Pot Shards is a memoir, based on the author's memorable experiences. He served as a CIA's agent on the island of Saipan, during ten years in Japan, a tour in Burma, four years tied up in the Vietnam War, two tours in Korea, the second time as ambassador, and ten years in the White House, where he worked for Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. Bush.
Оглавление
Donald P. Gregg. Pot Shards: Fragments of a Life Lived in CIA, the White House, and the Two Koreas
Preface
Thanks and Recollections
PART ONE: EARLY LIFE. 1. Abenaki Scalps and a Street Fight in Circleville
2. Texas Talk and a Takeshita Takedown
3. Fraternities and Philosophy at Williams
PART TWO: INTELLIGENCE. 4. Jumping Out of an Airplane for the CIA
5. The Stunning Young Woman in a Crowded Taxi
6. A Glimpse of the Infinite from an Idaho Blue Jay
7. Jack Downey’s Tragic Mission
8. Happy Years in Japan
PHOTO GALLERY I
9. JFK and Vietnam
10. Lurching Toward Catastrophe
11. Burmese Days
12. Searching for a Crippled Boy
13. Fort Apache
PHOTO GALLERY II
14. The Abduction of Kim Dae-jung
15. President Park Chung-hee: Too Long in Power
16. The Pike Committee and the Carter White House
PART THREE: WHITE HOUSE YEARS. 17. The White House Years with Reagan and Bush
18. Travels with Bush
19. Denis Thatcher and the Missing Brassiere
PHOTO GALLERY III
20. The Puzzling Case of Richard Nixon
21. The Finnish Connection
PART FOUR: DIPLOMACY AND ATTENDANT TRAVAILS. 22. Ambassador in Seoul
PHOTO GALLERY IV
23. Iran-Contra: Snakes in the Cellar for Seven Years
24. October Surprise
PART FIVE: BACK TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR. 25. Korea Society Years
26. Kids to Korea
27. Epiphany in Long Beach
28. Six Trips to Pyongyang
PHOTO GALLERY V
29. Jazz
30. A Stint at Goldman Sachs
31. The Dangers of Demonization
Gratitude
Отрывок из книги
His hair was glossy, his handshake firm and dry, his glance hard and inquisitive. The few seconds in which I had his full attention left me with an indelible impression. That was John F. Kennedy at the White House, 1962, talking about counterinsurgency and the Vietnam War.
The CIA officer’s hair and eyelashes were burned away, his skin was charred, but his eyes were open and his blistered lips moved. “This is what I’ve been looking for, a cool place, me with my clothes off, and beautiful ladies all around.” A white phosphorous grenade had fatally burned the CIA officer. The scene was a U.S. Army hospital, Vietnam, 1971.
.....
The racial prejudice shown Takeshita, and to all Japanese-Americans, was very common at that time. In 1942, in the wake of Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt interned about 110,000 Japanese-Americans living on or near the west coast, to prison-like camps in the desert, to thwart possible “treachery” on their part. This was one of the worst decisions of Roosevelt’s presidency. In 1988, President Reagan signed a congressionally authorized apology to all Japanese-Americans, and over $1.5 billion in reparations was paid to those so unjustly confined.
We had a platoon sergeant, named Hatridge, also from Texas, who embodied everything we’d ever heard about pugnacious noncommissioned officers. The slightest infraction of his rules caused Hatridge to inflict severe punishment on the miscreant. One freezing November night I was made to dig a goldfish pond just outside the company orderly room, where I could see Hatridge sitting contentedly, chewing tobacco by a hot stove, where he could keep an eye on me.
