A Good Man Gone Wrong

The Arms Bazaar: From Lebanon to Lockheed By Anthony Sampson Viking, 352 pp., $12.95 Those folks over at the State Department who wrestle with the problems of foreign aid, and who know that they are not so simple as they look, used to say of The Ugly American that if the author had only reversed the good guys and the bad guys the book would make a lot of sense. The same may be said of all the books on the multinationals which have come out more recently. The books of Anthony Sampson are no exception. They differ from the others only in being competently written and honest. Unlike the other purveyors of misinformation, the so-called “investigative journalists,” at least Sampson believes what he says.

Let us take a look at his latest, The Arms Bazaar, which “blows the lid off of the armaments industry,” as one of its advertisements says. It tells us of the good old days of Alfred Nobel, Alfred Krupp, William Armstrong, Hiram Maxim, Basil Zaharoff, and the other “merchants of death” who made their colorful ways about Europe selling weapons to whoever would buy, while easing their consciences with such justifications as, “Armaments manufacture makes jobs,” and the argument that they are only deterrents, not actually to be used. Then there are Gunther Leinhauser, Colonel Hubert Julian (“the Black Eagle of Harlem”), Colonel Pantchoulidzew, and others one would like to see pulled together by Richard Condon for one of his black comedies. Fascinating stuff, beautifully written.

MC

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Miles Copeland

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The Arms Bazaar: From Lebanon to Lockheed By Anthony Sampson Viking, 352 pp., $12.95 Those folks over at the State Department who wrestle with the problems of foreign aid, and who know that they are not so simple as they look, used to say of The Ugly American that if the author had only reversed the good guys and the bad guys the book would make a lot of sense. The same may be said of all the books on the multinationals which have come out more recently. The books of Anthony Sampson are no exception. They differ from the others only in being competently written and honest. Unlike the other purveyors of misinformation, the so-called “investigative journalists,” at least Sampson believes what he says.

Let us take a look at his latest, The Arms Bazaar, which “blows the lid off of the armaments industry,” as one of its advertisements says. It tells us of the good old days of Alfred Nobel, Alfred Krupp, William Armstrong, Hiram Maxim, Basil Zaharoff, and the other “merchants of death” who made their colorful ways about Europe selling weapons to whoever would buy, while easing their consciences with such justifications as, “Armaments manufacture makes jobs,” and the argument that they are only deterrents, not actually to be used. Then there are Gunther Leinhauser, Colonel Hubert Julian (“the Black Eagle of Harlem”), Colonel Pantchoulidzew, and others one would like to see pulled together by Richard Condon for one of his black comedies. Fascinating stuff, beautifully written.