Three recent books about the Vietnam War shed fresh light on well-trodden ground, suggesting that America’s debacle a half-century ago still has much to teach us. But US foreign-policy doyens have shown an inability to heed the right lessons.
- Max Hastings, Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975, Harper, 2018.
Max Boot, The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam, Liveright, 2018.
Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, Hanoi’s War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam, University of North Carolina Press, 2016 (Paperback).
WINCHESTER, UK – “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam?” John Kerry, a decorated US Navy veteran, asked the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in April 1971. “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” It was a good question, and some of those involved in today’s wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere may be wondering the same thing.
Max Boot, The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam, Liveright, 2018.
Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, Hanoi’s War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam, University of North Carolina Press, 2016 (Paperback).
WINCHESTER, UK – “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam?” John Kerry, a decorated US Navy veteran, asked the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in April 1971. “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” It was a good question, and some of those involved in today’s wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere may be wondering the same thing.