How a Well-Connected Texas Oil Company Revolutionized the Way America Makes War
December 22, 2008
Chatterjee (Iraq Inc.
) delves into the nebulous world of the Houston-based Halliburton corporation, tracing the company to its roots, when a fortuitous meeting with a young Lyndon Baines Johnson propelled the Brown and Root Company (which later merged with Halliburton) into Washington power politics. The author details the military contracting that largely funded the company through WWII and into the present-day war in Iraq, intertwining the company's history with the biographies of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and other officials in the Bush administration. Chatterjee provides a laundry list of abuses for which the company has been investigated, including inflated billing of the Pentagon, providing unsafe living conditions for U.S. soldiers, labor exploitation and coverups to avoid congressional inquiry. He concludes with a look at the whistleblowers that brought these scandals into the public eye and the repercussions of the eventual congressional investigation. Chatterjee keeps the pace of the narrative at a quick clip and nimbly marshals his extensive evidence to reveal—without sanctimony or stridency—Halliburton's record of corruption, political manipulation and human rights abuses.
February 1, 2009
Brown & Root was a Texas construction company that generously supported Lyndon Johnson's first campaign for the House. Over the years, through political connections, it obtained lucrative government contracts, hitting it big in the Vietnam War. In the 1980s the military discovered the virtues of contracting out logistical support (transport, base construction, mess halls, etc.) for combat personnel, a system that worked well, both for this company, now a pervasive battlefield presence wherever American soldiers go in number, and for the military. Along the way, the company incorporated Halliburton and Kellogg, for instance, but its strategy didn't change: do whatever it takes to get and keep the business. Investigative journalist Chatterjee ("Iraq, Inc.") chronicles a long and tangled line of influence, bribes, revolving-door hiring (both Cheney and Rumsfeld served as CEOs), no-bid contracts, exploitation, overcharges, and spotty but usually effective service. It's a lesson in how the military-industrial complex operates, and while Chatterjee tends to focus on the misdeeds (many), he admits that we simply could not project military power without the support contractors provide. Most libraries having substantial military or political collections will want to acquire this.Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, KS
Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from February 1, 2009
As military history attests, the logistics and support side of war is no small matter, and now its mega-big business. Halliburton, the Texas-rooted corporation headquartered in Dubai and formerly managed by Dick Cheney, has spearheaded the rise of the private contractor in U.S. military affairs and brazenly conflated privatization with profiteering. Investigative journalist Chatterjee, winner of the Lannan Cultural Freedom Award, charts the full extent of the companys corruption and transgressions in an impeccably matter-of-fact yet staggering work of military-industrial true crime. Chatterjee begins with the companys revealing history and tracks key players Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld as they alternate between CEO positions and seats of power in the federal government. Chatterjee then presents a meticulously documented litany of Halliburton scams and crimes. He cites epic waste andlack of accountability and the suspicious failure to repair Iraqs oilfields. He chronicles the tyrannical treatment of the army of migrant workers from Southeast Asia who outnumber the U.S. soldiers they serve in bases resembling upscale American towns. Hope resides in Chatterjees portraits of the courageous whistleblowers who have exposed the companys heinous opportunism and brutal disregard of human rights. Time will tell if justice will follow.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)