The Wild, Wild East recounts the adventures of late-onset Texan and international businessman Tom Meurer over a span of 55 years, From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism.
He often found himself in rooms with presidents, prime ministers, sheikhs, and village chiefs as history was happening.
In true Forest Gumpian fashion, The Wild, Wild East is a study in best-case scenario of wit + energized wonder + proximity to wealt.
He watched leaders, luminaries, lending practices, and landscapes change and change again (and then again), while collecting hotel soap, memberships to airline VIP lounges, and frequent flyer miles. embassies, nearly crash landing in Siberia, arrested for jogging in Albania, vacationing with the family in Karl-Marx-Stadt, and ingesting unspeakably exotic foods.
Along the way, we find him pranking communist border guards, breaking out of curfew-imposed war zone hotels and into U.
S.
Through his role in Chinese oil exploration, private equity, personal friendships, and the nascent beef industry, Meurer witnessed the People\'s Republic of China\'s meteoric rise over the following 35 years.
Ever the fish-out-of-water, he describes his travels, negotiations, and business developments in Red China as it began to turn capitalist in 1979.
Beyond the obvious challenges of anti-war and civil rights protests, Meurer recounts the perils of camera angles, college football fans, bathroom visits, exotic helicopter rides, and the devastating 1970 Peruvian earthquake, which killed more than 80,000 people.
Meurer tells of his longtime friendship and business career with Ray Hunt, of Hunt Oil Company, and the game-changing discovery of oil in Yemen - a country storming out of the 14th century.
Years later, he returned to Vietnam, looking for oil instead of prisoners.
Between trips to Southeast Asia, Meurer began working with the Nixon White House as a presidential advance man.
What started as a privately funded international spy-ring, ended with a privately funded tickertape parade and star-studded weekend reception in San Francisco.
He found himself negotiating with drug-runners, brothel owners, gold smugglers, and dangerously high-ranking diplomats. prisoners of war.
Ross Perot wooed him into the seemingly starchy world of software engineering that Meurer traveled to wartime Vietnam and Laos, searching for evidence of 1,600 missing U.
S.
But it was only after billionaire H.
As a freshly commissioned Air Force lieutenant, Tom experienced a build-up to war.
The Wild, Wild East recounts the adventures of late-onset Texan and international businessman Tom Meurer over a span of 55 years, From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism
