William C. Rempel: Author • Investigative Journalist • Storyteller
  • Author’s Bio
  • Blog
  • Media
  • Contact

Menu
  • Home
  • The Gambler
  • Devil’s Table
  • Dictator’s Diary
  • The Times

The Diary: A Preview

Home The Diary: A Preview

Marcos-Royalty-669x1024

Philippines President and First Lady Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos were once likened to America’s beautiful and charismatic Jackie and JFK. Some called them “the Kennedys of Asia.” But Camelot in the Philippines didn’t last long either, in this case a victim of towering egos and the Manila power couple’s lust for wealth and glory.

Under the Marcoses, the presidential palace became a breeding ground for deadly political intrigues, a notorious sex scandal, dueling spies, serial lies, and bribery on a scale that tipped the nation’s economy into recession.

Diary of a Dictator is a narrative account of that period, featuring romantic and political rivalries, vengeance, murder, and mayhem – history that reads like a soap opera. It stars a messianic Ferdinand who hears the voice of God calling him to dictatorship … an Imelda with royalty fantasies who finances her lavish tastes out of the national treasury … and a secret presidential diary filled with revelations of deceit and treachery.FMIM-Nov1970-PS

HLLcover-1024x912The Marcos journal is an extraordinary piece of history, about 3,000 pages that document the making of a dictator. It was found abandoned amidst crates of official records when Ferdinand and Imelda fled Manila for exile in Hawaii. It is handwritten in English on Malacanang Palace stationary, the penmanship usually neat, the prose often Olympian.

It is filled with lies and disinformation. But with an investigative reporter as a guide, the diary reveals much more about Ferdinand and Imelda than they ever intended – his  paranoid Red-baiting and hypochondria, her superstitions and obsessions, and their shared delusions of grandeur.

The Philippines of the mid-1960s and early 1970s was strategically vital to the U.S. war efforts in Vietnam. That importance allowed the Marcos regime to wring major concessions out of the White House. President Johnson felt blackmailed by Ferdinand. President Nixon was confronted by Imelda’s warning that he risked losing the Philippines to communism. Against this backdrop, Diary of a Dictator traces the fall of democracy in the former U.S. colony that had once been a showcase of American-style governance.FM Diary PgOneClip

Through the Marcos diary we witness a democratically elected president plotting like a modern-day Machiavelli – secretly manipulating Supreme Court justices, sending agents provocateurs to foment violence he could blame on “the Communists,” drafting a Nixonian enemies list that branded as traitors his most popular political rivals and hiding his true intentions from even his closest friends and allies..FM DIARY 10Nov1970SMclipX

Diary of a Dictator is a revised and updated e-book version of the original hardcover edition published as Delusions of a Dictator (Little, Brown and Co., 1993).

A Kirkus Review of the hardcover cited its “focused narrative” and the book’s “intriguing perspective…that confirms history’s verdict” against the Marcos regime. Philippines expert and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Stanley Karnow called it a “fascinating book” that “penetrates the strange, tortured mind of a man who not only deceived his own people and the world, but deluded himself.”

To advocates of democracy and students of political intrigue, the story of Ferdinand and Imelda is a timeless parable about greed and power…as well as a cautionary tale about the vulnerability of democracy. And despite its lies and fabrications, or perhaps even because of them, the Marcos diary reveals the ultimate truth behind the rise of a brilliantly conniving dictator and his beautiful, conniving wife – Ferdinand and Imelda, partners in deceit and despotism.

FM DIARY 9Mar70

 

Press row at Imelda’s 1990 trial in New York federal court. Jurors acquitted her but said they would have convicted Ferdinand had he lived to face charges. The rendering is by courtroom artist Marshall Goodman. Author is third from left.

 

 

The Author’s Facebook Pages

Follow WILLIAM C. REMPEL on Facebook.

Follow AT THE DEVIL'S TABLE on Facebook for news and updates.

Follow DIARY OF A DICTATOR on Facebook for updates on the dictator's legacy.

Spanish TV title: En la Boca del Lobo (In the Mouth of the Wolf)

Available on Hulu

The 80-episode series is based on the nonfiction book AT THE DEVIL'S TABLE, produced by Teleset and Sony Pictures Television


AT THE DEVIL'S TABLE on Radio

Listen to Jorge Salcedo tell his own story, with DEA agent Feistl and the author, on This American Life, Episode 469, Act III, "The 7-Year Snitch"

Or listen to episode right here:

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Read the transcript from the show.


Listen to the author interviewed on public radio's Madeleine Brand Show, talking about the Man Who Brought Down the Cali Cartel

Your browser does not support the audio element.

Links to Books

Blog Sections

 

Recent Posts

  • The Great Prank of 1972: Finally, the story behind shocking Nixon headline that diverted tons of unread newspapers to landfills and launched a ‘Media Icon’
  • President Trump’s Evil Twin: A History Lesson
  • Kirk Kerkorian Photo Gallery
  • Marcos Hero? Ask Dictator’s Diary
  • Where Czars and Stalin Reigned: Investigative Reporters?

Search

Categorized Posts

  • Blog (25)
    • Political media (1)
    • President Richard Nixon (1)
      • 1972 Election (1)
  • Cartels & Crime (16)
  • Democracy (1)
    • 2020 Election (1)
    • Donald Trump (1)
  • Dictatorship (2)
  • Drug Cartels (8)
  • Imelda Marcos (2)
  • Investigative journalism (1)
  • Kirk Kerkorian: The Gambler (1)
  • The Marcos Diary (3)
  • True Crime (7)

Indexed Topics

Andre Agassi (1) Armenian immigrants (1) At the Devil's Table (17) book (9) buy a used car (1) Cary Grant (1) constitution (1) Copley papers (1) Dan Rather (1) democracy (1) diary (1) Diary of a Dictator (4) dictatorship (2) En la Boca del Lobo (17) evil twins (1) Ferdinand Marcos (1) Gene Kilroy (1) Hollywood (1) Hunter S. Thompson (1) Imelda (1) Investigative Journalism (18) J Michael Kenyon (1) Kirk Kerkorian (1) Las Vegas (1) Lisa Bonder (1) Los Angeles Times (1) Lt. Gen. Victor "Brute" Krulak (1) Main Stream Media (1) Marcos (1) Mike Kenyon (1) Mike Tyson (1) movie mogul (1) National Wrestling Hall of fame (1) News & Observations (1) Pancho Barnes (1) Philippines (1) President Trump (1) Ray Anthony (1) Rose Pechuls (1) Royal Air Force (1) Seattle Post-Intelligencer (1) South Bay Daily Breeze (1) Una Davis (1) Watergate scandal (1) World War Two (1)
Copyright © 2016 - 2017 by William C. Rempel — All Rights Reserved