THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 1, 1995 TAG: 9509280455
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J2 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY JOHN L. DAILEY
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
THE NIGHTINGALE'S SONG
ROBERT TIMBERG
Simon & Schuster. 543 pp. $27.50.
Five Naval Academy graduates came into national prominence during the Reagan years, but not all did their alma mater proud. Now in The Nightingale's Song, journalist Robert Timberg, an Annapolis man himself, seeks to define the complex characters and tell the paradoxical stories of John McCain, a Vietnam prisoner of war and United States senator; James Webb, a novelist and former secretary of the Navy; and Oliver North, Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter, all three members of President Reagan's National Security Council staff.
Part Greek tragedy, part psychodrama and part political thriller, the book is virtually impossible to put down. Ambitious, self-reliant, well-educated and extremely principled, all five men have led highly successful professional lives, endured considerable setbacks and re-created themselves as they have gone along. All are career military men, Webb, North and McFarlane being in the U.S. Marine Corps. McCain and Poindexter (1958), and Webb and North (1968) were classmates.
While Timberg divides his book evenly among the players, some are more appealing than others. Poindexter and McFarlane, for example, are portrayed as extremely bright, hard-working men who, for better or worse, lack the charisma of the others. They emote little and evoke even less from us. Webb and McCain touch us more deeply: They are iconoclastic warriors who succeeded in life despite the crippling injuries they suffered in Vietnam - Webb as a platoon leader, McCain as a POW. These are hard men who took their chances, and we can admire them for doing so.
Finally, of course, there is Ollie North, another man we want to admire as we read his story, but cannot because he will not let us. An extremely complicated person, North inspired subordinates in combat with his energy, courage and resourcefulness, but his duplicity, self-preening and huge capacity for compulsive overstatement chilled peer relationships throughout his career. According to Timberg, while critics complained openly about North, no friend ever offered uncompromising praise.
At the center of the story, however, is Ronald Reagan, the ``nightingale'' who holds the greatest sway in the final analysis. As Timberg describes so elegantly, a nightingale, even though it has the notes for its distinctive melody encoded in its brain, cannot sing until it first hears the song of another nightingale. Only then does it issue its own beautiful music.
Reagan's agenda for a stronger defense and renewed respect for the military, combined with redefinition of the Vietnam War as a noble undertaking, gave McFarlane, McCain, Poindexter, Webb and North their voices, eventually drawing them all into the highest circles of government. But the tune became shrill, then faded and finally died after Iran-Contra, condemning the five to abandonment and alienation, a painful replay of their post-Vietnam experiences.
Timberg covers childhood traumas of the five men, furnishes a primer on Iran-Contra and tells hair-raising stories from Annapolis to Vietnam to Central America. His book contains dozens of personal anecdotes about interesting people.
But the book is not just about the Naval Academy or Vietnam or Ronald Reagan or Iran-Contra. It is truly about much broader themes, such as the father-son relationship, the meaning of honor, the place of ambition, courage of all kinds, the pain of intra-generational conflict and, finally, personal renewal and healing. The narrative is a kind of case study, a jumping-off point for an appreciation of more transcendent issues.
The five main characters appear to be good people caught between sometimes conflicting principles. Their stories mystify, energize and engage us in a thought-provoking journey. Timberg describes some uncomfortable dilemmas, but leaves the final conclusions unstated, implicitly asking us to resolve them for ourselves. MEMO: John L. Dailey, Naval Academy class of 1973, is a captain in the Navy
serving in Norfolk. by CNB