European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 28, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Cliffords counsel on presidential level recalled in memoirs Clark Clifford confers with then president Johnson in january 1968 at the White  Steven Heilbronner untied press International in 1977, when most of Washington was gleefully beating lip on Jimmy Carters budget director Bart Lance for failing to divest. Stock in two Georgia Banks Clark Clifford Rode in on his White horse defended lancers Honor and quelled the hysteria. It was a triumphant yet routine performance for a Man who in 50 years of practising Law had accumulated the single most impressive client list of any Washington lawyer. In the end the Sharks won and Lance was forced to resign becoming the first casualty of the Post watergate Era. Clifford lost the Case but won admiration. Lance would join the multitudes of people who got the Best defense from Clifford and then realized it was Lime to quit or change their View or both. Cliffords Rich voyage through the cold War Era is deftly chronicled in his Memoir counsel to the president random House $18.75 co a Iho Rcd by Richard Holbrooke. Actually it was four presidents. Four democratic presidents. What is perhaps most insightful about this influential Public servant is that he collected a government payroll Check for Only six years. He worked most of his adult life As a Washington lawyer. Clifford warned Howard Hughes whom he amusingly Calls a the most unforgettable client i never met a that he would not sell his soul for any client. A Noble idea but in practice a disingenuous one. Hughes never would have sought out Clifford if it were not for his reputation. The problem or Benefit for the revolving door crowd is that these people Are inside the Power curve even when they stand outside the door. Clifford after All got snagged on the door recently in a Bank scheme involving Arab investors accused of laundering drug Money among other seedy allegations. The investors wanted Cliffords Good name to obscure their bad game. Its difficult not to ask whether the courtly genteel Clifford fell Short of his own vows of propriety. However Sleazy the Bank Deal it does not tarnish Cliffords achievements. Clifford gives us a rare though self serving Angle on the dispositions of presidents Truman Kennedy Johnson and to a lesser extent Carter. Clifford presents Truman whom he served As adviser As a Man without any real mandate to Lead but who Learned to govern. Truman a Battle with George Marshall Over the recognition of the state of Israel his civil rights Agenda the vicious War with Joe Mccarthy and the come from behind re election of 1948 Are fascinating episodes. Some of the finest passages of the Book Center around Truman a legendary poker games. One such round included former prime minister Winston Churchill who was roundly Defeated in a hand by the american contingent on the memorable train journey with Truman to Fulton to. There Churchill delivered his enduring a Iron curtain speech. While Clifford is the storyteller he is also the emissary the adviser the confidant. Particularly in Truman s administration Clifford was involved in or the architect of nearly every major Issue of the Day. This was less so during the Kennedy administration Clifford had represented John Kennedy against Abc which had questioned the aspiring congressman a authorship of profiles in courage. He became Kennedy a transition chief and personal envoy. In one memorable Mission for the newly elected president Clifford went to Boston in an attempt to dissuade Joseph Kennedy from insisting that Robert Kennedy be appointed attorney general. A Aji of us have worked our tails off for Jack and now that we have succeeded i am going to see to it that Bobby gets the same Chance that we gave to Jack a Kennedy responded. The most fascinating character Clifford profiles is Johnson the irascible and demagogic president who worked tirelessly for civil rights and the poor but brought his isolationist nation to fight communism in Southeast Asia. Counsel to the president is on order at stars and stripes bookstores. Schwarzkopf a $6 million Deal a Bantam risky Roger Cohen the new York times while the spending of More than $90 million on Arnold Schwarzenegger a Capers in Carol co a new movie terminator 2, strikes Many As hold but possibly shrewd the payment of close to i million for a Mere hex to with a few Hundred pages and a handful of motionless pictures still seems outlandish. Yet that is what Bantam books a subsidiary of Bertelsmann a of Germany recently agreed to spend for the world rights to the memoirs of a real life Warrior Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf. In so doing it is betting that like Lee a. Iacocca Donald Trump and Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager the hero of the persian Gulf War has a Story that will sell books in unusual quantities. The celebrity a life Story written with a Collaborator is such a Staple of american life that few big stars or heroes have resisted. A but the recent history of the genre is so Check ered that a prediction is hazardous. For every Iacocca Book there is a president Reagan Memoir that flops. For every Trump Best seller a Trump sequel is a disaster. Quot once in a Long while you sell a million hardcover copies of this kind of Book and that causes the entrepreneurial spirit of publishers to Rise a said Roger Donald the publisher of Little Brown. Quot but if you done to do it it s very easy to lose a couple of million  although there arc variables that affect a books profitability it appears from some publishers estimates that the Schwarzkopf Book will have to sell at least 450,000 copies in hardback and 1.5 million copies in paperback to break even. Little Brown bid what Donald called Quot a great Deal of Money Quot for the Schwarzkopf Book but not enough. Macmillan inc. Bid $1.2 million Viking Penguin about $3.2 million and random House $5 million. The very Range of these offers reflects the extreme unpredictability of such projects. The Only big House that did not bid was Simon amp schuster which lost what other publishers estimated As a seven figure sum on Reagan a Book last year. Having paid an estimated $7 million in 1989 for Reagan a memoirs As Well As a set of speeches the House fell victim to the whims of americans. A when we signed that contract there was a warm feeling in everyone a hearts for or. Reagan but we did not realize How thin that was a a Simon amp schuster executive said. Quot Reagan just evaporated and the nostalgia we hoped would sell the Book was not  Charles Leerhsen who collaborated with Trump on his calamitous second Effort. Surviving at the top said a the ultimate thing with this kind of Book is the Public perception of the person at the Lime it is  Page 8 a sunday july 28, 1991