Deadhead Among the Diplomats

"Deadhead Among the Diplomats" is a review of The Triumph by John Kenneth Galbraith, published in the book review section of Life Magazine on May 3, 1968.

Summary

John Kenneth Galbraith, 1962

Although primarily known as an economist, Galbraith says he wrote this novel for the seemingly practical reason that certain truths may best emerge from fiction. The story is a kind of "rigged experiment" involving a "bloodless, justified, non-Communist revolution in a banana republic" to expose the behavior of certain members of the State Department. The reader is not set up to feel strongly in any way about this revolution, which at least makes it different from the frequent non-fiction revolutions in the news.

The main character, Grant Worthing Campbell, is the "sexless, humorless" Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs who has never been energized by love for any particular person, nation, or ideology, and has thus never been in danger of losing his sensitive job by being a security risk. Vonnegut theorizes the character may be based on Dean Rusk, but Galbraith has stated he's a mosaic of various "chowderheads" in the field who know nothing more about Communism except that it is probably the cause of any revolution that doesn't place the military or a wealthy family in charge. As such a person, Campbell withholds American recognition of the new government, depriving it of aid, ruining its credit, and leading to considerations of bombing its capital city. Although the novel may bring Galbraith's ideas to a wider, less academic audience, the work on its own, separated from its famous author, is perhaps "medium art". Campbell is the only developed character, surrounded by cardboard cutouts who react to him, the banana republic is a stereotype, women are virtually absent, but the author himself keeps the book lively.