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A Dangerous Place
Vintage book
Hardcover
First published November 1, 1978
About the author
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
69 books49 followersDaniel Patrick “Pat” Moynihan was an American politician and sociologist. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the United States Senate for New York in 1976, and was re-elected three times (in 1982, 1988, and 1994). He declined to run for re-election in 2000. Prior to his years in the Senate, Moynihan was the United States' ambassador to the United Nations and to India, and was a member of four successive presidential administrations, beginning with the administration of John F. Kennedy, and continuing through Gerald Ford.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 27, 2008
Interesting look at the late Sen. Moynihan's time as U.N. Ambassador. It starts out very, very dry, reciting in capsule form things he did when he was working for Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, which were only interesting if you already knew what he was doing (I knew a little, so was mildly interesting, but it was still dry).
However, about a third of the way through, when it gets into the details of his fight against the "Zionism is racism" resolution in the U.N. and confrontations with Russia, it got a lot more interesting, even thrilling, at least to a political/foreign affairs junkie like me.
Moynihan is obviously one of the most important non-Presidential figures of the past half century, so if you are interested, it's worth suffering through the first 1/3rd or so.
However, about a third of the way through, when it gets into the details of his fight against the "Zionism is racism" resolution in the U.N. and confrontations with Russia, it got a lot more interesting, even thrilling, at least to a political/foreign affairs junkie like me.
Moynihan is obviously one of the most important non-Presidential figures of the past half century, so if you are interested, it's worth suffering through the first 1/3rd or so.
September 7, 2019
A book that is, at times, pedantic and self-serving to Moynihan’s time at the UN. The heavy focus on contemporaneous news reporting relating to his performance at the UN and Washington intrigue shines a light on his likely self-absorption.
However, the book captures the rhetoric and tenor of the mid 1970s in such a way to be illuminating today. Detailed accounts of the infamous anti-Israel resolutions at the UN, the initial stages of the Angola invasion by Cuban forces at the direction of the Soviet Union, and Moynihan’s ultimate departure.
Moynihan’s reflections on the use of language and its relation to human rights echoes loudest today and something that can be returned to - emphasizing, again, how little is new in politics.
That being said, makes it all the more unusual the Moynihan of the 1980s and early 1990s. If there was a Moynihan Doctrine (powerful nations may have a foreign policy derived from morality, which may be directed to matters of liberal principles, insofar they have choices and self-assertion is important), what greater application existed than the First Gulf War or support for the Contras?
However, the book captures the rhetoric and tenor of the mid 1970s in such a way to be illuminating today. Detailed accounts of the infamous anti-Israel resolutions at the UN, the initial stages of the Angola invasion by Cuban forces at the direction of the Soviet Union, and Moynihan’s ultimate departure.
Moynihan’s reflections on the use of language and its relation to human rights echoes loudest today and something that can be returned to - emphasizing, again, how little is new in politics.
That being said, makes it all the more unusual the Moynihan of the 1980s and early 1990s. If there was a Moynihan Doctrine (powerful nations may have a foreign policy derived from morality, which may be directed to matters of liberal principles, insofar they have choices and self-assertion is important), what greater application existed than the First Gulf War or support for the Contras?
November 23, 2010
Not actually very good.
This line was great:
"Thompson, who had spent much of his career at the Rockefeller Foundation, knew as much as or more than I did, but was immobilized by guilt. He had become the quintessential executive of a giant foundation, some product of predatory capitalism in its primal acquisitive stage, now devoted like a medieval foundation - same word, come to think of it - to beseeching Heaven's mercy on the soul of the departed founder. In place of masses and plainsong, there were lunch at the Century Club and weekend conferences at Colonial Williamsburg."
This line was great:
"Thompson, who had spent much of his career at the Rockefeller Foundation, knew as much as or more than I did, but was immobilized by guilt. He had become the quintessential executive of a giant foundation, some product of predatory capitalism in its primal acquisitive stage, now devoted like a medieval foundation - same word, come to think of it - to beseeching Heaven's mercy on the soul of the departed founder. In place of masses and plainsong, there were lunch at the Century Club and weekend conferences at Colonial Williamsburg."
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews