William S. Cohen
William Sebastian Cohen was born in Maine on 28th August, 1940. He graduated from Boston University Law School in 1962 and began work as a lawyer in Bangor.
Cohen taught law at the University of Maine (1968-1972). A member of the Republican Party, Cohen was mayor of Bangor (1971-1972) and was elected to the 93rd Congress. He was re-elected to the 94th and 95th Congress before being elected to the Senate in 1978.
In 1985 Cohen and Gary Hart, another member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, published the novel Double Man. According to Bob Woodward: "This is an expertly crafted thriller that is full of many uncomfortable plausibilities. Though clearly labeled fiction, it dances knowledgeably with many old and new ghosts, including the CIA, the KGB, the Kennedy assassination, terrorism, and a range of state secrets. The Double Man has to be taken, minimally, as a grim warning about the intelligence services in our own country and elsewhere."
Other books by Cohen include Men of Zeal: A Candid Inside Story of the Iran-Contra Hearings (1988), One-Eyed Kings (1991), Murder in the Senate (1993) and Easy Prey: The Fleecing of America's Senior Citizens (1997).
William S. Cohen left the Senate in 1996. The following year he served as Secretary of Defense in the Cabinet of President William Clinton (1997-2001).
Primary Sources
(1) Bob Woodward, review of The Double Man (1985)
This is an expertly crafted thriller that is full of many uncomfortable plausibilities. Though clearly labeled fiction, it dances knowledgeably with many old and new ghosts, including the CIA, the KGB, the Kennedy assassination, terrorism, and a range of state secrets. Coming from a Republican and a Democrat who together have many years of experience on the Senate Intelligence Committee, The Double Man has to be taken, minimally, as a grim warning about the intelligence services in our own country and elsewhere.
(2) Publishing blurb for The Double Man (1985)
Gary Hart (Democrat, Colorado) and William S. Cohen (Republican, Maine), regarded as two of the most articulate and imaginative members of the U.S. Senate, take us into the offices, committee rooms, and private meeting places of Congress and on through the underground tunnels of Washington's power grid into a world of espionage and superpower conspiracies.
When the family of the Secretary of State is brutally assassinated, Thomas Chandler, senior senator from Connecticut, is named to head an investigation into terrorism. His search for the truth takes him from Washington to Miami, Moscow, Amsterdam, and Venice, all the way back to that fateful November day in Dallas. His investigative companion is the enigmatic Elaine Dunham.
In this fast-moving thriller, we learn what happens when ideologues turn their country's secret-service operations to their own goals. Both the Director of the CIA and a KGB colonel fear that Tom Chandler is getting too close to the secrets that could destroy them. The Double Man offers nonstop action and intrigue with the bonus of guaranteed authenticity.
