paris. A mole in the French resistance develops a plot to seize and execute Oakes. Oakes, recognized in photos at the abduction scene, unknowingly betrays the kidnapping as a CIA operation. The attempt to obtain Russian secrets jeopardizes the lives of Oakes, and Viktor and Tamara. Along with the death of Theo, all of this raises questions for Oakes, questions that if he survives could end his career. Meanwhile, questions of a different sort at a higher level raise the question of whether winning the space race is worth it, even as a critical operation to sink a Russian freighter carrying a critical piece of technology is counting down to zero hour.

Buckley weaves a compact, fast paced espionage novel around these elements. He recalls the mood that existed in the Cold War era leading up to the launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957, an event that actuated a military and scientific effort in the United States anticipated in this novel. He exposes the moral dilemmas of what Cold War maneuvering meant for the individuals whose futures and even lives might be sacrificed in covert efforts to attain a benchmark of supremacy. Having missed this series when it first came out, I'm glad for the second chance afforded by the folks at Open Road Media.

"See You Later Alligator" is my first fictional work by William F. Buckley, and being familiar with its author's political views, I was prepared to dislike it. To the contrary, I rather enjoyed it. Far from being the right-wing anticommunist screed that I'd feared, it was clever and imaginative. In fact, I felt like the author was having a great deal of fun in writing it.

The novel takes place during John Kennedy's presidency, specifically in the months prior to the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The Bay of Pigs debacle has already taken place, and the Soviet Union is secretly transporting nuclear weapons to Cuba. The protagonist Blackford Oakes, a CIA-trained field operative, has been chosen by Kennedy to try to ease tensions with Cuba. Che Guevara, with whom he negotiates, is concerned that Fidel Castro is allowing Cuba to fall into the orbit of the USSR, and sees a chance to avoid that possibility. He suggests that in return for a US promise not to invade Cuba and a normalization of trade, that Cuba would not establish a military alliance with the Soviet Union and would reconsider its policy of aiding revolutions throughout Latin America. Castro, in contrast, sees the negotiations as a way to delay an expected invasion from the US, in order to allow the Soviet missiles to be installed and armed.

The cat- and- mouse game between Oakes and Guevara provide most of the novel's interest, along with the divergent perspectives of Guevara and Castro. Kennedy himself is portrayed occasionally in the novel, in ways not very complimentary; here Buckley's political perspective shines through. In contrast, Guevara is painted as a complex, interesting character, although of course one entirely untrustworthy and ultimately, murderous. The novel's plot includes a love interest, a harrowing escape, betrayal, courage, and retribution. When Guevara has been captured in Bolivia, years later, Oakes makes no effort to stop him from being killed -- a bit of retribution for Che's having killed Oakes' lover years earlier

Buckley's afterword specifies the sources he used in construction his portraits of Castro and Che; for the latter, he relied in part on an account by Richard Goodwin [a staff member in JFK's administration] in the New Yorker. As for the fictional negotiations between Oakes and Che, they are well- based in fact, i.e., discussion between Che and Goodwin in Uruguay in 1961. When news of the Che - Goodwin discussion leaked, Goldwater called on JFK to fire Goodwin, and Kennedy subsequently demoted him. Years later, Goodwin reflected that any sort of deal with Castro would have been politically impossible.

Accounts of the discussion between Che and Goodwin, along with political commentary, are available on the internet :

https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/154814
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/07/05/opinion/president-kennedy-s-plan-for-peace-wi...
https://midnightwriternews.com/che-guevara-richard-goodwin-and-the-almost-peace-...½

Buckley's innovation was to print all the notes that were sharps or flats in red to make learning easier and quicker.

A good book, full of WFB's trademark wit and felicity with words. A judicious selection of obituaries written by Buckley, most of which appeared in the pages of National Review. It is divided into sections of Presidents; Family; Arts and Letters; Generals, Spies, and Statesmen; Friends; and Nemeses. Sometimes the introductions by Rosen are more interesting than the obituary, often culled too from Buckley's writings. Sometimes Buckley's pronouncements grate the ear. For instance, his at-the-time take of Martin Luther King Jr. (whose image among Americans has become almost godlike), reminding us of King's insulting words about American foreign policy and flirtations with communistic ideas. Or take his at-the-time take on Winston Churchill (whose image among conservatives has become almost godlike), blaming Churchill for letting Eastern Europe fall into Stalin's sway. (Like Churchill had a choice: see Operation Unthinkable.)

A fun read, if you can get it cheaply. But it does make me wonder how many more books like this can be wrung from Buckley's dead bones (he passed in 2008).½

Summary: As East Germany takes steps to stem the emigration of its people to the west through East Berlin in 1961, Blackford Oakes is tasked to find out what their intentions are and how they and Moscow will respond if NATO and the US intervenes.

After appearing weak and inexperienced in an initial meeting with Nikita Khrushchev President Kennedy learns that East Germany is taking steps to partition East and West Berlin to stem the tide of people emigrating from East to West Berlin and West Germany. This would violate agreements made at the end of World War II, and could trigger a new war, perhaps even a nuclear conflict between the US and the Soviet Union. CIA agent Blackford Oakes is tasked with getting critical intelligence to determine whether Berlin will be completely isolated from the West, and what the East will do if NATO responds.

Oakes key contact with East Berlin and the East Germans is Henri Tod. Tod leads a resistance organization from West Berlin against the Communists. They call themselves The Bruderschaft and are not above violent efforts to subvert the Communists. He has become enemy Number One but has eluded capture. But the Communists have discovered an Achilles heel. Tod, whose real name was Toddweiss, was a German Jew, who along with his beloved sister Clementa, was shielded by the Wurmbrand family, when Jews were being sent to the death camps. They spirit him out of the country when he becomes draft-eligible. They pay with their lives and Clementa is sent to a camp to die. But she is liberated by Soviet troops, only to become their captive. Thought dead, she lives, and becomes the means to lure Tod and capture him, with Oakes being involved as an intermediary.

Meanwhile, East German leader Walter Ulbricht also has his own Achilles, a nephew Caspar, who he has taken under his wing as a personal assistant, perhaps to atone for killing his father. Caspar has discovered the rail car used by Hitler, abandoned in a rail yard, and turns it into a love nest for him and his girlfriend Claudia. Their paths cross with Tod when Tod is wounded after an assassination of an East German official and the rescue him from his pursuers, nursing him back to health in the rail car, and becoming converts to his cause and a source of critical information.

Blackford Oakes has all this to deal with, as he tries to get the needed intelligence to the President. How will he respond to the likely trap using Tod's sister? How will he work with the independent Tod and his rogue organization? How will they react to the intelligence they are passing along to Oakes? And what will the U.S. government do?

The book is a page turner, moving quickly between Kennedy, Khruschev and Ulbricht, Oakes and Tod, Caspar and Claudia. Perhaps the most fascinating element is the challenge of divining an enemy's intent and character, what action one should take, and how one's adversary will respond. Anyone who has studied this era realizes how easily things could have turned out otherwise than they did, a salutary lesson for our own day.

Not a Great Novel in the Henry James tradition, but illuminating of the times and the ideas. And WFB's portrait of Ayn Rand is hilarious. Worth a read.

Ezra Pound defined "literature" as "news that STAYS news." Buckley's expose--published in 1951--shows how little has changed in higher education; the only limit of the text is that things have grown so much worse than even he imagined. How have we come to an era in which students no longer read Henry James but study Beyonce? Or in which communism is bandied around classrooms as simply an "alternative" to capitalism? It's all here. Yes, the book focuses on Yale, but plug in any other school or even your own alma mater and you'll get the point. One of Buckley's best arguments is that higher education has become a product which parents purchase for their kids knowing full well that the product is faulty. At least it's not expensive.

An outstanding collection of top-shelf writing about dozens of people, many of whom are famous but others not at all--and the ones about people of whom you've never heard are just as good. And James Rosen did a fantastic job with the headnotes. This is a terrific sampling of WFB's skill as a writer--and it'll make you think of your own life as well. It's sometimes moving and frequently amusing. I'd give examples, but it's better to meet them cold and unexpectedly.

Fantastic journey through some of the 20th century's most influential people through the eyes of their counterpart. The stories were all written by WFB as an eulogy. The book inspires one to find out more about the history and people of the 2oth Century. I enjoyed the book FJS