Book as it Relates to Education

¶ … Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush, by John W. Dean: Implications for Modern American Education

The book Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush, by John W. Dean (Little, Brown, 2004) has as its central theme the excessive secrecy of what Dean calls the "Bush-Cheney presidency (xi) or the "Bush and Cheney presidency" (21)since, according to Dean, Cheney, not Bush, often makes key decisions. Dean asserts that "in many ways it is a co-presidency" (11), with Bush as the front man, and Cheney, being the actual decision-maker, preferring the shadows. Both men are excessively secretive, and their secretiveness, argues Dean, threatens democracy, liberty, and public accountability, and also encourages incompetence by allowing Bush and Cheney to escape public scrutiny (185-88). Moreover, Dean portends the potentially harmful effects the Bush-Cheney presidency has had, and may continue to have, on the rights and protections of average American citizens, and on the constitutional divisions and checks and balances of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government (ix-xvii). Although the central theme of this book does not relate directly to modern American education, educators, students, and others interested in American education today can gain insight from this book about the kind of historical and other reflection; skepticism; examination of facts and inferences; and critical thinking necessary in American education today in order to protect our basic rights as citizens from the real danger of erosion posed by the Bush-Cheney presidency.

Dean's central comparison and stated reason for writing this book (ix) is to compare the excessive secrecy of the Bush-Cheney White House to that of the Nixon White House, of which he was himself a part. Dean states, in his Preface, that Bush and Cheney have created "the most secretive presidency of my lifetime" (ix), thus the book's title. Examples of that secrecy that are unusual for those in such high office are the secrecy surrounding Cheney's health and the public reassurances that Cheney has no serious heart problems, even after several heart attacks, and the secrecy about the first 41 years of Bush's life, including his problems with alcohol, National Guard service record, and numerous failed business ventures (pp. 22-53). However, members of the press who press for greater accountability or more detailed explanations of the actions or policies on the part of Bush or Cheney are ignored, ostracized, or even publicly ridiculed. One example Dean gives is that of when NBC correspondent David Gregory asked Bush, who was holding a joint press conference in France with French president Jacques Chirac, why Bush might think there was such strong European sentiment against him, and then turned to Chirac and, being fluent in French, asked Chirac to answer the question as well. Bush proceeded to publicly upbraid Gregory and accuse Gregory (one of the most low-key of all news correspondents) of showing off (pp. 70-71). As Dean states:

It was an absurd scolding, for Gregory is about as low-key a television journalist as can be

Found, a man who has no need to show off. But Bush let him and other American journalists

know: Don't ask him tough questions and don't -- even in subtle ways -- exhibit the slightest bit of initiative, particularly at a press conference heavily covered by foreign news media.

(p. 71)

Another criticism of Dean's is "Bush's reliance on image" (p. 71), to conceal his true self and character. Bush's handlers "have scripted one event after another -- often literally building sets for presidential appearances, with Bush needing only to show up in a well-tailored suit or some other costume for the occasion . . ." (p. 74). Dean also mentions Bush's well-known "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" speech, in pilot's costume, carefully staged and delivered on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln (74), a photo opportunity that served to kick off his [effective] 2004 presidential re-election campaign.

Though not explicitly stated by Dean, it is nevertheless clear that Bush's carefully-manipulated media image, the result of combined obfuscation of the truth; aggressive repression of critical inquiry by members of the press and others, and careful "Stagecrafting and Image Control" (subtitle, p. 71) are examples that should (although all too often do not) invite a great deal of critical thinking and skeptical inquiry on the part of an informed, well-educated American citizenry. However, as Dean points out, they unfortunately do not:

Newsweek noted after 9/11 that "Americans seem more willing to sacrifice civil liberties on the altar of security than we have been at any time since President Lincoln

suspended the right of habeas corpus during the Civil War . . .

Very few Americans worry about their rights and liberties; rather, they take them for granted. Americans are even less concerned about the rights of others, particularly foreigners . . ., Americans are tolerating conduct they would find unacceptable for people who may not be guilty of anything more than not being an American. Everyone wants terrorists brought to justice. But dragnets are notoriously ineffective. (pp. 125-6).

It is entirely possible that the underlying reason for so many American citizens' being so relaxed about the erosions of their basic rights and freedoms following 911 is a combination of irrational fear, carefully inculcated by the Bush administration, and engendered in the American public based on mere theories of increased terrorist danger masquerading (extremely successfully, and, to much of the American public convincingly) as facts. For example, of then-Secretary of State Colin Powell's United Nations speech arguing for "pre-emptive self-defense" against Iraq, Dean notes, "It was shocking because Powell. Knowingly or otherwise, . . . presented one false and misleading statement after another" (p. 143).

Toward the end of the book, Dean states that: "Controlling the news media, avoiding press conferences, sealing the White House -- these are obvious efforts to avoid being held accountable . . ." (p. 178). Dean then details seven "evils of excessive secrecy (pp. 185-88), including that it alienates, negatively affects character, and is dangerous. No one in America wants the terrorists to win, asserts Dean, based on "unnecessary presidential secrecy, our own collective stupidity, and the failure of our leaders to lead" (p. 198).

American education today often places insufficient evidence not only on critical thinking itself, especially as it relates to what we read in newspapers, magazines, on the internet, and in other places, what we see on television, and what we take as conventional wisdom, even in the clear presence of much contradiction of that apparent wisdom. Educators in America today would therefore perhaps do well to remind students of the lessons of history (e.g., Watergate) as John W. Dean has done here. The truth of well-known maxim that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it is being made apparent, dean suggests, within the Bush-Cheney White House.