ON INSTRUCTIONS OF MY GOVERNMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100020050-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 6, 2000
• Sequence Number: 50
• Publication Date: June 27, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/06113 : 8i li&+5-OOOO1ROOO1OOc2a
THE NE 'W YORK T'I [ S BOOK RhVTT,,'W p
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By Pierre Salinger.
408 pp. New York:
CPYRGHT Doubleday &,Co. $0.95.
Pierre Salinger-who, as press sec-
.retary to President Kennedy played
all inside observer's role in the 1962
Cuban missile crisis--Iras written a
tense, inside-outside novel about a
similar confrontation of great powers
over an Installation of missile launch-
fag pads in the symbolic year 1976.
This time, America's foe is Com-
munist China, which tries to -sneak
ICBM's into a small South American
nation aboard, two whaling ships.
This time, the Soviet Union emerges
as our wary ally. This time, the pawn
is fictional Santa Clara, an impov-
e0shecl copper country that appears
to lie near or within Peru or Chile.
Fletcher I nebel's- books include
"Vanished," and "Night of Camp
P. downhill country. Its rivers,
fiches and revolutions all ran from
he mountains to the sea." The world,
f course, goes to the brink. Whether
t plunges over-or pulls up short in
he twilight of holocaust should re-
ain a question sealed in the coven-
tilt between reviewer and writer. If
mu like novels whose characters play,
ut noble or repugnant public roles
vithout. such common joys and trihu-
ations, as copulation, impacted wis-
om teeth, children, parents, dead
gniition switches or those spells of
rooding over the infinite immensity
f the universe and its specks of
umain energy-you'll salivate over
is crib. I
The prose races, taut and lean,
oned on journalism and critical dI-
ernmas in high places. Suspense beck-
ns as the clock strikes midnight and
he plot deftly rounds sharp corners.
imost all systems go. Salinger's one
eaky system involves a clutch of
elf-exited Mafia godfathers, who be-
gears and who can be extricated only
by last-second slayings.
Salinger is at his best when he
takes us inside his outside novel. We
may never see one of the heroes in
bed with his wife's sister or fumbling
for tranquilizers: , we do see hint
Ihunched over the hot line to Moscow,
clattering to crucial meetings in heli-
copters, grimly attentive to the elec-
trorric maps in the White House situ-
ation room, reacting to still more bad
news oil the security telephone-
scramblers. The good, rich air of au-
thenticity is unpolluted. Fleets sail on.
precise orders. Diplomats double-talk.
Official statements thunder. Press sec-
retaries lie by omission. Jumbo jets
hurtle presidential candidates through
the heavens. Politicians connive, ca-
bles and wires carry top secret traf-
fie, and Latin guerrillas stalk-stony
mountain trails.
Salinger also has a worthy mes-
sage: our policy in Latin America
abets rather than thwarts Communist
take-overs, because eve sped our tax
money to arm local oppressors in-
stead of striving to ameliorate mass
poverty in a climate of social justice.
As examples of his thesis, we have
Cuba and Guatemala. In Cuba, we
supported a cynical, plundering I3a-
tista--and got a Comnn.unist Castro.
As for Guatemala, the late Allen
Dulles boas
nianaged a successful revolution there
in 1954, unhorsing a leftist president
and installing one amenable to the
United States; later our puppet can-
celed the land reforms of his toppled
predecessor and 1.5 million acres of
newly distributed land were taken
back from the peasants. Now gunmen
of the right and left Ere Murdering
one another in Latin America's most
-terrifying political slaughter. Some
success, C.I.A.
Salinger's novel has two counts
against it. First, it seems largely a
replay of the 1962 crisis, thus muting
the element of surprise. Second is a
matter;Af timing. Salinger gives us
a death-lock encounter with Coninnu?-
nist China at the very time we're ex-
periencing a thaw. The book, of
course, was written months before
Mao Tse-tung mailed out his ping
pong invitations. For that, perhaps,
his friends can murmur only, "Un-
lucky Pierre."- -
A footnote on conflict of interest.
Since I also commit political novels,
my views on a rival should be
weighed with caution, not to say
suspicion. Blame it on the editors.
If they ask General Motors to assess
the new product line of Chrysler,
,should G.M. decline? Not if they offer
G.M. $125. Times are tough all over.
tome ?enmeshe4hl4Prd0td' ? Ye+e 2000/06/13 : CIA-RDP75-00001 ROOO1 OOO2OO5O-0