Kean, Thomas H. 1935- (Thomas Howard Kean, Sr.)

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Kean, Thomas H. 1935- (Thomas Howard Kean, Sr.)

PERSONAL:

Born April 21, 1935, in New York, NY; married; wife's name Deborah; children: Thomas H. Kean, Jr., and Reed (twins), Alexandra. Education: Princeton University, B.A., 1957; Columbia University, M.A., 1964. Politics: Republican.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Bedminster, NJ.

CAREER:

Politician. New Jersey State Assembly member, 1968-77, including as minority leader, majority leader, and speaker, 1972-73; governor of New Jersey, 1982-90; Drew University, Madison, NJ, president, 1990—. Former chair, National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, National Governor's Association Task Force on Teaching, Educate America, National Environmental Education and Training Foundation, the Newark Alliance, the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York; member of board of directors, It's My Party Too; former board member, Pepsi Bottling Group, and UnitedHealth Group, 1993-2002; board member, CIT Group, World Wildlife Fund, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Amerada Hess, ARAMARK, and Franklin Resources; also served on the Education Policy Advisory Committee, the Council on Foreign Relations, and other federal commissions and committees, including the Initiative on Race.

MEMBER:

American Academy of Arts and Sciences, World Wildlife Fund, Alpha Phi Omega.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Four Freedoms Medal, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, 2005; has also received over two dozen honorary degrees, and awards from educational and environmental organizations.

WRITINGS:

The Politics of Inclusion, Free Press (New York, NY), 1988.

(With Lee H. Hamilton and Benjamin Rhodes) Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission, Knopf (New York, NY), 2006.

Also author, with others, of The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, 2004. Author of foreword, with Lee H. Hamilton, of The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, by Sidney Jacobson and Ernie Colón, Hill & Wang (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

A former governor of New Jersey who has since served a long term as president of Drew University, Thomas H. Kean is best known for his role as chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, otherwise known as the 9/11 Commission. Strongly resisted by President George W. Bush and given a meager budget by the U.S. Congress, the Commission was assembled under pressure from the public to investigate just why Islamist terrorists were able to highjack several passenger jets and destroy New York City's Twin Towers, a large section of the Pentagon Building, and almost use another passenger plane to destroy a third target. The commission was made up of ten members—five Republicans and five Democrats—to create a hopefully nonpartisan assessment. Kean was the chair of the commission, and former U.S. Congressman Lee H. Hamilton was vice chair. Despite being given many roadblocks by the president, as well as by government security agencies, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the Commission published its findings and recommendations in 2004. Surprising many with its clear writing, unhindered by bureaucratic-speak, the published report became a best-selling book released as The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. Interestingly, because the report runs for over five hundred pages, it was also adapted as a much shorter and easier-to-digest illustrated version by Sidney Jacobson and Ernie Colón, The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation. In 2006, Kean and Hamilton published Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission, which relates the story behind how the Commission struggled to research and write its report.

In general, the Commission found national security lacking in its ability to prevent the terrorist attacks. One reason was that the many U.S. intelligence agencies, such as the CIA and the FBI, did not share information well, and there was no one person in charge of their combined efforts. The members of the Commission also championed better airport and seaport security, more understanding among Americans—aggravated by a lack of trained speakers in Arabic—of Middle Eastern cultures, better security agency training to remove incompetence, and redistribution of manpower away from the war and drugs and toward terrorism prevention. In a rebuttal of the report, University of Chicago Law School lecturer and U.S. Court of Appeals judge Richard A. Posner wrote in the New York Times that such recommendations are easy to make in hindsight. While praising the "uncommonly lucid" writing in the report, Posner found the results "unimpressive." Posner maintained that the assertion that the attacks could have been prevented simply through better security measures is a "leap" in logic, and added that it is impossible for any government to foresee all possible types of attack on U.S. territory. "The commission's contention that ‘the terrorists exploited deep institutional failings within our government’ is overblown," Posner concluded.

Comparing Kean and Hamilton's Without Precedent to the Commission's initial report, New York Times writer James Bamford remarked that it "offers little new information on the actual attacks, but provides a keyhole view of the commission's bureaucratic war with a White House obsessed with secrecy and control." Bamford observed that neither the book nor the report "shed … additional light on the event" because national security issues result in "an overabundance of self-censorship by the authors." Despite this criticism, others who reviewed the book found much to admire and considered it a worthy comment on the 9/11 tragedy. "Rich in detail and well written, this book provides excellent insight into the operation of a high-profile governmental commission investigating a national tragedy," declared Stephen L. Hupp in Library Journal. A Publishers Weekly reviewer admitted that some will not appreciate how the authors and the Commission gave in to the White House's efforts to conceal documents by declaring executive privilege, but appreciated how Kean and Hamilton "cogently defend the compromises they made and swat conspiracy theories about coverups." A Kirkus Reviews contributor concluded that Without Precedent is a "valuable resource for those needing proof that the government machine could use a good overhaul."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, June 1, 2006, Gilbert Taylor, review of Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission, p. 4.

Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2006, review of Without Precedent, p. 558.

Library Journal, July 1, 2006, Stephen L. Hupp, review of Without Precedent, p. 95.

New York Times, August 29, 2004, Richard A. Posner, "The 9/11 Report: A Dissent."

New York Times Book Review, August 20, 2006, James Bamford, "Intelligence Test," p. 15.

Publishers Weekly, June 26, 2006, review of Without Precedent, p. 46.

Washington Post, July 15, 2006, Bravetta Hassell, "The Bold Outlines of a Plot: Adapted as a Comic Book, the 9/11 Commission Report Hits Home Anew."