The last honest man : the CIA, the FBI, the mafia, and the Kennedys--and one senator's fight to save democracy / by James Risen, with Thomas Risen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Risen, James, author.

Risen, Tom, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Church, Frank, 1924-1984.

Church, Frank.

Legislators--United States--Biography.

Legislators.

United States. Congress. Senate--Biography.

United States.

Political corruption--United States--History--20th century.

Political corruption.

Intelligence service--Corrupt practices--United States.

Intelligence service.

United States--Politics and government--1945-1953.

United States--Politics and government--1974-1977.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xi, 467 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2023.

Summary:

Senator Frank Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate, he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community. The dark truths that Church exposed--from assassination plots by the CIA, to links between the Kennedy dynasty and the mafia, to the surveillance of civil rights activists by the NSA and FBI--would shake the nation to its core, and forever change the way that Americans thought about not only their government but also their ability to hold it accountable. Drawing upon hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of recently declassified documents, and reams of unpublished letters, notes, and memoirs, some of which remain sensitive today, James Risen tells the gripping, untold story of truth and integrity standing against unchecked power--and winning--in this book -- adapted from jacket

Contents:

A note on sources. Prologue: Senator Cathedral. (Part one: If I make no mark elsewhere, 1924-1975): Happier times

The finest diction in the army

If you don't run you will never get there

Persona non grata

A betrayal

War prolonged and unending

We stand up now

An enormous hue and cry

As long as the KGB does it

We have stood watch

This will cost you the presidency. (Part two: We doubt that any other country would have the courage, 1975): A delicate balance

The dirty facts

Like what? Like assassinations.

I had been asked by my government to solicit his cooperation

Who will rid me of this man?

The White House, can I help you?

We met your man in the Congo

What the president wanted to happen

The abyss from which there is no return

Under a double shadow

The man who made a police state out of America

No holds were barred. (Part three: A volcano cannot be capped, 1975-1984): Vindicated and pleased

As dangerous as any stimulant

One more service to render

I see you have a presidential haircut

And then it was over

I've got to do it. Epilogue: They did great damage. Acknowledgments

Illustration credits

Bibliography

Notes

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 413-422) and index.

ISBN:

9780316565134

031656513X

OCLC:

1378020002

Publisher Number:

99994120608