Category Archives: Politics

The Path To Power

19 Monday Jun 2023

Posted by in Biography, Politics, Reading

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Path To Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson Vol 1 by Robert Caro
1982 / 882 pgs. (263,718 words) Biography & Politics

This book the first in a series of four books (planned five) about President Lyndon Johnson and his rise from a small town in Texas to the White House. When starting this book, one can grasp the amount of research that went into the draft. The details about LBJ and his early life are amazing. It’s so vast, I can only highlight some points, or this post will be to long to read.

The story starts will LBJ’s family background. The Johnson’s and Bunton’s. It’s Bunton’s strain of the family that builds LBJ to what he becomes most famous for, the fearless politician that overpowered people with his will and height to get his way. It goes through LBJ’s childhood and how he was the center of everything. He demanded that. He wanted all the attention. He also wanted the best for him, and he didn’t care how he got it.

LBJ was very demanding and only cared about something if he could have full control over it. If he lost any authority, he wouldn’t care about it anymore. It was almost as if he was demanding people to follow him and only him. He was very abusing to those that where loyal to him.

Thes story follows LBJ through his time at Southwest Texas State Teachers College where he was notorious liar and exaggerated about everything. His nickname was “Bull” because everyone knew he was full of “Bull”s**t. This is also the start of LBJ’s political carrier when he created a group known as the White Stars to win control of the Student body from the Black Stars who he couldn’t join. The dark side of politics, the lying and rigging of the election started at STSTC for LBJ and it carried with him all the way to the White House.

After graduation from STSTC, he then goes to US Congress to serve as a secretary for Congressman. LBJ learns the inner workings of congress as the Congressman that he works for doesn’t really want to be in Congress.  This allows LBJ to build up his network for the eventual running for Congress himself which he embarks on in 1937 and wins.

The final chapters are about his failed bid for the US Senate in 1941. His years in the Congress until Roosevelt’s death. This is where Volume One ends.

I left out a vast amount of many details, like marriage to Lady Bird and the influence of Sam Rayburn on LBJ. This book is very dense and extremely well researched. While reading it, I never grew bored. It really is a page turner that I enjoyed as much as I enjoyed John Adam’s and Truman. The dept of this reminds me of another extremely well researched and narrated book At Dawn We Slept.

I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a good biography about a politician.        

Enjoy a good cup of coffee and a delightful book!

Lopaka

Truman

27 Sunday Nov 2022

Posted by in Biography, History, Politics, Reading

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Truman by David McCullough
1993 / 1,120 pgs. (280,000 words) Biography, Politics, and History

Truman, what an outstanding annals and page turner. Many times, I found myself wanting to continue devouring another page beyond my mandatory hour obligation. All confession, I started this novel with a skeptical mindset if I would enjoy reading a vast biography. I was very pleasantly amazed at how much I genuinely enjoyed reading Truman.
  
This biography is a telling of Harry S. Truman from the day of his birth to his death and the real impact he had on the United States. It does not start off with the simple, Harry was born on 8 May 1884. McCullough starts with events that happen to Harry’s grandfather and father which would impact Harry throughout his life. The author builds a narrative that shows how actions of those, that even before you were born, could have a profound effect on our lives even almost a hundred years after the fact.

McCollough then builds from Harry growing dealing with having to wear glasses to wanting to attend West Point. Showing how Truman’s love of history and reading and how that would influence and even impact decisions and relations with political leaders during his presidency.

The underlying narrative with Truman which is well known today is how everything for Truman came later in his life than what normal people would expect with life experiences. For example, he went to fight in France during World War I as a Captain at the age of 33. Most of those under his command were between the ages of 18-23. Harry Truman was also the only President that deployed to France and served in combat in the first world war. He did not marry his love of his life, Bess Truman until he was 35 years old. 

There are many details of Truman’s time as a Presiding Judge, his relationship with the political influential family Pendergast. The same family that eventually helped Truman become Senator which, after his election, Senator Truman started the Truman Commission that monitored spending and corruption with New Deal Programs. Finally, how and why Truman became Vice President knowing that he would have to take over for Roosevelt because many, including Roosevelt himself, knew that the President wouldn’t live through his fourth term.

Naturally, I can expound more, this is a massive and detailed biography, however, I’ll give some of the juicy tales that I really enjoyed and showed the true Harry Truman like we’ve never knew before.  Harry wrote to Bess everyday and in one of his letters, while he was President, he called Bess his “Juno, Venus, Minerva, and Proserpina.” I’m not trained in the classics and had to look up Proserpina and it was a perfect name for Bess.

As an airman, we’ve also loved the fact that Truman signed the National Defense Act of 1947 that among its many actions created the United States Air Force.  He signed in on board “The Sacred Cow”, the presidential aircraft.  However, why he signed it on the plane is never explained. He was on the plane to fly home to see his dying mother and delayed the plane for an hour so he could sign the legislation. Once it was brought to him, he signed it on the plane and flew home, however, sadly, his mother died before he arrived in Missouri.  

This biography won David McCollough the Pulitzer Prize. He also received the Pulitzer for another biography, John Adams. I would absolutely recommend Truman. This is a masterpiece 

Enjoy a good cup of coffee and a delightful book!

Lopaka

All The President’s Men

07 Sunday Aug 2022

Posted by in History, Politics, Reading

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All The Presidents Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
1974 / 368 pgs. (92,000 words) Political/History

When I started this book, I thought it was a play-by-play of what happened at Watergate and how the President of the United States fell from grace. I was delightedly wrong in my interpretation of the subject of the book. While the Watergate break-in in 1972 serves as the background of the book and is the focus of the circle of events, the book is the experience of Bernstein and Woodward as they navigate in their investigation of the break-in.

The book naturally starts with the break-in and wiring of the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Hotel. When Bernstein is called to write about the break-in, he is upset because he hoped he was finally moving away from reporting these common cases. Little did he know what he was about to uncover.

Woodward is teamed up with Bernstein at the start, and both do not want to work together. As the story grows, so does their friendship. The book builds from the discovery of a phone number for H Hunt at the White House in a phone book for several of the thieves. Also, one individual, McCord, was prior CIA and FBI. These simple facts start to grow the case from a simple break-in to how high the conspiracy goes.

The book also builds on all the trials, errors, and tribulations that Bernstein and Woodward experience as this continues the investigation into Watergate, including the few times they felt their lives were in danger. The most famous individual in the case of Watergate, Deep Throat, is introduced in the book, although it doesn’t reveal who he was.

The novel does not end with Nixon resigning. It ends at the state of the Union, 1974 when Nixon stated he would not resign. The follow-on book, The Final Days, goes into the events that lead up to Nixon’s resignation. That will be read later.

Enjoy a good cup of coffee and a delightful book!

Lopaka

Profiles In Courage

14 Thursday Jul 2022

Posted by in History, Politics, Reading

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Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy
1955 / 226 pgs. (73,255 words) Political/History

A remarkably interesting expose on the word Courage. Senator John F. Kennedy, later President of the United States, while recuperating from back surgery, underwent a project to build a case of what Courage is in the political world. He researched Senators that when the time came for a critical decision knowing what their party and constituents desired as opposed to their eventual actions.

In each case, when the Senator committed the action, the cost was great. Several were ostracized from their respective political party. One Senator was nearly lynched in Virginia. One has gone down in history as a pro-slavery Senator because he gave one of the most famous speeches supporting the Great Compromise of 1850 that admitted California and prevent the disillusion of the Union for 10 more years. Safely, part of this compromise was greater power for slave owners and the continuation of the horrific practice. However, he was an ardent abolitionist until that speech, even freeing slaves.

The core of these profiles is Senators that decided on the greater of the United States as opposed to what their states desired. Most of the profiles are senators that served right before the civil war. The cases are around the Nebraska-Kansas Act and the Great Compromise of 1850.

Kennedy did note that some of these cases are controversial today. Many of those profiled are still viewed today in a negative light. He does not argue we should look at each person differently today, knowing more of the background for their decisions. We should admire the Courage of their actions to put the betterment of the nation first, knowing that it could cost them everything, including their lives.

A few of the profiles of special note are:

  1. Sam Houston, was the hero of the Texas Revolution and its first president. Also, the first Senator for the State of Texas, voted against the Kansas-Nebraska act knowing he would be recalled to Texas. Became the 7th Governor of Texas and fought against succession and after Texas voted to leave the US, he resigned.
  2. Edmond G. Ross of Kansas, even with enormous amounts of pressure from the legislative branch in Kansas, the Republican Party, and even fellow Senators, voted against removing President Andrew Johnson from office, he was the key vote in the end.
  3.  Daniel Webster of Massachusetts and the 7 March Speech forever destroyed his political career and reputation while he was trying to keep the nation together and prevent a civil war.

Many of those profiled were Senators that are lost to history such as Ross of Kansas, yet their stories are very fascinating. When reading what Ross endured before he delivered his vote is enormously powerful and should be taught in schools about what Courage and Sacrifice in the political arena truly is.

I would recommend this to anyone that enjoys reading about history and politics. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Enjoy a good cup of coffee and a delightful book!

Lopaka

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

07 Saturday May 2022

Posted by in History, Military and War, Politics, Reading

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The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer
1960 / 1264 pgs. (316,000 words) Political/History/Military and War

What an epic! Sixty-nine days were taken to finish this monster. What a beast it is! This was a unique read; when I ran across that finish line and turned the page into the notes section, I was not disappointed and did not feel like I had wasted my time reading this book. Like At Dawn We Slept, some of my favorite history books are written by historians who had access to papers and witnesses after the day’s events. Most, if not all, were never there to witness the events they wrote on.

Mr. Shirer witnessed many of the events during the Third Reich’s rise—watched many of the famous Nazi rallies and important events and then reported for CBS radio from Berlin. His relaying of the feeling of the people on 1 September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland is a complete contrast to what standard scholarly works state. After the War, he had access to the secret government papers and diaries of prominent Nazi leaders the United States collected and brought to the U.S. after the War. He researched this book before the documents returned to Germany in the late 1950s.

Unlike many history narratives dense with information per paragraph, this book is an easy read. It is easy to follow and does not get the reader lost in multiple mounds of facts. The flow is simple; although sometimes not in a linear direction, it is still easy to enjoy. While reading this, I never felt like I was falling asleep with information overload. I never looked at the time, wondering if my allocated hour was up. The timer would often ring, and I would keep reading, at least finishing the section that I was devouring.

Mr. Shirer starts with the birth and history of Adolf Hitler until his introduction to the German Workers Party in 1919. Then he continues with the historical rise of Hitler to Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and even the gritty details of how he gained absolute power over Germany after the Reichstag fire on 27 February 1933.

Then, Shirer paints a picture of Germany starting by rebuilding her economy. Led to Anschluss, then the occupation of the Rhineland, to the invasion of Poland in 1939, while leaving out no details of other events in those times. The beginning of W.W. II. is only the 52% mark in the book. The many pieces of events from 1933 to 1939 are so delicious that it is difficult to put the book down.

Naturally, 1939-1941 was an excellent time for the German military as it conquered and occupied much of Europe. Shirer illustrates how Hitler demanded the Army conduct operations as he envisioned and was victorious until the fall of France. Because of his victories, he believed he was the greatest leader in Germany’s history and that his armies could not lose. This belief would eventually lead to his downfall with Operation Barbarossa, 22 June 1941, the invasion of the Soviet Union. This date is synonymous with Napoleon crossing the Niemen in 1812 on his way to Moscow; Germany crossed the same river at the start of their invasion of the Soviet Union. However, unknown at the time, this was the beginning of the downfall of the Third Reich.

The disaster that is the invasion of Russia decimates the German army. The inclusion of the United States in the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan strengthened the power of the Allies. Shirer then details many events and several assassination attempts on the Fuhrer, including the infamous 20 July 1944 plot, known as Valkyrie. After Hitler’s survival, circumstances led to the last German assault, the Battle of the Bulge, and the Soviets surrounding Berlin. Details of the final days in the Fuhrer bunker. Finally, concluding with the suicide of Hitler on 30 April and Germany’s unconditional surrender on 7 May 1945. This narrative has everything in between and is a delicious delight to devour.

Would I recommend this book? Absolutely. It is an effortless read, not dense. Although, as previously mentioned, it does mess with chronology, it is not making crazy loops like other history books I have read. I would forewarn you that this is a monster; this will take some time unless you are a speed reader! Also, I would read this only if you are interested in this subject. For those with no interest in history or W.W.II, you would shred this book and then burn it to assure it was gone from your library. Or use it as a doorstop.      

Enjoy a good cup of coffee and a delightful book!

Lopaka

NOTE: I noticed after I finished the book and was relaxing while thinking about what I was going to write that today is 7 May, the 77th Anniversary of V-E day. Yes, I did find it ironic that I finished a book about the rise and fall of the Third Reich on the 77th anniversary of its fall into history.    

The Prince

13 Tuesday Jul 2021

Posted by in Politics, Reading

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The Prince
by Niccolò Machiavelli 1532  / 96 pgs. Politics

The Prince is not a story. It’s a political thesis.  Machiavelli analyzed historical leaders and used their success and failures as examples of how a prince should rule their kingdom.  Machiavelli looked at two ways a prince may rise to power eventually to lead a territory, by force or inheritance.  Machiavelli’s analysis is once one gains power, these are the steps to retain it.

The Prince shows how politicians, even today, utilize their ability to retain and use power.  The most famous point in the thesis for a leader is “it’s much easier to be feared than loved.”  When a Prince is feared, it’s easier to enforce control.  Leaders should always be saying they are working to make citizens’ lives better; however, they are ready to take down any question to their power.  Another way is Politicians can’t be honest and must use whatever tactic, included making promises they never intend to keep, to gain and retain power.  The immoral method is the only method of a politician.    

The Prince almost reads like a guide for Dictators.  However, understanding that when Machiavelli wrote The Prince, he was in exile from his beloved Florence.  He was a politician for 14 years, and after the government was overthrown, he was tortured for conspiracy.  While he was away, he wrote several books and The Prince.  Understanding why he was exiled could also mean The Prince is a warning to citizens of tyrannical rulers’ tactics to obtain power and influence and keep it.         

The Prince is an essential political thesis.  It is short, only 96 pages, however, very dense.  It took me four days to finish reading it.  If you want a book to get lost in, this isn’t it.  If Politics/Government/History is your cup of tea, I would highly recommend it.

Enjoy a good cup of coffee and get lost in an excellent book,

Lopaka

Theory of International Politics

12 Friday Mar 2021

Posted by in Politics, Reading

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Theory of International Politics by Kenneth N. Waltz
1979 / 252 pgs Political

The title says it all it is about the Theory of International Politics.  Kenneth Waltz’s book is trying to strengthen the neorealist approach to the Theory and further refine it.  However, over time, it has been taken apart by Liberalist because of the peaceful collapse of the Soviet Union and other events. 

If you are interested in International Politics/Relations, this is a must-read.  However, like his other book, Man, the State, and War, it’s a very dense book that I would have to re-read for myself to truly get the emphasis.  However, I did enjoy this as it’s naturally within my field of interest.  However, if you are not interested in this subject, don’t pick up this one as you will be bored very fast!

Enjoy a good cup of coffee and a good book!

Lopaka