Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer

I remember Armand Hammer appearing on the Tonight Show and other of guest appearances on the popular shows of the day doing his best to create a positive public image. He largely succeeded. This book shows the deals he cut with rather awful people and Hammer's, being kind, questionable character. It is an engrossing story and the book is a great read. The point is that this is an important story because of the relationships Hammer had with people in power in the Soviet Union, in the Middle East, and in Washington. Occidental Petroleum was and is an important company. Of course, Al Gore's father success, and much of Gore's personal wealth, is based upon carrying water for Occidental Petroleum. The company worked hard in post Hammer times to erase that difficult past. You can judge for yourself.I believe that you will enjoy this book and warmly recommend it to you.

This book details the life of a rotten man. Probably a psychopathic man (to read more about this breed, read WITHOUT CONSCIENCE by Robert Hare). Armand Hammer was so ego-ridden, he was always having some book published about how wonderful he was. So it's great to have a book to counter his propoganda about himself. People--especially Americans--love a success, and often willfully overlook the rotten ends the successful person went to to become successful. As was the case with Hammer. A vain vain, conscience-free man. This book was both nauseating and fascinating to read.

I found this book to be utterly fascinating. There has been so much smoke blown about Armand Hammer over the years (a lot of it from the mouth of the Hammer himself) that it is refreshing to read a less worshipful account. The best part (and the part of Hammer's life which he purposely obscured over the years) is about his life in Russia in the 1920's. Well worth the time!

The man the media held out to us as a humanitarian, art lover, and brilliant capitalist is finally exposed in this brilliantly-written and thoroughly-researched book. From performing illegal abortions to twenty years as a hard-core Soviet agent for Lenin and Stalin, to international bribes, to Watergate, to fathering and abandoning bastard children, to the theft of tens if not hundreds of millions, Hammer would do anything. As a Jew he was able to be one of the major agents between the early Soviet government and the American communist movement both of which contained a very large proportion of Jews. Only the communists, our Republican, and Democratic politicians, and media liked this total fraud. In the end even his family loathed him.

If the text were not so well documented, it would be hard to believe that this is a true story and not a Mario Puzo novel. I only wish that Hammer's education in the early Soviet Union and the techniques which he used to build his intelligence network were better explored.