Delusions of a Dictator: The Mind of Marcos As Revealed in His Secret Diaries

by William C. Rempel

Drawing on entries from Ferdinand Marcos's secret daily journals, a journalist explores the mind of the dictator, from the height of his power in the late 1960s, through his growing unpopularity and intrigues, to his final collapse.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1993

About the author

Bill Rempel’s long and eventful career at the Los Angeles Times, both as a writer and an editor, produced an impressive collection of high-profile projects and change-makers. His reporting triggered government investigations, exposed White House and Pentagon scandals, and prompted reforms of state courts and consumer protection laws.

Groundbreaking reports on Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda were published before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and his extensive coverage of supertanker safety flaws began years before the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster.

The datelines on his overseas investigative reports range from Kiev to the Turks and Caicos Islands. He has co-authored exclusive reports detailing secret U.S. arms deals with Iran, tracking tons of explosives smuggled to terrorist camps in Libya, tracing embargoed nuclear technology out of South Africa and documenting sales and leases of Ukrainian cargo planes to Colombian drug lords.

In the 1990s, he broke a number of major political stories in the U.S. about Bill Clinton in Arkansas and subsequent financial controversies surrounding the 1996 Clinton-Gore presidential campaign. In 2000, his reporting in Texas documented how criminals and other unqualified applicants obtained permits to carry concealed handguns under a controversial weapons law signed by then-Gov. George W. Bush.

Rempel’s work has been recognized with numerous journalistic honors, including an Overseas Press Club award and the Gerald Loeb Award. He was also a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.

His examination of the corrupt regime of Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos led to disclosure of the Marcos diaries and his first book, DELUSIONS OF A DICTATOR (Little, Brown and Company, 1993). It was updated and re-released in 2013 as the e-Book, DIARY OF A DICTATOR — Ferdinand & Imelda: The Last Days of Camelot.

He spent nearly a decade in secret contacts with a former high ranking Colombian drug figure under federal protection somewhere in the United States, patiently amassing material until he could write AT THE DEVIL'S TABLE: The Untold Story of the Insider Who Brought Down the Cali Cartel (Random House, 2011). The book has since been issued in Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, and Polish.

An 80-episode Spanish language television series based on his book was released in 2014 by Sony-Teleset under the title: En la Boca del Lobo (In the Jaws of the Wolf). It is available in much of the world on Netflix. Also in 2014, Warner Brothers studios bought feature film rights for At the Devil’s Table.

Rempel has appeared on numerous radio and television current affairs programs, including The Today Show, Nightline, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Reliable Sources and This American Life.

He was born in Palmer — in the Territory of Alaska — the grandson of Matanuska Valley homesteaders from Michigan and Russia. As a boy, he moved with his family to California where he later attended Pepperdine College on a journalism scholarship. His first newsroom after graduation was at the Copley chain’s South Bay Daily Breeze where he became assistant city editor.

Rempel joined the Los Angeles Times in 1973, covering suburban Los Angeles before taking over a metro beat covering the waterfront. He was later a roving state feature writer, business writer and a national correspondent based in Chicago for five winters. For the next 20-plus years Rempel led teams of investigative reporters both as a writer and editor. He left the Times in 2009 to complete work on his book, At the Devil’s Table.

His newest title THE GAMBLER, publishing with Harper Collins in November 2017 is a biography of self-made billionaire Kirk Kerkorian — daring aviator, gambler, and business tycoon — who bet billions based on gut instincts in a career spanning eight decades.

Reviews

[Michael David · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few years ago, I could finish reading three books in one day. When I was on, I was on. Back then, however, I clung to my books, and didn't have much of a social life.

I guess I still don't have much of a social life, but familial responsibilities and other avocations have bit into my reading time that I no longer could read as fast as I did. This is the reason why Rempel's work is impressive to me: taking Marcos's diary entries as his source, he constructed a convincing argument regarding Marcos's megalomania. Before reading this book I saw the same thread in Marcos's works: he was willing to blame everything else except himself, and he believed himself as always correct. The two people he antagonized and made sure to imprison upon the declaration of Martial Law were people who surpassed him: Ninoy Aquino was a much better orator and debater, and Jose Diokno was simply smarter. He couldn't beat both people at his own game, so he imprisoned them both.

Rempel, offering the story of Marcos from an insider's perspective, starkly presents his megalomaniacal tendencies. Proof of this was his appointment of Fabian Ver, who was loyal above all things. He wasn't as competent as Ramos or Ileto, but because he was fiercely loyal to Marcos, he remained as Chief of Staff during Martial Law.

The Communist threat that was debunked in other sources was also humorously questioned in this work: outside of Marcos's mind, there wasn't a significant Communist threat at all. Marcos simply had to conjure up an excuse to declare Martial Law because he couldn't let go of power. I liked this work over Mijares's Conjugal Dictatorship because it laid bare Marcos's inconsistencies with truth. If James K. Boyce's Political Economy of Growth and Impoverishment debunked all claims of economic growth during the Martial Law era, this book debunked Marcos's reliability as a leader.

First and foremost, Marcos was a liar - but because he was also an astute propagandist, we still have idiots believing in his lies.

[Rafael Ruflo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marcos began his diary on the eve of his 2nd term to document his "commentaries on the technique of victory". Among its earlier entries, a year and a half before martial law, he reflected on his so-called central purpose in life: "I am the most powerful man in the Philippines...I have all the material things I want of life -- a wife who is loving and is a partner in the things I do, bright children who will carry my name, a life well lived -- all.
"But I feel a discontent."

The diary is filled with similar musings that augur some of the darkest events in our nation's history. Or, as the author put it, extraordinary view of a rarely witnessed event: the advent of a dictator. The rest are carefully curated lies (see his accounts about Dovie Beams) which are so outrageous as to come out unintentionally funny. Take for example his account on how he saved the Pope's life with a "carefully timed karate chop": "there was no hesitation in my movements. It was as if there was a script I was following which I had been made to memorize long, long ago and which I merely executed --the role and action coming naturally as to a well-rehearsed actor."

Multi-awarded LA Times Investigative Reporter, William Rempel (author of At the Devil's Table, basis for the TV series Narcos where he served as consultant), judiciously utilized the diary entries juxtaposed with news articles and interviews to make a very compelling and illuminating read. A must-read for those seeking insight or simply looking for a good laugh.

[SALIM falcon · Rating 5 out of 5]

i wanna read this book

[Mark Boado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part novel part non fiction!