Friends in High Places: The Bechtel Story: The Most Secret Corporation and How It Engineered the World

by Laton McCartney

Laton McCartney is the author of the national bestseller "Friends in High Places: The Bechtel Story-The Most Secret Corporation and How It Engineered the World" and "Across the Great Divide: Robert Stuart and the Discovery of the Oregon Trail." McCartney has written extensively on business, finance, and politics for many national magazines. He and his wife, Nancy, divide their time between Wyoming and New York. "From the Hardcover edition."

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1988

Reviews

[Charles Bechtel]

What can I say? Family. They got the money, I got the good looks. Would I have it any other way? Sure, but I would have spent the money, and then what would I have? Good looking relatives wagging fingers at me.

Seriously, this is a disturbing book in many places. I've taken to wearing a bushy beard because I look so much like the present CEO I might get kidnapped by a third world terrorist group. And one thing about rich relatives: they don't pay the ransom on poor relatives.

[Naeem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starts out like simple saga of a hardworking man making ends meet. But after following three generations of Bechtels, what we get is a book that gives us a glimpse of one of the most powerful private corporations in the world. And who is on their payroll? Casper Weinberger and George Shultz.

[Frederick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this when it came out in hardcover, which, I believe, was in 1987. (What you see above is the paperback, which came out in 1989.) I read it for strange reasons: I was a Reaganite.
I voted for him when I was twenty and again when I was twenty-four. I read as much as I could about him all through my twenties. I bought this book with the object of finding more reasons to admire him. The other reason I bought this book is my attention was caught by the last name of the author, which is McCartney. Layton McCartney sounds a lot like Lennon-McCartney, and I thought it was funny that a guy had a handle like that.
Anyway, I bought the book and read it and realized I'd been treated to a slice of truth all my years of combing over William F. Buckley's NATIONAL REVIEW hadn't given me: For what it was worth, the people who had worked to get Reagan elected and who were his closest allies were oil men. I had known Reagan was an arch capitalist but I had not known it was, truly one specific industry which had his ear. Beyond this, I sensed that the people discussed in this book were part of a little company exponentially more powerful than any of the individual oil giants. Bechtel Corporation was not, necessarily, in my mind, a bad entity, and I'm not sure Layton McCartney wanted me to think it was, but it shocked me, somehow, that Reagan's rise to the White House depended to the degree it did on commercial interests.
I reasoned with myself that, of course, anybody seeking national office would want to have a say in how a huge company affecting international business was run. I reasoned that it was good that American politicians would engage with big business so that big business would not run American politics. Up to a point I still believe that.
But Reagan was not, if you will, a trend-setter. Yes, he was the center of the Conservative revolution which ushered in the sea-change for which we are now paying. But what sold me on him and still allows me to consider him a good man was a certain self-control which the two Bushes didn't have. Reagan surrounded himself with people whose interests coincided with his, but once he was gone, his temperament ceased to inform Republican politics. I think he DID want to keep a watchful eye on big business, but he also thought his own self-discipline was a natural part of the mind of any rising business man. It wasn't. Reagan himself had forgotten that what gave him his sense of fair play was his very individualism. he was always aloof. He was a natural loner. He was a great lifeguard. Why? Because lifeguards sit alone in that chair, without advisors and pals. The only hangers-on they deal with are the drowning victims they pull to shore.
Reagan was undermined by his sinister vice-president and his revolution was turned into the image of the strutting hot-head we have now.
Haliburton is our problem. It makes Bechtel look like an old estate headed by a wise patriarch about to die. FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES was written twenty years ago. The book grows ironic with age.
I do suppose McCartney was writing something of a warning.

[Holly Weston Bull · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting, well-researched book about the engineering behemoth Bechtel. While McCartney could have used a good editor, he shows himself as a dogged researcher and good corporate historian. The title of the book is particularly apt; my biggest takeaway from Friends in High Places is that Bechtel (not that it’s alone in this) does indeed incalculably benefit from both the revolving government/business door and the personal connections formed in elite private clubs such as the Bohemian Grove.

[Max Anadon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite interesting/surprising on the relationship between a corporate giant and government. The story talks of the history of Bechtel (mainly from the Hoover Dam) to about 1986. I'm curious on how the last two decades have developed both in obtaining international contracts, government involvement, and the changes of the 'next generation', Riley Bechtel.

[Kambizdirakvand · Rating 5 out of 5]

این کتاب رو با لذت بسیار زیادی دنبال کردم.
حقایق و افشاگریهای موجود در کتاب بسیار روشنگر است.اگر دنیا و علی الخصوص اتفاقات حادث شده در منطقه خلیج فارس را از دریچه این کتاب نگاه کنیم علت بسیاری از اتفاقات پدید آمده در عصر حاضر برای ما روشن میگردد. همچنین ارائه ایده جهت چگونگی اداره شرکتهای پیمانکاری از مواردیست ک در این کتاب قابل دسترسی است.

[Hussain Allawati · Rating 4 out of 5]

How the US really works. Or rather how business really works. Freinds in high places??

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty whatevs idk what I was expecting. Well written I suppose

[Chris McRobbie · Rating 1 out of 5]

a true, but horrible account on the growth of Bechtel as an organization and its ongoing competition with Fluor Enterprises in the nuclear and oil and gas markets.

[Claire S]

I'm angry just looking at the cover.. Have had this to read for a while, along with a bunch of other anti-Bush books. The rest I finally passed along to the library so people could actually read them, this one I held on to since it's so current yet today, between the power of Oil in world affairs to the position of the contractors in Iraq to the continuing relationship between lobbyists and govt. Ugh.
Now I just have to actually read the thing.

[Alicedewonder · Rating 5 out of 5]

There aren't enough stars to rate this book. If you can find a copy get it, read it, and pass it on to future generations. It is the story of how our world is engineered and although Laton McCartney didn't come right out and say it, a read will discern the missing pieces.
Every college age student should know the contents of this book and how they apply every minute of every day, because it's bigger than we believe it to be.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

an interesting read about the history, leadership, and influence of Bechtel.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history of the Bechtel Corporation's growth in the 20th century. Probably not an interesting book for people not familiar with Bechtel.

[Chetan Gajria · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great insight into what makes businesses get where they are. A clear cause and effect of building relationships and getting more out of them over time.