Trento, Susan B. The Power House: Robert Keith Gray and the Selling of Access
and Influence in Washington. New York: St.Martin's Press, 1992. 430 pages.
After the Gulf War, the media gradually began to realize that at
some point in the frenzy of pack journalism, TV talking heads, and op-ed
pundits that preceded the war, they had been manipulated. Behind the
scenes Kuwait was shaping opinions by greasing the palms of certain
Washington public relations firms. One person with both hands out was
Robert Keith Gray, the master PR mercenary of the 1980s. Before he started
Gray and Company in 1981 he was with Hill and Knowlton; by 1986 he was
back after selling out his company to them. But throughout his thirty
years in Washington, Robert Gray's style has been consistent -- he parties
and charms his way into the power elite, and then sells access to his
Rolodex for fees sometimes running into the millions. By doing favors for
the CIA and hiring self-styled, free-lance spooks like Neil Livingstone,
Gray was even able to extend his influence into Washington's Dark Side.
It doesn't matter who signs the checks. Besides Kuwait, Gray has
represented China since 1989, Haiti under Duvalier, supporters of Rev.
Moon, the Church of Scientology, BCCI, the late British publisher Robert
Maxwell, the Teamsters under Jackie Presser, and the Catholic Bishops
Conference in their campaign against abortion. If a book like this had
been written in 1980, the mess we're in today would have been predictable.
ISBN 0-312-08319-X
Extract the names from this source
Back to search page