Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

To the bone

Speaking of Vietnam, I remember a friend telling me that the coldest he’d ever been was one rainy night as a soldier in the Vietnamese highlands during the war there. I thought of that when I saw a fundraising appeal from some retired Special Forces soldiers for students in the mountains of Thailand. (At the ...

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
589569_090113_Vietnam_Mtns_1.13_resized2.jpg
589569_090113_Vietnam_Mtns_1.13_resized2.jpg

Speaking of Vietnam, I remember a friend telling me that the coldest he’d ever been was one rainy night as a soldier in the Vietnamese highlands during the war there. I thought of that when I saw a fundraising appeal from some retired Special Forces soldiers for students in the mountains of Thailand. (At the hyperlinked site, click on “Operation Warm Blanket.”) After one child died of cold three years ago, the retiree group started buying them blankets. They also provide good students from remote areas with bicycles to get to school. It is not often that a mere $5 can make a real improvement in the quality of someone’s life. So if you take a sandwich to work tomorrow, and send in the lunch money you would have spent, you will make a difference in the lives of two kids.

HOANG DINH NAM/Getty Images

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.