Library Diplomacy

At the Nixon Library on Tuesday, the United States and China arrived at major commercial agreements at the 19th annual JCCT (US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade) after extensive talks led by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez along with Trade...

The Unthinking Man’s Nixon’s Four Second Moment

Forty years ago yesterday (sorry about that) — on 16 September 1968 — RN appeared on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. In those days the show was a big thing; and his appearance on it was a big deal. When Laugh-In premiered on NBC in January 1968, it was something the...

George Putnam, 1914-2008

They say that the deaths of prominent people come in threes, and remarkably, three of the notable Americans whose deaths were announced this weekend were California residents. These were the novelist David Foster Wallace, whose premature and tragic passing I note...

The Spy Who Almost Stayed In The Cold, and RIP DFW

The London Times has just published a lengthy interview, conducted by the paper’s Rod Liddle, with renowned British spy novelist (and former MI6 agent) John Le Carre. He spends most of it reiterating his anger, often manifested in his recent statements and...

Deep Throat And The Third Man

Over at his site Washington Decoded, DC journalist Max Holland has uncovered something truly startling: the identity of a man who seemingly was the very first person, after Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, to learn that W. Mark Felt, assistant FBI director at the time...