The Court-Martial of Clayton Lonetree - Hardcover

Lake Headley; William Hoffman; William Kunstler

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805008934 ISBN 13: 9780805008937

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1989

Synopsis

Told by the chief investigator for the defense and based on classified transcripts involved in the arrest and court-martial of Marine Sergeant Clayton Lonetree, this book reveals how a lonely and naively ambitious young man, previously a model Marine, became the scapegoat of American government embarrassment. Photos.

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Reviews

In 1986 Native American Marine sergeant Clayton Lonetree informed the CIA that during his Moscow embassy tour he had made contact with the KGB. Lonetree naively hoped the CIA would assign him as a double agent. Thus began the "sex-for-secrets" scandal reported around the world in which the security of the U.S. embassy in Moscow was called into question and the young Lonetree was pilloried as the prime villain. This disturbing book--based on "classified" trial transcripts and written by the chief investigator for the defense in Lonetree's trial and Hoffman, a book author--charges that a gullible enlisted man was exploited in order to protect high-ranking officials responsible for the sorry state of embassy security. Headley and Hoffman argue that Lonetree committed no crime other than passing two innocuous pieces of information to a female embassy employee, a Soviet national, with whom he had a brief affair. For this he was arrested and--without being informed of his rights--charged with espionage. The Marine prosecutor in the case sought the death penal ty, and Lonetree was considered lucky by the prosecution to receive a 30-year prison sentence. Readers will agree with Kunstler, another of his lawyers, when he writes: " Semper fidelis may be the motto of the Marine Corps, but it hardly applied to the inhumane and vindictive vendetta against one of its own . . . " Illustrations.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

If true, since the story is told by a member of Lonetree's defense team, this account confirms the old adage that military justice is to justice as military music is to music. Coming on the heels of Ronald Kessler's Moscow Station ( LJ 5/15/89), Headley's story is persuasive about the less-than-disastrous nature of Lonetree's part in supposed intelligence leaks at the U.S. embassy in Moscow. And it is no less persuasive, whatever the degree of Lonetree's guilt, about the kangaroo nature of court-martial justice. After reading this and Kessler's book, the inescapable conclusion is that the Lonetree trial, whatever else, had a strong dose of bureaucratic cover-up to it. At the least the two volumes, each shocking in their own way, suggest the need for a Congressional inquiry. A piece in a larger puzzle.
- H. Steck, SUNY Coll. at Cortland
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805008934
• ISBN 13: 9780805008937
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240