Event Details
Join us on December 6 for a discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter James Risen on his new book, The Last Honest Man.
For decades now, America's national security state has grown ever bigger, ever more secretive and powerful, and ever more abusive. Only once did someone manage to put a stop to any of it. Senator Frank Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community.
Risen will discuss the dark truths that Church exposed—from assassination plots by the CIA, to links between the Kennedy dynasty and the mafia, to the surveillance of civil rights activists by the NSA and FBI— and how this has shaped the way that Americans think about not only our government but also our ability to hold it accountable.
Why is This Important for Arizona?
Understanding the story of Frank Church and the Church Committee holds significance for all Americans, revealing how a senator from a small Western state helped rein in the power of the national security state, and the importance of maintaining integrity in the presence of unchecked authority.
