Who Was Edward Lansdale, and Why It Matters

There was a saying during the Vietnam era, the attribution of which is a bit fuzzy, that said “if you grab them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.”

I suppose this was not inconsistent with another quote of that era that said, “come let us reason together...or we’ll burn down your village.”

Vietnam, like so many counterinsurgency efforts, before and since, was or should have been, about winning those hearts and minds. Unfortunately, the political, foreign policy and military establishment never seemed to get it right.

However, during the Vietnam era, one man did. He was Maj. General Edward Lansdale. He was military and CIA, and in retrospect he maybe the only true wise man of the time.

Now, foreign policy scholar Max Boot gives us The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam.  The fist full look at Lansdale and why this obscure figure from the period, should be a household,

My conversation with Max Boot:

Why Are We Looking Back at Vietnam?

Coming up next month, Ken Burns’ powerful documentary about the Vietnam war will be in living rooms across America. It makes you wonder why now, 42 years after the fall of Saigon, we are once again looking back at the tragedy that was the Vietnam war.

As part of this look back, it’s imperative to look at one of the seminal works of that war, A Rumor of War: By Philip Caputo. Upon its original publication in 1977, it gave Americans its first and perhaps deepest insight into what it was like for young men to fight in that war. It also helped us to understand, as much as we could at the time, the war itself.

Many have argued that the Vietnam war, more than any other modern event, shattered the innocence of America. Philip Caputo’s book, A Rumor of War, just republished in The Classic Vietnam Memoir (40th Anniversary Edition), showed us how it also shattered the innocence of those that fought in it.

My conversation with Philip Caputo:

I Wonder Who's Kissinger Now?

Few modern day political figures have had more written about them than Henry Kissinger. From his own three volume, almost 4000 page memoir, to scores of books and articles. So why another we might ask historian Niall Ferguson.

Partly because beyond the policy and papers, in Ferguson's view Kissinger personified that George Bernard Shaw quote,  “Some men see things as they are and say, why; I dream things that never were and say, why not.”

That vision, that idealism, is hard to imagine in someone so vilified by contemporary history. Still, Niall Ferguson tries to square this circle in the first volume of his biography Kissinger: 1923-1968: The Idealist

My conversation with Niall Ferguson:

A look back at a great journalist - A conversation with Robert Timberg

Robert Timberg was a great journalist and a Marine combat veteran.  He passed away last week. We spoke to him back in August of 2014 about his memoir BLUE-EYED BOY. 

Think about the things that shape our world, our perceptions and our culture. For a large part of the population, the experience of America’s mistakes in Vietnam has long shaped our engagement in the world. The country's disrespect, at the time, for the service of those that served in Vietnam, in many ways positively shapes the way we respond to Veterans' needs today.

As leaders today try and juggle the crisis of the world, and play a kind of geopolitical chess, they are always chastened by the scandal that was Iran/Contra,

And as any magazine or look at popular culture today will tell you, we are obsessed with outward appearances, usually at the expense of depth and real understanding. All of these issues and ideas come into play in the life and struggles of Robert Timberg.

Disfigured in a land mine explosion thirteen days before he was to leave Vietnam, his story, his struggles and his recovery in many ways parallels the story of the past half century. It’s what makes him so effective as a journalist and why his story, that he now tells us in his memoir Blue-Eyed Boy, is also a history lesson for us all.

My conversation with Robert Timberg:

Is Vietnam the "original sin" of American foreign policy?

Look around the political and social landscape today. The polarizing debates about who we are, what we stand for as a nation and as a people, are all issues that seem to be re-litigated over and over again, particularly since and in the context of the 60’s.

It was Fifty years ago this month that LBJ began the escalation of the Vietnam War. And in many ways that war has become the “original sin” of the theology of America. If slavery was the “original sin” that still haunts our domestic politics, Vietnam is the “original sin” that still haunts the conduct of our foreign policy and America's place in the world.

The world may little note nor long remember what went on in the killing fields of Vietnam, but for American, it’s very much a part of who we are. And to fully understand it, may be the key to finally moving beyond it.

Christian Appy takes us back to this unique time in American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity

My conversation with Christian Appy:

Once upon a time, protest really did make a difference

Once upon a time protest mattered. People got angry at the actions of government and actually acted upon it. While the protests of today, like Tea Party rallies and Occupy Wall Street, often call attention to a problem, arguably they are not intended to do anything about it.

Back in 60’s and 70’s it was a very different story. Protests on behalf of  Civil Rights and against the Vietnam War would reach a fever pitch. Buildings were seized, protests were both huge and personal. Draft cards were burned and protesters didn’t just spend a night in jail, but sometimes they went to prison for a long time.

What impact did it all have? Quite a bit. People and memoirs from both the Nixon and Johnson administrations show that the level of protest really did impact policy. One of those caught up in the times, in fact he is a Zelig like character throughout this period, is Bruce Dancis.

Long after his protest days, Bruce has had a long career as a pop culture critic and editor, including sixteen year as the arts and entertainment editor of the Sacramento Bee. Now he feels that enough time has gone by to tell his story in Resister: A Story of Protest and Prison during the Vietnam War.

My conversation with Bruce Dancis:

Vietnam still matters

Be it in Bosnia, Iraq or Afghanistan, whenever there is a US military commitment, the specter of Vietnam still haunts us.  As the President set about determining his Afghan policy, books about Vietnam were flying off the selves in Washington.  The long national nightmare of Vietnam still influences Americas policy makers.  Thirty-four years after the fall, we still seek to understand what really happened in Vietnam, what were the military and political mistakes and even successes, and what are the real as opposed to the perceived lessons.  Lewis Sorley, former soldier, third generation West Point graduate and confidante of Gen. Patraeus, in his new book A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam, gives us a very revisionist view of that war and how it ended.

My conversation with Lewis Sorley:

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Paling around with terrorists - again

The recent presidential campaign and the controversy surrounding Bill Ayers reignited the debate about anti war protesters in the 60's.  What value did they have and how did the violent ways of some of them help or hurt the movement?  Mark Rudd has spent the last forty years evaluating the choices he made as a member of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and the more violent Weather Underground. In his new memoir, Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen,Mark Rudd reveals the first hand drama as well as the naivete of one of the most controversial periods in U.S. history.

My conversation with Mark Rudd:

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