Peace, War, and Politics: An Eyewitness Account

In this memoir, as in his columns, Anderson is happy to make himself as much of an issue as the stories he has covered during a long and successful journalistic career as a syndicated columnist, first working for Drew Pearson's ""Washington Merry-Go-Round"" column and then taking over the column outright in 1969 for the Washington Post. A Mormon, the teetotaling Anderson has always been a maverick figure among American political journalists and has styled himself a muckraker extraordinaire, taking on everything from petty kickbacks among congressmen to John F. Kennedy's assassination and the Iran-Contra scandal. Ironically, despite his healthy ego, Anderson reveals little of himself, either directly or indirectly, in this memoir. Instead, the book is a series of anecdotes strung together. Among these stories, however, are some gems: Anderson's account of his feud with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover is simultaneously hilarious and frightening; his investigation of possible mob ties to the Kennedy assassination yields a persuasive story at odds with the one eventually put forth by the Warren Commission. Anderson describes himself upon his arrival in Washington after WWII as having ""a style that was more bluff than experience."" Since then, he has certainly gained experience (and a Pulitzer Prize in 1973 for exposing President Nixon's tilt toward Pakistan in its war with India), but he hasn't lost the bluff attitude, which is evident in his frequent boasts about how effectively he got under the skin of the high and mighty. $100,000 ad/promo; TV satellite tour; radio satellite tour. (Nov.)