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. **
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of January 2018: How’s this for a thought: America loves war. We know we shouldn’t, but it’s a compulsion. We manage the dissonance through the words we use to justify it. Sometimes we “stumble” into conflict, other times we’re “lured.” Once we’re there, the “quagmire” traps us, sucking at our boots along with millions, billions, and trillions of dollars, and thousands of lives. We’ve seen versions of this is Afghanistan and Iraq, but the template is Vietnam. Max Boot’s biography of CIA operative Edward Lansdale shows us that it didn’t necessarily have to turn out this way. Lansdale, AKA “the T.E. Lawrence of Asia,” had favored a “hearts and minds” approach in adversarial political landscapes, eschewing pure militarism as a panacea in global policy by introducing social and economic strategies to the mix. He’d experienced success with his philosophy in the Philippines, but in Vietnam, the deck—in the form of powerful generals and diplomats—was stacked against him; America doubled down on bombs and napalm, shoving Lansdale and his ideas to the margins. The Road Not Taken recalibrates the argument, and its strengths are (at least) three-fold: Boot’s research is deep and seemingly impeccable; the material is complex and dense, but it reads like a novel; and maybe most importantly, Boot—no liberal himself--refuses to bind himself with ideological constraints, opening nuanced pathways for reassessing this difficult history, especially in the context of current and looming conflcts. The only question: Is anybody listening? * h/t @adamjohnsonNYC --Jon Foro, Amazon Book Review*
Review
'A thoroughly engaging and enlightening biography' Military History Monthly. 'Provides new perspective on a murky period in American history' Choice magazine. 'Judicious and absorbing' New York Times Book Review. 'Controversial in some of its conclusions, perhaps, as Lansdale's arguments were in their day, and essential reading for students of military policy and the Vietnam conflict' Kirkus starred review. 'Brilliant ... offers important lessons for the present day' David Petraeus, former Director of CIA. 'A fascinating portrait of Lansdale ... superb' Philip Caputo, author of A Rumor of War. 'I couldn't stop reading this' Karl Marlantes, author of Matterhorn.
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. **
Amazon.com Review
An Amazon Best Book of January 2018: How’s this for a thought: America loves war. We know we shouldn’t, but it’s a compulsion. We manage the dissonance through the words we use to justify it. Sometimes we “stumble” into conflict, other times we’re “lured.” Once we’re there, the “quagmire” traps us, sucking at our boots along with millions, billions, and trillions of dollars, and thousands of lives. We’ve seen versions of this is Afghanistan and Iraq, but the template is Vietnam. Max Boot’s biography of CIA operative Edward Lansdale shows us that it didn’t necessarily have to turn out this way. Lansdale, AKA “the T.E. Lawrence of Asia,” had favored a “hearts and minds” approach in adversarial political landscapes, eschewing pure militarism as a panacea in global policy by introducing social and economic strategies to the mix. He’d experienced success with his philosophy in the Philippines, but in Vietnam, the deck—in the form of powerful generals and diplomats—was stacked against him; America doubled down on bombs and napalm, shoving Lansdale and his ideas to the margins. The Road Not Taken recalibrates the argument, and its strengths are (at least) three-fold: Boot’s research is deep and seemingly impeccable; the material is complex and dense, but it reads like a novel; and maybe most importantly, Boot—no liberal himself--refuses to bind himself with ideological constraints, opening nuanced pathways for reassessing this difficult history, especially in the context of current and looming conflcts. The only question: Is anybody listening? * h/t @adamjohnsonNYC --Jon Foro, Amazon Book Review*
Review
'A thoroughly engaging and enlightening biography' Military History Monthly. 'Provides new perspective on a murky period in American history' Choice magazine. 'Judicious and absorbing' New York Times Book Review. 'Controversial in some of its conclusions, perhaps, as Lansdale's arguments were in their day, and essential reading for students of military policy and the Vietnam conflict' Kirkus starred review. 'Brilliant ... offers important lessons for the present day' David Petraeus, former Director of CIA. 'A fascinating portrait of Lansdale ... superb' Philip Caputo, author of A Rumor of War. 'I couldn't stop reading this' Karl Marlantes, author of Matterhorn.