Chuck Colson

摘要

Those who knew Chuck Colson said he never changed much, to look at, from the age of 18 to the age of 80. The same owlish horn-rimmed glasses; the same liking for blazers and bow ties; and that same quizzical, half-laughing, wide-eyed look, as if another quip was coming. He was a prankster as a boy, letting off stink bombs in cinemas and putting snowballs in hats. In young manhood, campaigning for politicians in Boston, he learned the art of "planting misleading stories…voting tombstones, and spying out the opposition in every possible way". No surprise then that when he joined Richard Nixon's White House as special counsel, in 1969, he was soon in charge of dirty tricks. He tried to get thugs to rough up anti-Vietnam-war protesters, and dreamed of fire-bombing the liberal Brookings Institution to seize incriminating stuff inside.