The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam - Max Boot

The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam

By Max Boot

  • Release Date: 2018-01-09
  • Genre: History
4 Score: 4 (From 65 Ratings)

Description

Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize (Biography)

A New York Times bestseller, this “epic and elegant” biography (Wall Street Journal) profoundly recasts our understanding of the Vietnam War.

Praised as a “superb scholarly achievement” (Foreign Policy), The Road Not Taken confirms Max Boot’s role as a “master chronicler” (Washington Times) of American military affairs. Through dozens of interviews and never-before-seen documents, Boot rescues Edward Lansdale (1908–1987) from historical ignominy to “restore a sense of proportion” to this “political Svengali, or ‘Lawrence of Asia’ ”(The New Yorker). Boot demonstrates how Lansdale, the man said to be the fictional model for Graham Greene’s The Quiet American, pioneered a “hearts and minds” diplomacy, first in the Philippines and then in Vietnam. Bringing a tragic complexity to Lansdale and a nuanced analysis to his visionary foreign policy, Boot suggests Vietnam could have been different had we only listened.

With contemporary reverberations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, The Road Not Taken is a “judicious and absorbing” (New York Times Book Review) biography of lasting historical consequence.

Reviews

  • Great Vietnam Lesson

    5
    By KFR3
    I appreciated this perspective on the war. Too often we focus on military solutions which fail in these situations! It would be great if we could only learn this lesson.
  • Thank you for writing

    5
    By Hughes Sullivan
    Hello Max, fascinating book that is well crafted. Most important this story and works of Ed Lansdale is disseminated widely. I had the great honor of meeting LTG. Samuel V Wilson, another Authentic American Hero-Patriot! Best regards, John Keogh

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