American Jews exert an influence on American opinion that is far heavier than their numbers would indicate. They are the strongest single influence on the big media...They control much of the financial community, and through it, large segments of the academic community...Oh, they scream anti-Semitism whenever anyone mentions their power, but it's true.

The same character later says, "One thing the Jews understand is the power of money."

One reason the Jews can control the press so easily, we learn, is that eighty-five per cent of the press--at least of those reporters who travel with the Vice President--is Jewish. Still, all members of Agnew's media aren't Jewish. The most sympathetic journalist in the book ("a sharp and experienced reporter") is Bruce Atherton, while the most obnoxious, a reporter who tries to put words into people's mouths, is Sid Winehart.

Along with the belief in the media cabal and the Jewish-intellectual business conspiracy, Agnew promotes a view of recent history in which the United States' power--and perhaps more important, its image--were sold down the river during the late sixties. Loss of manhood is a frequent theme: the President mourns "the emasculation of the CIA," while Galdari, the sensitive Secret Service agent says, "The American resolve was shattered from within. The political genuises, assisted by the news media, had emasculated the greatest power in the world." Foreigners are especially hard on the country; the prime minister of Singapore tells Canfield, "The United States has become impotent because it is no longer controlled by its government, but by its propagandists." A Russian diplomat says, "Most international observers agree that America is now on the wane. The country is under attack by professional critics with an unlimited supply of ink and microphones."

AGNEW'S BOOK is propaganda, but propaganda too clumsily written to provoke outrage or even concern. Ayn Rand and William F. Buckley both understand that for propaganda novels to work, the novels have to be as effective as the politics. Agnew should have taken lessons from them.

In an article about Agnew's post-resignation life, the New York Times Magazine revealed that Agnew's business partner had left him and that the former Vice President's jet-setting around the world, especially the Arab world, had generated no business. It is sad indeed to think that there are men so limited in ability they are unable to handle anything more challenging than the Vice Presidency. After Agnew finishes his publicity tour for The Canfield Decision, we probably will not hear from him for some time. But inevitably, around the year 2000, the wire services will carry a short story telling of his death. History will then repeat itself, as citizens turn to each other and ask, "Spiro who?"