The Man Who Tried to Save the World: The Dangerous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Fred Cuny
Scott Anderson, 1999
Knopf Doubleday
400 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385486668
Summary
A swashbuckling Texan, a teller of tall tales, a womanizer, and a renegade, Fred Cuny spent his life in countries rent by war, famine, and natural disasters, saving many thousands of lives through his innovative and sometimes controversial methods of relief work.
Cuny earned his nickname "Master of Disaster" for his exploits in Kurdistan, Somalia, and Bosnia. But when he arrived in the rogue Russian republic of Chechnya in the spring of 1995, raring to go and eager to put his ample funds from George Soros to good use, he found himself in the midst of an unimaginably savage war of independence, unlike any he had ever before encountered. Shortly thereafter, he disappeared in the war-rocked highlands, never to be seen again.
Who was Cuny really working for? Was he a CIA spy? Who killed him, and why? In search of the answers, Scott Anderson traveled to Chechnya on a hazardous journey that started as as a magazine assignment and ended as a personal mission. The result is a galvanizing adventure story, a chilling picture of "the new world order," and a tour de force of literary journalism. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1959
• Where—Taiwan and Korea
• Education—did not attend college
• Currently—lives in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Scott Anderson is an American novelist, journalist, and a veteran war correspondent. He wrote two novels, Triage (1999) and Moonlight Hotel (2006), and five works of nonfiction, most recently, Lawrence in Arabia (2013). He is a frequent contributor to for the New York Times Magazine, GQ, Esquire, Men’s Journal, Vanity Fair and other publications.
Anderson grew up in East Asia, primarily in Taiwan and Korea, where his father was an agricultural advisor for the American government. His career began with a 1994 article in Harper's Magazine on the Northern Ireland events. The 2007 movie The Hunting Party starring Richard Gere and Terrence Howard, is partially based on his work in Bosnia. The 2009 drama film Triage starring Colin Farrell, Paz Vega and Sir Christopher Lee, is based on his novel. Lawrence in Arabia, his latest book, narrates the experiences of T. E. Lawrence in Arabia and explores the complexity of the Middle East.
Anderson currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.
GQ article controversy
In a September 2009 issue of GQ, Anderson wrote an article on Putin's role in the Russian apartment bombings, based in part on his interviews with Mikhail Trepashkin. The journal owner, Condé Nast, then took extreme measures to prevent an article by Anderson from appearing in the Russian media, both physically and in translation. According to the NPR, Anderson was asked not to syndicate the article to any Russian publications, but told GQ he would refuse the request.
Non-Fiction
• The 4 O'Clock Murders (1992)
• The Man who Tried to Save the World: The Dangerous Life and Mysterious
Disappearance of an American Hero (1999)
• Inside the League:The Shocking Expose of How Terrorists, Nazis, and Latin American
Death Squads Have Infiltrated the World Anti-Communist League
(with Jon Lee Anderson) (1986)
• War Zones (with Jon Lee Anderson) (1988)
• Lawrence in Arabia (2013)
Fiction
• Triage (1999)
• Moonlight Hotel (2006)
(From Wikipedia. Retrieved 11/10/2013).
Book Reviews
Scott Anderson has used the disappearance to write a mystery story, straight out of a plot from a novel by John le Carre, whose Caucasus thriller, Our Game, Cuny happened to be reading when he disappeared. The Man Who Tried to Save the World works best, though, as biography, the story of a man whose youthful ambition to become a Marine pilot was thwarted and who instead turned his energies to helping victims of war. Finally, it is a chronicle of one of the bloodiest conflicts of our times, where Russia's 150-year grip on the Caucasus finally slipped
Richard Beeston - New York Times Book Review
Forget Mount Everest. Forget the perfect storm. For pure adrenaline, there's nothing like the war zone.
Time Out New York
One of the most important books to be published since the fall of the Berlin Wall...A great, epic mystery of our day.
New York Observer
Not even Anderson's intrepid reporting and formidable storytelling skills can bring clarity to the case of Fred Cuny.... [B]y the book's end, when Anderson advances his own theory...readers will be hard-pressed to judge whether it's more plausible than any of the conspiracy theories that precede it. And yet, confronted with a Gordian knot of facts and a succession of unreliable sources, Anderson does an admirable job of searching for the truth in a land that truth forgot.
Publisher Weekly
Anderson helps us distinguish Cuny's "myth" from his remarkable life. In his personal quest to penetrate the "fog of intrigue" surrounding his subject, Anderson delivers a plausible explanation of Cuny's death and reveals the unique terrorism of Russia's Chechnyan war. As a biography, this book begs questions, but as a nonfiction mystery it is gripping. —Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ., Erie
Library Journal
Anderson's assignment to write a newspaper article about Cuny's disappearance turned into a three-year quest to learn the truth about Cuny's amazing, mysterious life. This is an intensely moving portrait of a man who is impossible to pin down.... A fascinating book. —David Pitt
Booklist
A masterful portrait of Fred Cuny.... It's hard to name a major disaster in the last 20 years that didn't find Cuny at the helm of the rescue effort.... Was Cuny a CIA operative? Was he killed by Chechan rebels...? We may never know, but this much is certainly obvious: Cuny was a man whose humanitarian impact cannot be denied and who will be missed.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
(The following questions were generously submitted by a LitLover reader and contributor. Many thanks!)
1. At the beginning and end of his narrative Anderson recounts two near death encounters – one at the hands of rebels and one at the hands of Russian troops. They form interesting bookends to the narrative. How do these encounters symbolize everything sandwiched between them? What was different and what was similar about the experiences?
2. He speaks of the “shattered sadness” and “crushing apathy” of those facing death at the hands of another. What reaction does that provoke in you?
3. How would you describe Fred Cuny’s character? What motivated him as a man? Were there any clues in his youth that might explain his passion?
4. How would you respond to his assertion that humanity was inherently good in light of all that he saw and dealt with throughout his career?
5. He left his son for extended periods of time and was never able to maintain a relationship with one woman because of his work and yet he seemed troubled by this. Could he have achieved a better balance in life and still accomplished what he did? What are the trade-offs for such a man?
6. Beginning in Chapter 4 Anderson lists Cuny’s goals that he created around his thirtieth birthday. How realistic were these goals (given his busy life) and did he achieve any of them? Is there a point to making a list of goals (that are perhaps unachievable) like this? If so, what does it accomplish?
7. Would you agree with the author that “life’s disappointments have a way of tempering youthful dreams”? Why, do you think, did they have the opposite effect for Fred Cuny?
8. Why would Cuny have placed the poem to his son in a sealed envelope taped to the back panel of his desk? At what point in time do you think he wrote it?
9. George Soros is introduced as the wealthy financier who bank-rolled much of the relief work that Cuny became involved in. What do you know of Soros and his foundations? What was his motivation for pouring money into these projects?
10. In the era when US foreign policy was to prop up dictators who positioned themselves as ‘Anti-Communist’, how was Cuny’s philosophy of using disasters as a catalyst for social and political reform—his talk of agrarian reform and wealth redistribution—viewed by “The Establishment”?
11. What did you find most remarkable about Cuny’s work in Sarajevo and Kurdistan?
12. What, do you think, drew Cuny to Chechnya in the first place?
13. Relating to Chechnya, Anderson states there are three mistakes you can make:
- That there is any pattern or logic to the conflict.
- That one side is better (more compassionate, less vicious) than the other.
- The belief that you can change things or make a difference.
Was Cuny blinded by his own belief system to the reality of Chechnya?
14. It would appear that the US Administration had an agenda in supporting Boris Yeltsin’s prosecution of the war in Chechnya. What concerns were driving their agenda?
15. While there is no evidence to suggest Cuny’s involvement with the CIA, he seemed to revel in the aura of suspicion that it placed around him. In what way could that have back-fired on him? Is it conceivable that in some way he was willing to pass information back to the CIA on what he saw while on the ground?
16. What do you make of Anderson’s assessment that to the Russians and Chechens, lying was first nature not second nature? Would you agree with his rationale for that statement?
17. Given the events that had recently transpired with his team at the Russian checkpoint and his own apprehensions, what do you think motivated him to go back into Chechnya in general and to Bamut in particular?
18. With all of the disinformation and lies surrounding the disappearance of Cuny and his party, how would you characterize the conclusions reached by Anderson?
19. According to a Wikipedia article, the smart bombs that killed Dzhokhar Dudayev, the Chenchen Rebel leader, were American technology – something the Russians didn’t possess at that time. In what way would it benefit the US Government to assist Yeltsin in eliminating this man?
20. In the afterword (to the 2000 publication), Anderson recounts the rise to power of Vladimir Putin who was responsible for the slaughter of many Chechens during the second Chechen war. He says it is likely that the West will have to deal for many years with Putin who he calls “an extremely cunning leader”. How have you seen that played out over the last decade and a half?
21. In conclusion, how would you sum up the life and work of Fred Cuny?
(Questions developed by a LitLovers contributor.)
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