That was the title of Max Boot’s recent biography of Edward Lansdale , the famous CIA operative in the clandestine war in the P.I. before his participation in the Vietnam War. Lansdale played a vital role propping up Diem’s government in Saigon in the 1950’s and the 1960’s. The book documents his covert operations and how the CIA conducts its “shadow wars.” Lansdale became legendary in CIA annals.
The appropriate subtitle is the “American Tragedy in Vietnam.” It’s well worth reading, but you must get through a lot of history in this documentary to get the story. Basically, Lansdale’s argument was that there was a winning strategy, one better than the one we followed. Lansdale was a proponent of counterinsurgency in its many forms- psy ops, propaganda, and payoffs, as well as black op assassinations. He recognized that without “winning the hearts and minds” and pacification of the 80% of the population living in the countryside, coupled with a winning military strategy, the conflict would be doomed to a long drawn out war of attrition. Given Vietnam’s two millennia of history of repelling invaders, he makes a compelling argument. For history buffs, I recommend it.
If you don’t have time to read through 600 plus pages of The Road Not Taken, I recommend that you read Louis Menand’s recent review of Max Boot’s book in the February 26th issue of The New Yorker. The Harvard historian critiques Boot’s biography, demonstrating why he is a Pulitzer prize winning historian. Menand summarizes accurately many of the things that went wrong in Vietnam, in my opinion. The article is entitled, “Made in Vietnam.” In six pages he captures the essence of ill-fated strategies or lack of strategies that I laid out in my recently published historical narrative, RECALL. I found it very interesting that we reached many of the same conclusions. The professor was about 18 years old when I was a flight surgeon flying air evacs in Vietnam… Funny how things come around.
Interested in learning more about RECALL? Click here for more information and to purchase the book.
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