Books: Mad Money in High Places Citizen Hughes

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Citizen Hughes contains plenty of grist for a Potomac potboiler: the role of Hughes Tool Co. in building the Glomar Explorer, the secret submarine-recovery vessel; Hughes' plans to run Nevada Governor Paul Laxalt for President; Robert Maheu's part in a half-baked CIA plot to poison Fidel Castro. But the book's chief merit is its direct access to the mind of a callous and frightened man. His fears about antitrust suits, Las Vegas competition and staff loyalty pale before his phobias. Dreading germs, he dictated a "Procedures Manual" for handling anything he was to touch: "Wash four distinct and separate times, using lots of lather each time from individual bars of soap . . . The door to the cabinet is to be opened using a minimum of 15 Kleenexes . . . Call Roy and have him come up to the house and awaken HRH at 10:15 a.m. sharp if HRH is not awake by that time. With eight thicknesses of Kleenex he is to pinch HRH's toes until he awakens, increasing the pressure each time."

It is a pathetic irony that Hughes sought refuge in one of the nation's least populous states only to find it too crowded and dangerous (he attempted bribery to stop nuclear testing in Nevada). It is a further mockery by fate that this man who was once given a ticker-tape parade for his aviation exploits grounded himself in a dark cubicle surrounded by crumpled tissues. The conviction that everyone had his price and that he could double it seems to have corrupted Hughes profoundly. His money cut him off from emotional commerce, the give and take of feelings that establishes true value. This book documents the abysmal failure of a man who could buy anything but had nothing to sell.