William J. Rust

Bill Rust is an independent researcher who specializes in the history of US relations with Southeast Asian countries during the mid-twentieth century. Author of five books, he began his editorial career at U.S. News & World Report, joining the Book Division as a researcher in 1979 and subsequently contributing retrospective articles on the Vietnam War to the magazine. In 1985, his first book, Kennedy in Vietnam, was published by Scribners. For the next two decades or so, he earned a living as a writer, editor, and communications consultant for foundations and corporations. In 2008, he left this line of work to resume full-time research on the origins of the Second Indochina War. Visit his homepage at www.beforethequagmire.com.