Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook1,071 pages12 hours
Road to Disaster: A New History of America's Descent into Vietnam
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
"The most thoughtful and judicious one-volume history of the war and the American political leaders who presided over the difficult and painful decisions that shaped this history. The book will stand for the foreseeable future as the best study of the tragic mistakes that led to so much suffering."—Robert Dallek
Many books have been written on the tragic decisions regarding Vietnam made by the young stars of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Yet despite millions of words of analysis and reflection, no historian has been able to explain why such decent, brilliant, and previously successful men stumbled so badly.
That changes with Road to Disaster. Historian Brian VanDeMark draws upon decades of archival research, his own interviews with many of those involved, and a wealth of previously unheard recordings by Robert McNamara and Clark Clifford, who served as Defense Secretaries for Kennedy and Johnson. Yet beyond that, Road to Disaster is also the first history of the war to look at the cataclysmic decisions of those in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations through the prism of recent research in cognitive science, psychology, and organizational theory to explain why the "Best and the Brightest" became trapped in situations that suffocated creative thinking and willingness to dissent, why they found change so hard, and why they were so blind to their own errors.
An epic history of America’s march to quagmire, Road to Disaster is a landmark in scholarship and a book of immense importance.
Unavailable
Author
Brian VanDeMark
Brian VanDeMark teaches history at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, where for more than twenty-five years he has educated students about the Vietnam War. A Ph.D. graduate of UCLA and an elected visiting fellow at Oxford University, he served as research assistant on Clark Clifford's bestselling autobiography, Counsel to the President, and coauthor of Robert McNamara's number one bestseller, In Retrospect. A Texas native, he now lives in Maryland.
Related to Road to Disaster
Related ebooks
Eisenhower: Soldier and President Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Nixon's War at Home: The FBI, Leftist Guerrillas, and the Origins of Counterterrorism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51917: Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Containment and Credibility: The Ideology and Deception That Plunged America into the Vietnam War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSenator Sam Ervin, Last of the Founding Fathers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Pentagon Papers: The Secret History of the Vietnam War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Year that Changed the World: The Untold Story Behind the Fall of the Berlin Wall Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, The Berlin Wall, and the Most Dangerous Place On Earth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Brilliant Disaster: JFK, Castro, and America's Doomed Invasion of Cuba's Bay of Pigs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848–1877 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Abyss: Nuclear Crisis Cuba 1962 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Robert Kennedy and His Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBrothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Last Men Out: The True Story of America's Heroic Final Hours in Vietnam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Year Of The Hawk: America's Descent into Vietnam, 1965 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Thousand Days of the British Empire: Churchill, Roosevelt, and the Birth of the Pax Americana Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America in the Gilded Age: Third Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Double V: How Wars, Protest, and Harry Truman Desegregated America’s Military Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMagic and Mayhem: The Delusions of American Foreign Policy From Korea to Afghanistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eight Days at Yalta: How Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin Shaped the Post-war World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5January 1973: Watergate, Roe v. Wade, Vietnam, and the Month That Changed America Forever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great Rift: Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and the Broken Friendship That Defined an Era Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51941: The Year Germany Lost the War: The Year Germany Lost the War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5LBJ and Vietnam: A Different Kind of War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPromise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Wars & Military For You
The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unacknowledged: An Expose of the World's Greatest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Washington: The Indispensable Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933–45 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The History of the Peloponnesian War: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related podcast episodes
Robert Kagan Looks to American History to Explain Foreign Policy Today 0% found this document usefulBehind the Saudi Crown Prince's Rise to Power 0% found this document usefulBeth Macy on 'Dopesick' 0% found this document usefulEp 3: Where Was Oswald When The Shots Were Fired (Part 1) 0% found this document usefulDom Errichiello: Landing on Omaha beach, Normandy, on D-Day, June 7, 1944, firing in enemy pillboxes, fighting in the Battle of the Bulge and in the major offensive of Berlin, the teenage Dom Errichiello, of the US Army 1st Infantry Division, 18th Regiment was no stranger... 100% found this document usefulWhat really sank the Kursk? 0% found this document usefulRonald Reagan: The Peacemaker 0% found this document useful129 PALE HORSE RIDER: THE LIFE, TIMES AND DEATH OF WILLIAM COOPER 0% found this document usefulCuster's Last Stand: Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Custer's Last Stand. 100% found this document useful
Related articles
How Vietnam Gave Us C-SPAN ReasonArticle
How Vietnam Gave Us C-SPAN
May 24, 2019
12 min readGeorge Packer Chronicles Richard Holbrooke's Brilliance, Ambition And Arrogance Los Angeles TimesArticle
George Packer Chronicles Richard Holbrooke's Brilliance, Ambition And Arrogance
May 29, 2019
4 min readLEADERS & COMMANDERS History of WarArticle
LEADERS & COMMANDERS
Sep 2, 2021
4 min readRemembering Allan McDonald: He Refused To Approve Challenger Launch, Exposed Cover-Up NPRArticle
Remembering Allan McDonald: He Refused To Approve Challenger Launch, Exposed Cover-Up
Mar 7, 2021
4 min read'This Is Not Freedom': Militarized US Capitol A Sign Of Forever Wars Coming Home The GuardianArticle
'This Is Not Freedom': Militarized US Capitol A Sign Of Forever Wars Coming Home
Jan 20, 2021
In early 2003, as government buildings across Iraq were being looted, Donald Rumsfeld told reporters, “Freedom’s untidy.” Iraq was “being liberated”, he said. “Free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They’re also fr
6 min readEnd the Misuse of Holocaust History The AtlanticArticle
End the Misuse of Holocaust History
Apr 14, 2017
4 min read'1983' Chronicles A Cold War-era Narrow Escape From Nuclear War The Christian Science MonitorArticle
'1983' Chronicles A Cold War-era Narrow Escape From Nuclear War
May 2, 2018
The incident was sparked by a routine NATO military exercise and occurred when mistrust and suspicion between superpowers America and the USSR was sky-high.
3 min readSeven Moments From U.S. History That Matter Now TIMEArticle
Seven Moments From U.S. History That Matter Now
Jul 9, 2018
6 min readRefugees Poured Into My State. Here’s How It Changed Me. The Christian Science MonitorArticle
Refugees Poured Into My State. Here’s How It Changed Me.
Oct 28, 2019
11 min read'Heirs Of The Founders' Profiles The 'Second Generation' Of Great American Leaders The Christian Science MonitorArticle
'Heirs Of The Founders' Profiles The 'Second Generation' Of Great American Leaders
Nov 13, 2018
In his latest historical spellbinder, bestselling author and scholar H.W. Brands profiles Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John Calhoun, as well as the decades leading up to the Civil War.
3 min read18-Hour Vietnam Epic Is Lesson On Horror Of 'Unleashing Gods Of War' NPRArticle
18-Hour Vietnam Epic Is Lesson On Horror Of 'Unleashing Gods Of War'
Sep 26, 2017
4 min readJack Ruby's Trial Moves From Side Stage To Center In 'Kennedy's Avenger' NPRArticle
Jack Ruby's Trial Moves From Side Stage To Center In 'Kennedy's Avenger'
Jun 4, 2021
3 min read'The Road Not Taken,' A Biography Of Edward Lansdale, Makes No Secret Of Its Belief In Its Hero The Christian Science MonitorArticle
'The Road Not Taken,' A Biography Of Edward Lansdale, Makes No Secret Of Its Belief In Its Hero
Jan 9, 2018
The book is comprehensively researched and insightfully written. Max Boot is, as always, an extremely talented writer.
3 min readLBJ And The Descent Into War VietnamArticle
LBJ And The Descent Into War
Feb 5, 2019
11 min readBrain Fog, Phantom Smells And Tinnitus: My 4 Months (and Counting) Of Covid-19 | Hannah Davis The GuardianArticle
Brain Fog, Phantom Smells And Tinnitus: My 4 Months (and Counting) Of Covid-19 | Hannah Davis
Aug 5, 2020
5 min readOperation Mongoose: The Story of America's Efforts to Overthrow Castro The AtlanticArticle
Operation Mongoose: The Story of America's Efforts to Overthrow Castro
Jan 5, 2018
10 min read'Nixon: The Life' Humanizes — But Doesn't Rehabilitate NPRArticle
'Nixon: The Life' Humanizes — But Doesn't Rehabilitate
Apr 12, 2017
3 min readThe Origins of the 'Globalist' Slur The AtlanticArticle
The Origins of the 'Globalist' Slur
Mar 14, 2018
4 min readAntietam’s Deadly Harvest America's Civil WarArticle
Antietam’s Deadly Harvest
Dec 15, 2020
9 min readThe Life Of A Rascal GoldmineArticle
The Life Of A Rascal
Dec 18, 2019
7 min readThe Unheeded Warning The AtlanticArticle
The Unheeded Warning
Oct 16, 2022
7 min readBlood and Sugar American HistoryArticle
Blood and Sugar
May 4, 2021
9 min readHelen Barnhill, Marlene Cummings, and the 1988 Republican National Convention Wisconsin Magazine of HistoryArticle
Helen Barnhill, Marlene Cummings, and the 1988 Republican National Convention
Sep 6, 2022
16 min readWho Are The Taliban Leaders? Guardian WeeklyArticle
Who Are The Taliban Leaders?
Sep 3, 2021
Emir of the Taliban, the 60-year-old Islamic legal scholar from rural Kandahar, who was the Taliban’s top religious judge, became leader of the group in 2016, after a US drone strike killed his predecessor. There is only one known photograph of Akhun
1 min readNicholas Goldberg: The Nuclear Threat The US Unleashed On The World 75 Years Ago Is Still Terrifying Los Angeles TimesArticle
Nicholas Goldberg: The Nuclear Threat The US Unleashed On The World 75 Years Ago Is Still Terrifying
Aug 7, 2020
The bombs dropped by the United States on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75 years ago, in the final days of World War II, incinerated some 200,000 people, most of them civilians. And they did much more than that. They also transformed the natur
3 min readSherman’s Secret Weapon America's Civil WarArticle
Sherman’s Secret Weapon
Aug 27, 2019
9 min readHero’s Welcome America's Civil WarArticle
Hero’s Welcome
Dec 15, 2020
10 min readHow Muscle Works in Moscow Foreign Policy MagazineArticle
How Muscle Works in Moscow
Jul 21, 2020
4 min readThe Last Kennedy The AtlanticArticle
The Last Kennedy
Apr 21, 2019
16 min readMichael Wolff's New Trump Tell-All 'Siege,' Stars Steve Bannon And A Cast Of No-Names NPRArticle
Michael Wolff's New Trump Tell-All 'Siege,' Stars Steve Bannon And A Cast Of No-Names
May 29, 2019
The Fire and Fury author offers surprising stories about the president. But there may never have been a more polarizing president, nor an author less likely to be read as a neutral recorder of facts.
6 min read
Reviews for Road to Disaster
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
3 ratings0 reviews