Legacy

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'-'ra s~A-'Wkfieii- 9W lii-Ri~V' York in 1907 and grew up in Pennsylvania. After graduating from Swarthmore College, he spent two years in Europe studying. Although he has lectured in social science for many years, been a publisher and served in the U.S. Navy, he is first and foremost a writer. Among his most famous novels are Hawaii, The Source, Centennial, Space, Poland and Texas.

Also by James A. Michener THE BRIDGE AT ANDAU THE BRIDGES AT TOKO-RI CARAVANS CENTENNIAL CHESAPEAKE THE COVENANT THE DRIFTERS THE FIRES OF SPRING HAWAII IBERIA (Volumes I and 2) POLAND RASCALS IN PARADISE (with A. Grove Day) RETURN TO PARADISE SAYONARA THESOURCE SPACE TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC TEXAS and published by Corgi Books

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LEGACY

James A. Michener

FEA CORGI BOOKS

LEGACY A CORGI BOOK 0 552 13393 0

Originally published in Great Britain by Martin Seeker & Warburg Limited

PRINTING HISTORY Seeker & Warburg edition published 1987 Corgi edition published 1988 Corgi edition reissued 1988 Copyright (D 1987 by James A. Michener Conditions of sale 1. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subseq haser. ue=bject to the Standard Conditions of Sale of Net 2. This book is Books and may not be re-sold in the UK below the net price fixed by the publishers for the book.

Corgi Books are published by Transworld Publishers Ltd., 61-63 Uxbridge Road, Ealing, London W5 5SA, in Australia by Transworld Publishers (Australia) Pry. Ltd., 15-23 Helles Avenue, Moorebank, NSW 2170, and in New Zealand by Transworld Publishers (N.Z.) Ltd., Cnr. Moselle and Waipareira Avenues, Henderson, Auckland.

Printed and bound in Great Britain by Cox & Wvman Ltd.. Reading, Berks.

CONTENTS

THESTARRS JARED STARR 1726-1787 SIMON STARR 1759-1804 JUDGE EDMUND STARR 1780-1847 GENERAL HUGH STARR 1833-1921 EMILY STARR 1858-1932 RICHARD STARR 1890-1954 RACHEL DENHAM STARR 1928- NORMAN STARR 1951-

The Constitution of the United States

7 16 26 66 75 90 116 123 136

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r"I I he Starrs

My bad luck started just before Christmas 1985 But at the time, as so often happens, it seemed lik goodluck. I had graduated from West Point just in time t join the final fighting in the rice paddies o Vietnam. Returning with a chest full of medals, few earned, most routine, I married Nancy Makin a girl from New Hampshire I'd been dating whe ever I found myself with stateside duty. We ha spent our first three years of married life in th Panama Central Zone, where I had the shame task of watching as Jimmy Carter gave away tha marvel of engineering to the Panamanians. M father, a colonel in the Army Reserve and a note hero in World War II, called it mildly 'the mos traitorous act of any American since Aaron Burr. And believe me, considering what Aaron Burr ha done to our family as well as our nation in th early 1800s, that was a savage indictment. It was in Panama that I mastered Spanist which led to further assignments south of th border; and in Argentina, Chile and especia Guatemala, learning firsthand about Communis subversion on our doorstep. I was never gung ho in my work against Reds. That's not my style. I don't like to be ou

front unless war's been declared and I'm in charge of troops. But no one had greater aversion to Communism than I did, after the butchery I'd seen in Nam and the cruel behaviour in Guatemala. I've never known whether it was my familiarity with Latin American Communism or my Spanish that accounted for the unexpected promotion, but on 10 December 1985, 1 received orders to leave my duty station in Cartagena, Colombia, where we were trying to stanch the flow of cocaine into the States, and report to the Pentagon. Nancy rejoiced at what she called 'a long- overdue assignment,' not only because it meant a promotion, which I needed if I was ever going to make colonel, but also because it allowed me to rejoin her in Washington, where she had estab- lished our permanent home. I appreciated the new job because I would be working with men who had been in my class at the Point or on duty with me in Nam. My duties were well matched to my experience: liaison with the various military commissions from South and Central American nations, anti- Communism in general, and exciting duty with Vice-President Bush's special task force on drug smuggling. I met Bush only a couple of times, always in a crowd of officers, but from my earliest days in Colombia, I'd had a favourable opinion of what he was trying to do. And then, just before Christmas, I was suddenly handed the exciting news: 'Starr, an opportunity like this doesn't reach down to tap a major very often. Your Spanish and all, or maybe it's your strong record in Guatemala. Anyway, they want you for a stint at the National Security Council.' 'Am I qualifiedT

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'The Army wants you to go. Demands that you go. Too damned many Navy and Marine types over there.' 'My dutiesT 'Cloak-and-dagger? Who ever knows?'He was a two-star general, and he half saluted before I did 'Keep your nose clean this time, Starr. We wan you back. Men like you are too precious to lose,' His last words spoiled the good news, becaus they reminded both him and me that my promotio to lieutenant colonel had been sidetracked. Nor mally, an Army officer, if he's good, expects reg lar promotion up to the rank of lieutenant colonel The real weeding out occurs in the jump fro light-chicken to full-chicken. As my West Poin bunkmate Zack McMaster once said in his poeti way: 'Any asshole can make light colonel. It take a real man to handle the next leap.'He had left th service after only two years, for it had becom clear that because of his outspoken manner, h would never hack it. My promotion had been held up twice becaus of an incident in Chile. Information I was pickin up on the street, where I moved about in civilia clothes, led me to believe that one of our clandes tine exercises was bound to backfire, allowing gang of real murderers to sneak behind the Ameri can flag while they continued their dirty games. protested in an embassy meeting, failed to ge attention, and sat down to write a forceful memo randum. My grandfather, having undergone tw

messy divorces in which his ardent letter betrayed him, had summarized his experience in pithy command; 'Do right and fear no man. Don' write and fear no woman.' Forgetting half o this, I drafted a memo that turned out to make m

superiors look bad. Infuriated, they had blocked my advancement. Zack, who had turned to law after his non- productive fling with the Army, had enrolled at Columbia Law, graduated high, served as clerk to Justic Byron White of the Supreme Court, and gone on to become one of Washington's street- smart geniuses who know where the bodies are buried. But if he did a lot of manipulating, he also did much pro bono work. When my promotion was blocked by the bad vibes from Chile, he advised me: 'Starr, if you move to another command, keep a low profile and do a superior job. Then not even your enemies will be able to hold you back.' My assignment to the NSC proved him right. But his urgent phone call this morning put an end to that strategy: 'Starr, old buddy. You're in serious trouble.' 'How do you knowT 'A Washington lawyer is supposed to know everything.' 'Like whatT 'The Senate Committee on the Iran deal wants to interrogate you.' 'Zack, I've had nothing to do with Iran.' 'The angle isn't Iran. It's the contras.' Suddenly my mouth went dry, for the contra affair was much different from the Iranian, and this time I could not paint myself as lily-white. There was, after all, the Tres Toros affair about which rumours had begun to circulate, and I would not feel easy being interrogated about that. 'You better come on over.' 'Wouldn't it be better if I stayed away from the White House? Your home maybeT Todav. twenty-four hours later, I can recall

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every thought that assailed me in the fifteen utes it took Zack and me, by different routes, reach our condo in Georgetown. First I clarifi my mind as to Iran: Did the Iran project touch in any way? Never. I knew vaguely that somethi was under way - but details? I never had a cle word from anyone. How about Colonel Oliv North, did I really know him? I heard from eve one that he was a fine dedicated patriot, bu never had direct contact with him on anything do with Iran. On Iran, I am squeaky clean. But how about Nicaragua? Now, there I d bump into North a couple of times. Strictly prof sional, strictly within the law, so far as I know reported to him twice on the effectiveness of t contra effort. Tried to brief him on the b cocaine situation in Colombia, but he was t occupied with other things. Did I ever pro~o Central American actions to him? Never. But if I wasn't on Colonel North's team, a wasn't, what in hell was I doing in Centr America from Christmas '85 to Christmas '86? 1 so damned security-conscious that I won't ev spell out in these notes the gory details. All I'll s is that even at Tres Toros, my actions we inspired by patriotism, my conviction that Co munism is a deadly peril, and my belief that t free world must not sit back and let the Reds r rampant. But if I knew nothing about Iran. I d know a ~great deal about Nicaragua, and approved ninety-five percent of what we we

doing down there. And then, as I approached t street leading to our house, my stomach turned ice, and I found myself saying aloud, as if my wi were sitting next to me: 'This is not going to easy.'

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When I entered our house I was relieved to see that Nancy wasn't home. Explaining complex things to her is never easy, because she has the habit of interrupting with questions that probe embarrassing alleyways. When Zack arrived, it was as if we were back at the Point. I hadn't seen him for some time, and was pleased to note that he had kept his weight down, still had that contentious red hair and those white teeth, and his energy level seemed as high as ever. He even wore his three-piece suit with the trim appearance of a uniform, and like always, he seemed to keep four steps ahead of me. I was glad to have him on my side. After clearing a place on our table for his papers and yellow note pad, he said: 'Let's get right down to cases. Do you consider yourself guilty of anything?' 'Like what? Traffic violationsT He looked at me almost with contempt, and in a harsh, unfamiliar voice said: 'I mean this Iran mess.' 'Never touched Iran even remotely.' 'You can swear to thaff 'I just said so, didn't IT Zack pushed himself away from the table, took a hard look at me, and said: 'Look here, soldier. You could be in deep mud, and to save your neck I need to know the absolute truth. You know how men like you stumble into fatal error? Lying under oath. The Feds double back ten years later, con- front you with your earlier perjured testimony, and throw you in the slammer. Tomorrow, before the Senate Committee you'll take an oath, so I'm going to question you today as if you just had. And if you lie, you go to jail ... for a long, long term.'

I am amazed at what I said next, but it was the reaction of a man who had always worked for a limited government salary: 'How much is this going to cost? Your legal fee, I meanT 'Starr! My firm is doing this for free. Because I know you're honest.' He stopped. 'You got prob- lems, Major. I'm here as your bunkmate.' Now he got down to business: 'I'll take your word that it wasn't Iran that got you into trouble. So it's got to be the contra connection. Tell me about your role in that beauty.' 'You're right, it must be Nicaragua. But I can' go public with much.' 'Before this is over, I assure you, you'll go ver public.' And he began to bombard me with man questions, and such intimate ones that quite ofte I had to say: 'That one I can't answer. Nationa Security.' Once he stormed: 'I'm your lawyer, dammit! have to know.' 'Not that, you don't.' So we agreed on a procedure that didn't pleas him but which we could live with. We reviewe my Army career, my near court-martial, m delayed promotion, my unceasing fights agains the two enemies, Communism and drugs, and m publicly acknowledged work for the Securit Council in Central America. But concerning th secret operations, I would not allow myself t be questioned. This infuriated Zack: 'Dammit Norman, I can't handle your case unless you giv me short, honest answers to three questions. One were you pretty deep in the contra affairT

'Yes.' 'Two, did you ever do anything illegalT 'I always had authorization.' I hesitated, a fac

which he noticed, then changed my answer: 'Bet- ter make that, I always thought I had.' 'Three, could a civilian jury find you guilty of anything?' 'If the facts were presented to them with a twist, yes.' Zack stopped. Dead-cold. Not even his motor running. He went to the window, studied the street as if afraid we were being watched, and I could see that he was trying to devise our strat- egy, but then he laughed in his old red-headed way and came back to me as if he were starting an entirely new conversation. Grasping me by the shoulder, he said: 'You're in a dangerous position, old friend. The public smells blood on this contra affair and they're hungry for victims. But there may be a way out.' 'There better be. I do not fancy a jail term.' 'It's my job to see that you don't get one. If you lose, I lose, and in this town, I cannot afford to be seen as a loser.' At this point Nancy came in through the front door. Five feet one and eighty-percent high explo- sive, she was lugging two big brown paper bags from the supermarket, and before she could put them down she saw Zack, ran across the room, and gave him a hearty kiss: 'What brings you here, Counsellor? According to the papers, you keep a lot of irons in the fire.' 'None bigger than this one, Nancy,' he said, and he invited her to join us. 'The bloodhounds are after your old man, and it's my job to get him safely across the ice.' 'SeriousT 'Very.' 'The Iran affairT My wife is a clever woman,