The Pentagonists: An Insider's View of Waste, Mismanagement and Fraud in Defense Spending - Hardcover

Fitzgerald, A. Ernest

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0395362458 ISBN 13: 9780395362457

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin, 1989

Synopsis

Discusses a broad range of problems in the current defense system and offers many instances of contractor fraud, incompetence, and system mismanagement

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

A former cost analyst at the Pentagon, Fitzgerald charges here that he was fired in 1970 on orders from President Nixon for violating the code of silence regarding military waste. Now after nearly 20 years of harassment and attempts to discredit him, he has come to be regarded as the dean of Washington whistle-blowers. The personal story he recounts is shocking. But more disturbing are the convincing allegations, financial figures and damning quotes he presents in this hard-hitting indictment of the Pentagon's ex officio alliance with defense contractors and certain segments of Congress, a combine he warns is taking over a large part of the public economy as well as a significant range of government decision-making functions. Naming government officials, military officers and civilian contractors, Fitzgerald maintains that the Pentagon has become "an independent entity entirely outside the laws of the United States," and that huge infusions of money during the Reagan years have actually produced fewer useful weapons. The book will be widely reviewed, widely discussed and, one hopes, widely read. Illustrations.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

The author has been a famous "whistle blower" in government since his High Priests of Waste ( LJ 11/1/72) reported the huge cost overruns on the C-5 aircraft. This volume is part history of defense programs in the 1970s and 1980s, part insider's view of bureaucracy, and part autobiography. Fitzgerald is proud to be "a thorn in everybody's side" and has axes to grind. The book should be read with due caution. It should be read, however, as the commentary of a seemingly dedicated man who has taken major career risks to follow his conscience. That itself is rare enough in government, the correctness of the author's views or data aside. Recommended for the general reader and informed layperson.
- Gerald N. Sandvick, North Hennepin Community Coll., Brooklyn Park, Minn.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0395362458
• ISBN 13: 9780395362457
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 344