vietnam

"The Ugly American" remains relevant, 60 years after it changed the way the United States saw itself in the world.

How would the outcome of the Vietnam War differ if we had listened to Edward Lansdale? The world may never know.  

A new book explores a legendary advisor who may have had the secret to success in Vietnam — and in winning today’s forever war.

Edward Lansdale’s most successful covert operations may have been crafting his own reputation.

It was hot and muggy as monsoon season crested in the summer of 1954.

America has no greater friend than Britain. Or had.

Coffee as the conduit for memories of a military career

The United States is creating problems in Asia by offering to mediate Vietnam’s tensions with China.

The president should use his trip to Asia to reassure allies and assert U.S. power.

Our propensity to see the world in terms of good and evil might be described as a shared, though ill-defined, moral conviction so strong that it blinds leaders to the complex motives, interests, and perspectives of other actors.

“Successful new innovators ask, ‘What must be true for this idea to succeed?’”

Until the majority of people in this country agree to close ranks when the nation goes to war, the memories of Vietnam will linger.

Thus far I’ve held off, because I didn’t want to get in the way of Charles Krohn’s reviews.

Despite striving for nuance, episode 9 favors those who opposed the war more than those who fought it.

This episode is mostly about My Lai and Kent State. I abstain from commenting.

While unfit to comment on the wild student riots that dominate much of Episode 7, I think their importance is overplayed — hugely visual, of course, but overplayed.

The sixth episode of the series shows us where the war's bloody unwinding began.

Even the most rational leaders are influenced by the power of collective memory.

In episode 5, Burns dives into the Tet offensive and wrestles with unrest on the home front.

T.R. Fehrenbach, in his classic book about the Korean War, says that bombs from the sky aren’t the same as boots on the ground.