The Pentagonists:
An Insider’s View of Waste, Mismanagement and Fraud in Defense Spending
by A. Ernest Fitzgerald

From Publishers Weekly
A former cost analyst at the Pentagon, Fitzgerald charges here that he was fired in 1970 on orders from President Nixon for violating the code of silence regarding military waste. Now after nearly 20 years of harassment and attempts to discredit him, he has come to be regarded as the dean of Washington whistle-blowers. The personal story he recounts is shocking. But more disturbing are the convincing allegations, financial figures and damning quotes he presents in this hard-hitting indictment of the Pentagon’s ex officio alliance with defense contractors and certain segments of Congress, a combine he warns is taking over a large part of the public economy as well as a significant range of government decision-making functions. Naming government officials, military officers and civilian contractors, Fitzgerald maintains that the Pentagon has become “an independent entity entirely outside the laws of the United States,” and that huge infusions of money during the Reagan years have actually produced fewer useful weapons. ...

From Library Journal
The author has been a famous “whistle blower” in government since his High Priests of Waste reported the huge cost overruns on the C-5 aircraft. This volume is part history of defense programs in the 1970s and 1980s, part insider’s view of bureaucracy, and part autobiography. ... — Gerald N. Sandvick, North Hennepin Community College, Brooklyn Park, Minn.

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