The Road Not Taken, Max Boot
The Road Not Taken, Max Boot
2 Rating(s)
List: $34.99 | Sale: $24.50
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The Road Not Taken
Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam

Author: Max Boot

Narrator: Henry Strozier

Unabridged: 27 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 01/09/2018

Categories: Nonfiction, History


Synopsis

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.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Steven on May 26, 2018

The popularity of the new film, “The Post” has refocused the attention of many people on the PENTAGON PAPERS and the Vietnam War. Daniel Ellsberg’s leak of the history of the war commissioned by then Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to the New York Times created a crisis atmosphere that was sett......more

Goodreads review by Porter on September 09, 2021

30 years ago or so I took a college course on the Vietnam War. I was finishing a major in History with a concentration on Asia. To be honest with you, it was a somewhat foregettable course. The biggest principle I learned was that "modern" history can not be trusted. My professor stressed that everyt......more

Goodreads review by Rob on August 22, 2020

Audio book review. If you fought in Vietnam, Afghanistan, or Iraq, this book will most likely be thought provoking, bring back memories, and frustrate you — sadly we continue to demonstrate our inability to learn from the past to enable success in counterinsurgency operations. The book highlights th......more

Goodreads review by Alan on January 11, 2025

Ed Landsdale, CIA operative who could have changed Vietnam War if US government had listened to him. He believed way was to win the hearts and minds of Vietnamese people, not just military means which resulted in failure. His methods had worked in Philippines and Malaysia. Interesting too, he'd prev......more

Goodreads review by Marks54 on March 30, 2018

This is a clever and interesting book. I also understand what the author is trying to accomplish by structuring this biography around the “what if” questions around how the Vietnam war might have developed had Landsdale been granted more influence. The policy questions around Landsdale’s approach to......more