The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis : With Excerpts from an Essay on Watergate

by Bill Moyers

Based on an acclaimed PBS documentary, The Secret Government analyzes the threats to constitutional government posed by an illegitimate network of spies, profiteers, mercenaries, ex-generals and "superpatriots" who have tried, at various times, to take foreign policy into their own hands.

Genres: Nonfiction

168 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1988

About the author

Billy Don Moyers was an American journalist and political commentator who served as the eleventh White House Press Secretary from 1965 to 1967. He was a director of the Council on Foreign Relations from 1967 to 1974. He was also a onetime steering committee member of the annual Bilderberg Meeting. Moyers also worked as a network TV news commentator for ten years. Moyers was extensively involved with public broadcasting, producing documentaries and news journal programs, and won many awards and honorary degrees for his investigative journalism and civic activities. He was well known as a trenchant critic of the corporately structured U.S. news media.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

R.I.P. Bill Moyers. This morning I read a fine remembrance of Mr. Moyers by Bill McKibben, and it reminded me that I had this book and had never gotten around to reading it. So I went through all my boxes of books until I found it and read it today (it's very brief). The book is based on a PBS documentary, made at the time of the Iran/Contra hearings, and for the book he included some quotes from his essay on Watergate from 1973. So it's quite sobering to read that things were going from bad to worse (Nixon to Reagan) at the time when this book was produced, and now of course things have gone from much worse (GW Bush) to appalling (Trump version 1) and now utterly horrific (Trump version 2). Oddly, instead of feeling hopeless after reading this book, I find myself wondering if perhaps we will find a way to bring our society back from the brink, or maybe having already gone over the brink, we will pick up the pieces and start something new and better.

P.S. This book was published by Seven Locks Press, Cabin John, MD, very near where I grew up.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somewhat informative. Nothing earth shaking. As per normal had to drag out the left's favorite boogie man. Sen. Joseph McCarthy. If they ever do a reprint it would be nice if someone pointed out that McCarthy was correct as backed up by FBI records and the transcripts from th Venonen Project. Other than that it was pretty much as expected.

[Inky Quillwarts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review at: http://www.inkyquillwarts.com

In, The Secret Government: The Constitution In Crisis, Bill Primarily focuses on The Watergate Scandal but more importantly, how our government was hijacked by private interests and corporations over 150 years ago. For example, note the image at the top of this page…yeah, check out that date. It turns out that this whole “We are the 99%” bit and the serious concern regarding money in politics, aren’t at all new ideas. Somewhere along the line, corporations decided to make deals with our lawmakers; I’ll give you money for your campaign if you do me a favor or two when you get into office.

[Robin Kemp · Rating 5 out of 5]

How we got from Reagan to the present. Worth revisiting.

[Michael P. P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read my review on Amazon.