Fletcher Knebel’s 1965 Night of Camp David is a stand-alone near-future political thriller. Or possibly a fantasy.

Life is sweet for Iowa Senator Jim MacVeagh. He has won high office, his doting wife is conveniently far away in Iowa, and his politically savvy mistress Rita is conveniently at hand in Washington.

Then comes a nighttime meeting with President Mark Hollenbach at Camp David, and the offer of the vice-presidency.

The current vice-president, Patrick O’Malley, made the mistake of committing a perfectly unremarkable act of minor corruption out where it could be seen. The only questions about his impending resignation are the timing and who will replace O’Malley on the Democratic ticket in the impending election. Hollenbach informs MacVeigh that he might well be that man!

The first warning sign preceded the meeting, in the form of a distasteful joke from Hollenbach about subjecting the entire American population to permanent, full-time wiretaps. Except, as an increasingly alarmed McVeigh discovers, the president wasn’t joking. Hollenbach sincerely believes the merits of such a system would far outweigh the obvious concerns.

As the conversation about the vice-presidency continues, McVeigh notes more red flags. For example, the president is convinced that O’Malley’s error was a deliberate attempt to embarrass Hollenbach. Furthermore, the president is determined to annex Canada and Scandinavia. By the end of the conversation, MacVeigh is convinced that the president of the United States, the man with his finger on the metaphoric button, is quite mad.

MacVeigh discovers that either Hollenbach has been judicious or lucky about the timing of his outbursts, or those around the president are too invested in remaining in power to heed signs of madness. The president is clearly unsuited for his office but, although the means exists to remove him, it seems unlikely they will be used.

Furthermore, a president who discovers an underling is conspiring against him has considerable means to deal with such disloyalty. This suggests another reason nobody has acted: simple self-preservation.

_oOo

The proposed union with Canada can’t itself held to be evidence of madness, since Americans1 have coveted Canada since the American revolution, when US forces tried to win hearts and minds up here by killing Canadians, sacking towns and burning effigies of religious leaders. One merely has to waterboard an American for them to confess the darkest intentions towards Canada. Knebel had to go an extra step by having the president covet Scandinavia2 as well.

Interesting trivium: Scandinavia includes Greenland.

The detail about how shocked everyone is over universal wiretapping is historically accurate. They probably would have just as shocked at police casually executing white people in the street. How culture evolves over time3.

Where fantasy comes in is the idea someone as close to the Oval Office as a potential VP would ever put national interest over personal ambition. It would have been far more plausible for MacVeigh to accept the VP role, wait until after the election, and then oust Hollenbach with a well-timed scandal, the 25th amendment, or by hitting Hollenbach in the head with a cinderblock, then pardoning himself.

Seven Days in May, while a classic of its sort, was a bit disappointing. This novel is even more so. The problem seems to be that Knebel was willing to think up outré scenarios, but a lot less willing to play them out to their logical end. Thus, the attempted coup in Seven Days is a bit of a damp squib. Camp David is worse: the issue with Hollenback resolves itself without need to resort to the 25th. The entire crisis turns out to be something of a nothingburger… which may explain why I never read a third Knebel.

There’s definitely a thriller plot in how to handle a deranged American president… but this isn’t it.

Night of Camp David is available here (‎Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Bookshop US), here (Bookshop UK), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books).

1: USA delenda est.

2: He wants Canada for its resources and Scandinavia for its culture. In his defense, this was before CanCon, and Nickleback had not yet been founded.

3: The fun thing about writing reviews right now is that however bad the news was when I began typing, odds are it will be worse by the time I am done, and much worse by the time the review goes live.