Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam

Gordon M Goldstein

ISBN 10: 0805079718 / ISBN 13: 9780805079715

Published by Times Books 2008-11, New York, 2008

About this Item

The Kennedy and Johnson Administration, 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 301 pagesDisaster / Lesson Five - Never Deploy Military Means in Pursuit of Indeterminate Ends / Lesson Six - Intervention Is a Presidential Choice, Not an Inevitability / Notes / Acknowledgments / Index. A revelatory look at the pivotal decisions that led to America's entanglement in Vietnam, drawing on the insights and reassessments of one of the war's architects and charting vital lessons for the comtemporary application of U.S.power. Bright & sharp No extraneous marks.

Seller Inventory # 42195

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam
• Publisher: Times Books 2008-11, New York
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805079718
• ISBN 13: 9780805079715
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First edition.
• Condition: Very Good+
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Military

About this title

Synopsis

A revelatory look at the decisions that led to the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, drawing on the insights and reassessments of one of the war s architects"I had a part in a great failure. I made mistakes of perception, recommendation and execution. If I have learned anything I should share it."These are not words that Americans ever expected to hear from McGeorge Bundy, the national security adviser to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. But in the last years of his life, Bundy the only principal architect of Vietnam strategy to have maintained his public silence decided to revisit the decisions that had led to war and to look anew at the role he played. He enlisted the collaboration of the political scientist Gordon M. Goldstein, and together they explored what happened and what might have been. With Bundy s death in 1996, that manuscript could not be completed, but Goldstein has built on their collaboration in an origi

About the Author

Gordon M. Goldstein is a scholar of international affairs who has held executive positions in international security policy and finance. He received a Ph.D. in political science and international relations from Columbia University, and his articles have appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Washington Post. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and lives in Brooklyn, New York.