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The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam

Author:
Max Boot
Read by:
Henry Strozier
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Unabridged Audiobook

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Ratings
Book
43
Narrator
6
Release Date
January 9, 2018
Duration
27 hours 37 minutes
Summary
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.
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Reviews
Profile Avatar gingram Jun 2024

This book completely changed my views on the Vietnam War, its reasons for happening, and its consequences. At a level of detail found rarely in historical texts, It baffles me how easily the Military establishment ignored such a simple and straight-forward solution that could have left South Vietnam totally intact without the loss of millions of human lives.

Profile Avatar Sean M. Jan 2023

It was a struggle to finish- meandering and verbose.

Profile Avatar Jill S. Aug 2022

Not sure this had much to do with Vietnam. Slow moving and seemingly more about the guys affair than what you want to hear

Profile Avatar richard s Feb 2018

I thought in general, the book was good. Not what I expected and didn't have enough substance for some of the claims it was making about Edward Lansdale. I wish the book would have given deeper insights as I found it was just touching the surface of a very interesting man.

The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam

The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam

Author: Max Boot
Read by: Henry Strozier
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