The extraordinary story of North Vietnam's most successful spyDuring the Vietnam War, Time reporter Pham Xuan An befriended everyone who was anyone in Saigon, including American journalists such as David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan, the CIA's William Colby, and the legendary Colonel Edward Lansdale—not to mention the most influential members of the South Vietnamese government and army. None of them ever guessed that he was also providing strategic intelligence to H...

"Takes an historically important decision, places it in its immediate stream of policy development, perceptions and events and adds what was missing from the Pentagon Papers."—Richard E. Neustadt, Harvard University"A thoroughly researched and highly perceptive study of the decisions that turned the tribal struggle in Vietnam into an American war. Berman's book fully documents the role of domestic policy in our tragic involvement. As one who watched the process at ...

Democracy cannot be taken for granted, whether at home or internationally, and eternal vigilance (along with civic intelligence) is required to protect it. Approaching Democracy provides students with a framework to analyze the structure, process, and action of US government, institutions, and social movements. It also invites comparison with other countries. This globalizing perspective gives students an understanding of issues of governance and challenges to democracy here and e...

"Stunning....The portrait of the embattled and unyielding president that emerges is vivid and memorable."—Publishers WeeklyBy 1968, the United States had committed over 525,000 men to Vietnam and bombed virtually all military targets recommended by the joint Chiefs of Staff. Yet, the United States was no closer to securing its objectives than it had been prior to the Americanization of the war. The long-promised light at the end of the tunnel was a mirage. This abs...

Crooked Bamboo is a political memoir centered on Nguyen Thai’s inside account of South Vietnam’s Ngo Dinh Diem regime. Thai was a close personal aide for Diem as well as Director General of Vietnam Press, giving him significant access to Diem and other Ngo family members. Although the Diem era is the focus of the memoir, Nguyen Thai’s post-1963 career as a government official, businessman, and confidant of several key South Vietnamese figures sheds light on the aftermath of the Diem regime...

“Painstakingly researched and crafted, Larry Berman’s Zumwalt is a compelling and rich portrait of one of the nation’s great patriots.”—Walter Anderson, former editor and CEO of ParadeZumwalt is a compelling portrait of the controversial military man who is widely regarded as the founder of the modern U.S. Navy, Admiral Elmo Russell “Bud” Zumwalt. Chief of Naval Operations during the decades-long Cold War crisis, Zumwalt implemented major strategic innovations that endure t...

Dino A. Brugioni, author of the best-selling account of the Cuban Missile crisis, Eyeball to Eyeball, draws on his long CIA career as one of the world's premier experts on aerial reconnaissance to provide the inside story of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's efforts to use spy planes and satellites to gather intelligence. He reveals Eisenhower to be a hands-on president who, contrary to popular belief, took an active role in assuring that the latest technology was used to gather ae...

The author discusses the three Axioms in the dominant interpretation of the U.S.-Vietnam War that were established by the invisible permanent government right after the National Security Council meeting on September 21, 1960. They are: - There was never a legitimate non-communist government in Saigon (dissolution GVN) - The U.S. had no legitimate reason to be involved in Vietnamese affairs (Tonkin-Gulf-Incident) - The U.S. could not have won the war under any circumstances (U.S. troops hon...

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER. The definitive insider's account of American policy making in Vietnam."Can anyone remember a public official with the courage to confess error and explain where he and his country went wrong? This is what Robert McNamara does in this brave, honest, honorable, and altogether compelling book."—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.Written twenty years after the end of the Vietnam War, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's con...

SUMMATION OF A POPULAR WARAuthor V. I. Brown wrote this memoir from authority. He grew up with the war, participated as a member of the military and then observed its aftermath. He provides a penetrating, chronological examination of the wars policies, politics, judicial decisions, public opinion and reflection in the popular culture. As he examines such complex topics as anti-war sentiment, dissent within the military and the galvanizing of the clergy against the war, Brown offers...

Winner: Henry Adams PrizeThe Vietnam war continues to be the focus of intense controversy. While most people—liberals, conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, historians, pundits, and citizens alike—agree that the United States did not win the war, a vocal minority argue the opposite or debate why victory never came, attributing the quagmire to everything from domestic politics to the press. The military never lost a battle, how then did it not win the war?S...

More than a quarter of a century after the last Marine Corps Huey left the American embassy in Saigon, the lessons and legacies of the most divisive war in twentieth-century American history are as hotly debated as ever. Why did successive administrations choose little-known Vietnam as the "test case" of American commitment in the fight against communism? Why were the "best and brightest" apparently blind to the illegitimacy of the state of South Vietnam? Would Kennedy have pulled out had ...