The Past Has Another Pattern: Memoirs

During his long career as a diplomat, international lawyer, statesman and investment banker, George Ball interrogated Albert Speer at the end of World War II, worked with Jean Monnet to build Europe, supervised the rescue of hostages in the Congo, advised President Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis and, as Undersecretary of State in the Johnson and Kennedy administrations, was an early and consistent opponent of America’s involvement in Vietnam.

“Clarity, serenity and precision are the marks of this major contribution to an understanding of American foreign policy during the past 40 years. The book deserves to be compared with Dean Acheson’s Present at the Creation (but less self-satisfied) and George Kennan’s Memoirs (but less introverted). Although the author is best known to the general public for his opposition to American military involvement in Vietnam, the historian will find his discussion of European issues the most interesting part of the book.” — Gaddis Smith, Foreign Affairs

“[A] first-rate memoir of American politics and foreign policy over half a century. It is literate, lively and amusing, and in places it clarifies basic questions about the foreign policy of the United States... The Past Has Another Pattern is a colorful and thought provoking tour of the recent and not-so-recent past, conducted by a skillful guide.” — Daniel Yergin, The New York Times

“[O]ne of the great, examined public lives of our time.” — Kirkus

“A distinguished lawyer and public servant with experience of Presidents stretching from Roosevelt to Reagan, [George Ball] has written an impressive book of memoirs.” — Douglas Johnson, London Review of Books

“A few years ago I read some 70 volumes of biography and autobiography as a Pulitzer Prize juror. George Ball’s memoirs are everything that most of the art is not. While he does not neglect his achievement, he is candid on the things that went wrong. His public life has provided him with a very great deal of very great importance to tell. He writes admirably well. And much of his story is amusing. This year there will, I promise, be no other biography that will be as good.” — John Kenneth Galbraith

“George Ball is that rarity — a distinguished public servant who can write; and his memoir is not only indispensable for the historian but absorbing for the general reader.” — Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.