Million-dollar misdeed memoirs
Many world leaders, instead of apologising for their misdeeds, are making millions by aggressively marketing their memoirs where they defend their wrongdoings, writes V. Gangadhar

Shakespeare’s famous words:
The evil that men do, lives after them,
The good is oft interr’d with their hones
It should now be rewritten as:
The evil that men do fetches them millions through their memoirs,
The good is oft interr’d with their bones.

Tony Blair’s remarkably frank autobiography fetched him a staggering £4.6-million advance

We are now watching a phenomenon where leaders of powerful nations, once they left office, produced detailed memoirs of their years in power, marketed them aggressively and made millions.

The latest to join this rat race is former British Prime Minister and Labour Party leader Tony Blair whose remarkably frank autobiography, Tony Blair: A Journey, fetched him a staggering `A34.6-million advance, with the publishers charging a cool `A3150 for limited editions in cloth-slip cases.

Blair, an Oxford-educated barrister with bourgeois tastes, was an unlikely Labour leader but led his party to three successive electoral triumphs. As his days in power went on, Blair gave the impression of not being a Prime Minister but a successful CEO, and his book reads more like the memoirs of a business tycoon.

The little bit of Labour ideology in his early days as the Prime Minister wore off in no time, and like one of his predecessors, Margaret Thatcher, he became enamoured with wealth, proximity to millionaires, and soon become one.

Former US President Richard Nixon, made famous by the Watergate scandal, produced his memoirs after resigning, which fetched him millions

Blair makes it clear in his memoirs that even during his days in office, he was preparing for a lavish afterlife. During his tenure only, he had set up a `A320 million annual turnover enterprise with a 130-member staff and acquired five mansions.

He did not mind leaving active politics, and as the Spectator put it, began to enjoy the trappings of power without the trappings. No wonder, Blair could say, "I enjoy my life now better than the old one." He could expect more money from the book, fat consultation fees from businessmen and even more rich pickings from speaking assignments.

Tony Blair knew how to market his book. Since sex sold, the memoirs had a liberal dose of it. According to the memoirs, he was "an animal in the bedroom", particularly on days when there was heavy political tension and any challenge to his leadership. "That night Cherie cradled me in her arms and soothed me; and told me what I needed to be told; strengthened me, made me feel what I was about to do was right. On that night, I needed that love Cherie gave me, selfishly. I devoured it, to gave me strength, I was an animal, following my instinct`85`85.." Well, more material for human sexual behaviour!

Yet, the same man ended up with one of the worst records as Prime Minister, reviled and held untrustworthy by most Britons. Blair continued the special relationship with the US, which had started during the days of Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, but had been reduced to the level of a master and vassal, with the US as master.

Winston Churchill, who led Britain during World War II, wrote a series of books on the war that earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature

His blind hero worship and open admiration of another equally unpopular leader across the Atlantic, US President George Bush, led to his being named as "Bush’s poodle". Like Bush, Blair went to war against Iraq after lying to his people and doctoring intelligence reports, which did not see Iraqi president Saddam Hussein as a threat.

Yet, The Journey offered no apologies for the illegal invasion of Iraq and the near-destruction of that country. Blair, like Bush, believed that had Saddam Hussein not been eliminated, he would have unleashed further destruction on Iraq. Today, with no Saddam, Iraq was still in ruins, the killings continued and months after the so-called ‘free elections’, the country still had no government.

Blair had no hesitation in sending thousands of British soldiers to their death in Iraq. His announcement that all proceeds from the sale of his memoirs would go to charity, a fund to help war veterans, looks like an afterthought. Moreover, the British people would have none of this blood money. Said the mother of a slain soldier, "I don’t want any charity from that man. He should be tried as a war criminal." People were also angry at his views on their much-loved Princess Diana. Blair claimed that like himself, she, too, was a manipulator Blair’s cover-up, which focussed more on his days of glory, while skipping the post-2007 period, when his popularity had crashed due to his habit of Bush sycophancy and defence of the Iraqi war stand, enraged Britons. They threw shoes, eggs and tomatoes at Blair, who had begun visits to bookshops to promote the sale of his memoirs.

Bill Clinton made nearly $12 million from his memoirs My Life (left). His wife Hillary, then a Democrat Senator from New York, made slightly less, around $9 million for her book Living History, which was also translated into other languages

In one shop, he was mobbed by angry anti-war veterans and had to escape through a back exit. Finally, the book promotion programmes were cancelled.

Tony Blair is neither the first nor the only world leader to make millions by chronicling his misdeeds, as people worldwide seem to be interested to know how power was wielded right at the top. Former American President Bill Clinton made nearly $12 million from his memoirs My Life. His wife Hillary, then a Democratic Senator from New York, made slightly less, around $9 million for her book Living History, which was also translated into other languages.

Even the memoirs of former chairman of Federal Reserve Board Alan Greenspan fetched him a highly satisfactory $8.5 million.

What is however disturbing, was the millions made by leaders, who abused their power, lost confidence of their own people and narrowly missed going to jail.

Heading this list is "Tricky Dick"’, former US President Richard Nixon, who was exposed by the famous Watergate scandal and was almost impeached. Saved by an undeserving pardon from his successor and crony, President Gerald Ford, Nixon brought infamy to American presidency by several illegal acts — had compiled secret dossiers on everyone (these Nixon files still continue to haunt many), used laundered money for his poll campaign and employed crooks and thugs to harass his political opponents.

Exposed by the media, Nixon resigned, retired to his California home, and coolly produced his memoirs, which, again, fetched him millions. As was to be expected, the book had only a passing reference to Watergate, and his right-wing Republican supporters continue to hail him as a foreign policy wizard.

Nixon never acknowledged he had done anything wrong, never apologised for his misdeeds; rather he made his millions from them. His Rasputin, who advised him on foreign policy, Dr Henry Kissinger, also made millions from his books, speaking assignments and consultancy services to big businessmen. Irked by the independent stand taken by former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Nixon and Kissinger took an anti-India stand during the liberation of Bangladesh and even called her names in their private conversations.

Years later, some Indian businessmen and chambers of commerce invited Kissinger for lectures offering him huge fees, forgetting how he had insulted India and its Prime Minister.

Even more distressing was the fact that dozens of Nixon aides, who were co-conspirators and sentenced to various prison terms, also made money producing their memoirs, always blaming one another but never themselves. Among these were the Praetorian Guards of Nixon, White House Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman, counsel and Assistant John D. Ehrlichman, special counsel to the President John Wesley Dean III, chief operative for the White House Plumbers unit Gordon Liddy and former Special Counsel to Nixon Charles Colson, who once famously swore that he "would walk on his grandma if President Nixon asked him." In fact, one can build a library from the books written by the Watergate criminal gang, headed by Nixon. Perhaps, the books helped them to pay their legal fees!

Ordinary people did want to know more about great people and major world evens like wars. Winston Churchill, who led Britain during World War II, produced a series of books on the war, which earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature, while President Eisenhower brought out his memoirs, Crusade in Europe, which described the liberation of Europe from the Nazis by the Allied forces, led by Eisenhower.

One of the greatest events of the last century, the Partition of the Indian subcontinent, too, gave rise to thousands of books.

Such books made us understand the world better. But in an era of checkbook journalism and publication, we should be careful of memoirs of crooked politicians, who produce memoirs absolving themselves of any wrong doing and made millions in the process. They are in the same boat as serial killers and bank robbers, whose memoirs are usually snapped up by a section of publishers. Such books glorify evil deeds, which was exactly what Tony Blair and George Bush did. But the world knows however much they try to whitewash their crimes, crooks will always remain crooks.