File:A Clue in an ongoing murder investigation Confidential Washington, D.C. background Washington Confidential by Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer Copyright 1951 by Crown Publishers, Inc. New York p. 1 (cropped).jpg

English: Take a ride through Washington, D.C. during the second Truman Administration - 1951 - fascinating reading. Investigative reporters Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer "do" Washington, D.C. In less than a year they get the "Low Down On The Big Town" and tell it in a quick paced matter of fact manner which keeps the pace moving through the avenues and alleys of the Capital. Included is a chapter on where Washingtonians went to play - Baltimore. Clark Clifford is mentioned and the reader gets an early indication of where he was headed long before the BCCI Scandal. Following up on "Confidential" books on Chicago and New York they leave one with the impression that the whole U.S.A. is what John Bunyan called "Vanity Fair" in his book Pilgrims Progress. If private gumshoe reporters Lait and Mortimer could do it obviously J. Edgar Hoover and Allen Dulles could get the low down on any U.S. city or world capital city. But what would their purpose be? Blackmail or subversion? Lait and Mortimer belong to a bygone era of the Fourth Estate. Bud Uanna probably knew the town better than Lait and Mortimer having lived there for over ten years. And he knew everyone in the behind the scenes "National Security State". By all indications, had he lived, he could be expected to make an end run around a Coup de Etat and foil it.