As It Was: An Inside View of Politics and Power in the '50s and '60s

by Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.

Genres: History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1976

About the author

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (B.A., Harvard University, 1924), the grandson of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, was twice elected U.S. Senator for Massachusetts on the Republican ticket (1936 and 1946), and later served in several prominent ambassadorships, most notably to Vietnam under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

Reviews

[Michael Lewyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a highly non-juicy insider memoir about Lodge's interactions with President Eisenhower and foreign diplomats, in which very few harsh words are said about anyone. (Although Lodge was Richard Nixon's running mate in the 1960 campaign, he says far less about that campaign than about the 1956 campaign). The major takeaway from the book is that the Eisenhower Administration was full of honest, competent people.

The juiciest tidbits are:

1. Eisenhower "marveled at the way Mr. Dulles [his secretary of state] at the age of sixty-six managed to get his work done." Today, of course, 66 is barely old.
2. In response to obstructionism from right-wing isolationists in his own party, Eisenhower briefly suggested creating a new centrist party for the 1956 election. Fortunately or unfortunately, he was talked out of the idea.
3. After Egypt blocked off the Suez Canal in 1956, the UK, France and Israel invaded to prevent Egypt from choking off shipping to Israel. The US forced a diplomatic solution rather than allowing the European powers and Israel from deposing the Egyptian dictatorship. Lodge explains the Eisenhower Administration's motive, claiming that Russia might have invaded to protect its Egyptian ally.