From Trust to Tragedy: The Political Memoirs of Frederick Nolting, Kennedy's Ambassador to Diem's Vietnam [Paperback]

Frederick Nolting (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 12, 1988 | ISBN-10: 0275931064 | ISBN-13: 978-0275931063

When he was appointed ambassador to South Vietnam by President Kennedy, Frederick Nolting remembers a friend warning him that "Vietnam puts a blight on everyone who touches it--a blight of frustration, futility, and failure." Twenty-seven years later, he observes candidly that ironies, frustrations, reversals, and failures abound in the records of many Americans who have touched Vietnam, including his own. From Trust to Tragedy is Frederick Nolting's frank and perceptive account of the events in Vietnam and Washington that culminated in the overthrow of the Diem government in November 1963. It is the story of how the situation appeared to him as he worked to help Vietnam achieve peace and freedom and why he still believes that by encouraging the military revolt against Diem, the Kennedy administration set the stage for the tragic war that followed. Although Nolting's account is, by his own description, "not a history but an interpretation," he has checked his vivid recollections against official documents and the interpretations of others so that they blend with the broader fabric of the history of the Vietnam War. He pulls no punches in his evaluations of some of the towering figures of the Kennedy administration against whom he had to fight for his policies. As William E. Colby, then CIA station chief in Saigon notes in his foreword, "In the end, he lost that battle, but his story of it is a necessary piece of American history."

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A very clear and sometimes powerful report that deals more with American political kibtizing in and over Vietnam than on events there (that always outpaced America's butter-fingered policy).”–The Cellar Bookshop

“Personalized, even emotionally toned in places, valuable historical source material.”–Chicago Tribune --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

FREDERICK NOLTING, Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia, was the American Ambassador to South Vietnam from 1961 to 1963.

Product Details

• Paperback: 177 pages
• Publisher: Praeger Paperback (October 12, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275931064
• ISBN-13: 978-0275931063
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,100,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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