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The Georgetown Set

Friends and Rivals in Cold War Washington

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This fascinating, behind-the-scenes history of postwar Washington is a rich and colorful portrait of the close-knit group of journalists, spies, and government officials who waged the Cold War over cocktails and dinner.

In the years after World War II, Georgetown's leafy streets were home to an unlikely group of cold warriors: a coterie of affluent, well-educated, and well-connected civilians who helped steer American strategy from the Marshall Plan through McCarthyism, Vietnam, and the endgame of Watergate. This Georgetown set included Phil and Kay Graham, husband-and-wife publishers of the Washington Post; Joe and Stewart Also, odd-couple brothers who were among the country's premier political pundits; Frank Wisner, a driven, manic-depressive lawyer in charge of CIA covert operations; and a host of diplomats, spies, and scholars. It was a time when presidents made foreign policy in consultation with reporters and professors - often over martinis and hors d'oeuvres - and columnists like the Alsops promoted those policies in the next day's newspapers.

Gregg Herken illuminates the drama of these years and brings this remarkable roster of men and women and their world not only out into the open but vividly to life.

©2014 Gregg Herken (P)2014 Blackstone Audio
Americas Military Political Science Politics & Government State & Local United States Marriage Military Policy Cold War Dwight Eisenhower Espionage Vietnam War War Soviet Union Black Ops Imperial Japan Socialism Russia Imperialism Franklin D Roosevelt
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Most relevant
So glaringly is the book devoid of Kay Graham that I would go as far as suggesting it has been sloppily researched. Out of all the books I’ve read on the topic, this one felt anaemic on new facts and on occasion reeked of third-hand gossip.

One word: reductive

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