Book Review: The Quiet Man

The Quiet Man:The Indispensable Presidency of George H. W. Bushby John H. SununuHarperCollins, 2015John Sununu, erstwhile governor of New Hampshire and former White House Chief of Staff for President George H. W. Bush, has at long last written a book about his time in the White House working for Bush Senior. The book is called The Quiet Man, and since US governors tend to be known as much for their (usually impressive, sometimes feral) intelligence as for their overweening vanity, the book's subtitle is not “Caretaker to a Caretaker President” but rather “The Indispensable Presidency of George H. W. Bush.”Far be it for Governor Sununu ever to have toiled at anything dispensable, and it must be admitted that he does his former boss yeoman service in this book, chronicling a long association that began back in 1979 when then-candidate Bush made the pilgrimage to Sununu's home state, where Sununu's wife Nancy was chair of the State Republican Committee. There followed a steadily-increasing mesh of connections, from Sununu beginning his first term as governor in 1983 to Bush being inaugurated as President in 1989, with Sununu as his Chief of Staff. And along the way, our author never misses an opportunity to stress what a nice guy his former boss is, how unfailingly he prioritized friendship over everything else in his extensive career in politics. A great many of these anecdotes are clearly very personal to Sununu, although some ring more true than others – Sununu gives Bush's farewell to President Johnson, for instance, like this:

Throughout his life and political career, George Bush demonstrated a commitment to personal loyalty that inspired me and everyone around him. Despite any philosophical differences he may have had with Lyndon Johnson, Bush remembered the kind words the president had for his father, Prescott Bush, when the two men served in the U.S. Senate together in the 1950s, and he stood beside Johnson to the end – literally. On Nixon's inauguration day, Bush skipped the swearing in of his fellow Republican and trekked out to Andrews Air Force Base to join in the farewells for President Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson. Surprised to see the young GOP congressman there among the well-wishers, Lady Bird Johnson, never one to mince words, later described Bush as “not only a strong Republican but … a warm and caring man who wrote the book on friendship.”

Even true believers among Sununu's readers will notice that little chronological bait-and-switch being pulled with the Lady Bird quote (she might have been surprised to see young Poppy Bush in the throng of sentimental sycophants, but that 'warm and caring man' business comes from an unspecified later date), and it's far from the only shall we say questionable claim in The Quiet Man. Sununu's praise of such Bush-era masterminds as Lee Atwater and Roger Ailes is often mixed with shrewd insights about them, for instance, but what are readers to make of Sununu's claim that “an independent group” ran the race-baiting Willie Horton ads Bush used against Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis? Or Sununu's insinuation that Bush's infamously fatuous reference to “the vision thing” was “added to the Bush narrative by Time magazine in early 1987," instead of originating from the man himself? This isn't Dealey Plaza; the provenance of these things isn't exactly shrouded in a fog that only Governor Sununu can dispel. Likewise for his taunting assertion: “The late 1980s were a period of evolution in campaign advertising. Candidates began running harder-hitting messages and harder-hitting ads against their opponents” - what he means is, “the late 1980s saw new depths in the mud-slinging sleaze of presidential campaigns,” and what he ought to admit, at this late date, is, “in this, at least, George H. W. Bush led the way.”And speaking of Dealey Plaza … Sununu makes the obligatory comments about how President Reagan and his Vice President Bush “developed a very strong and warm personal relationship,” but when it come time to narrate John Hinckley's March 3, 1981 assassination attempt on Reagan – the same day on which Vice President Bush's son Neil was scheduled to have dinner in Denver with Hinckley's brother – Sununu writes what is either the most naive or the most utterly sinister line about the man who but for a stroke of luck would have become president that day: “He demonstrated the capacity to do what was necessary without appearing to be overly eager to fill the role.” It can truthfully be said that there isn't a conspiracy nut in the country who would disagree with a word of that sentence.And when it comes to words, when involuntary 21^st-century Terror Wars participants read Bush Senior tell Sununu “I see my life in terms of missions – missions defined, and missions completed,” they're going to think of Bush Junior … and a certain damning word missing after “mission.” You'd think a former majordomo would have more circumspection, but then, Granite State politicians have never been known for their tact.As was no doubt intentional in its title's echo of the great 1952 John Ford movie, The Quiet Man seeks to be a tale of muted heroism in a sometimes brutal world. It could scarcely have chosen a less likely leading man, but then, Ford's movie was fantasy too.