(08-01-2024, 07:29 PM)mikesez Wrote: I have started a new book on a random recommendation: The Road Not Taken by Max Boot.  It is a biography of Edward Lansdale with a focus on how the course of the Vietnam War may have changed if more of the US leadership has followed Lansdale's lead.
Boot is a hell of a writer.  I'm learning a lot. I'm not sure if I'll be convinced of his conclusion though.

Early on, the book seemed to be heading towards a "we could have won Vietnam if we listened to Lansdale" conclusion, but that's not where it landed.  It landed on "Vietnam was doomed from the start, but Lansdale's influences helped later US intervention in places like Nicaragua and Iraq go better than Vietnam did.". And I think that's true. It made JFK and RFK look like real doofuses and blamed most everything on them. Don't know if that's true. It's probably true, at least with regard to Vietnam.

Troubling part - if Lansdale were alive today, he would be pro-Israel, but he would say that Israel's current war in Gaza is doomed to fail.

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