- 318 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
A revelatory look at the decisions that led to the US involvement in Vietnam, drawing on the insights and reassessments of one of the war's architects.
A Foreign Affairs Bestseller
In the last years of his life, the former US national security adviser McGeorge Bundy decided to revisit the role he played in leading the nation into the Vietnam War as a counselor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. "I had part in a great failure," he said. "If I have learned anything I should share it."
In this original and provocative work, the political scientist Gordon M. Goldstein draws on his prodigious research as well as interviews and analysis he conducted with Bundy before his death in 1996 to distill the essential lessons of America's involvement in Vietnam. Lessons in Disaster is a historical tour de force on the uses and misuses of American power.
"Gordon Goldstein has written an illuminating book and a cautionary tale about the perils of intellectual arrogance overpowering good judgment at the highest levels of national security decision making. Every public servant and every citizen should know the story of McGeorge Bundy and how he lost his way." —Tom Brokaw
"A compelling portrait of a man once serenely confident, searching decades later for self-understanding." —Richard Holbrooke, The New York Times Book Review
A Foreign Affairs Bestseller
In the last years of his life, the former US national security adviser McGeorge Bundy decided to revisit the role he played in leading the nation into the Vietnam War as a counselor to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. "I had part in a great failure," he said. "If I have learned anything I should share it."
In this original and provocative work, the political scientist Gordon M. Goldstein draws on his prodigious research as well as interviews and analysis he conducted with Bundy before his death in 1996 to distill the essential lessons of America's involvement in Vietnam. Lessons in Disaster is a historical tour de force on the uses and misuses of American power.
"Gordon Goldstein has written an illuminating book and a cautionary tale about the perils of intellectual arrogance overpowering good judgment at the highest levels of national security decision making. Every public servant and every citizen should know the story of McGeorge Bundy and how he lost his way." —Tom Brokaw
"A compelling portrait of a man once serenely confident, searching decades later for self-understanding." —Richard Holbrooke, The New York Times Book Review
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Yes, you can access Lessons in Disaster by Gordon M. Goldstein in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Political Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Contents
- Dedication
- The Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, 1961–65
- INTRODUCTION: Legend of the Establishment
- LESSON ONE: Counselors Advise but Presidents Decide
- LESSON TWO: Never Trust the Bureaucracy to Get It Right
- LESSON THREE: Politics Is the Enemy of Strategy
- LESSON FOUR: Conviction Without Rigor Is a Strategy for Disaster
- LESSON FIVE: Never Deploy Military Means in Pursuit of Indeterminate Ends
- LESSON SIX: Intervention Is a Presidential Choice, Not an Inevitability
- Notes
- Acknowledgments
- Index
- Praise for Lessons in Disaster
- About the Author
- Copyright