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

by Gordon M. Goldstein (Author)
Key Phrases: combat force deployments, combat troop commitment, combat troop deployments, South Vietnam, United States, White House (more...)
4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
As national security adviser, McGeorge Bundy was the prototypical best and brightest Vietnam War policymaker in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Bundy was, according to foreign policy scholar Goldstein, an out-and-out war hawk who again and again demonstrated a willingness, if not an eagerness, to deploy military means in Vietnam. Goldstein worked with Bundy in the year before his death, in 1996, on an uncompleted memoir and retrospective analysis of America's path to war. While drawing on that work in this warts-and-all examination of Bundy's advisory role, this book is something different, containing Goldstein's own conclusions. He painstakingly recounts his subject's role as national security adviser and ponders the complexities of the elusive inner Bundy: for example, the buoyant good humor in the 1960s that seemed unbowed by the weight of difficult strategic decisions. Among the surprising revelations: late in life Bundy came to regret his hawkish ways, although he maintained to the end that the presidents, not their advisers, were primarily responsible for the outcome of the war. Vietnam, he said, was overall, a war we should not have fought. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
An important addition to the literature of the Vietnam War, this analysis examines the man who was the president’s national security advisor from 1961 to 1966. For three decades afterward, Goldstein relates, McGeorge Bundy declined to write a memoir about his role in the decisions that plunged America into that war, but he changed his mind when Robert McNamara published his mea culpa In Retrospect (1995). Unfortunately, Bundy died before the project made much progress; posthumously, Goldstein pulled together a manuscript, but, he reports, Bundy’s widow quashed its publication and decreed its deposition in the archives of the JFK library. Therefore, this work does not derive from Bundy’s memoir; it is Goldstein’s negatively critical consideration of Bundy’s role on Vietnam. Flavored with anecdotes of Goldstein’s interactions with Bundy as his research assistant, the narrative conveys Bundy’s hawkish recommendations to JFK and LBJ, expresses Goldstein’s belief that the former would not have escalated the war as Johnson did, and hints that Bundy before his death might have been preparing a recantation on Vietnam. A vital volume for Vietnam War collections. --Gilbert Taylor

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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Times Books (November 11, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0805079718
  • ISBN-13: 978-0805079715
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #227,824 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly readable and accessible, December 2, 2008
By Mark (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
The reviews of this book by Henry Kissinger in Newsweek and by Richard Holbrooke in The New York Times give one a good sense for the seriousness of its ideas and its relevancy to current events. The real surprise about this book is how readable and accessible it is. The accolades "intellectually challenging" and "hard to put down" are rarely used to describe the same book, but the author manages both brilliantly. This is a highly satisfying read.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars essential reading, November 20, 2008
Goldstein does an excellent job of making it clear that Bundy, despite his brilliance and pedigree, strongly facilitated the escalation of US commitment in Viet Nam. The author marshals his facts precisely and writes with forcefulness. He had unique access to Bundy. The book ranks in historical importance alongside McNamara's confession, but contains important lessons on how overseas commitments can escalate despite glaring indications the strategy is wrong headed.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The doves were right, January 4, 2009
McGeorge Bundy, even in hindsight, is hard to forgive for his advice to President Johnson during the Vietnam buildup. That said, he has passed on and what we are left with is a glimpse of what the White House years were like when Bundy was around and advising both JFK and LBJ. The term "the best and the brightest" was applied to him and others but Bundy failed miserably. At least he began to come to terms with this before he died.

Author Gordon Goldstein has cobbled together a book not by Bundy but about him, as he indicates, and it is revealing. "Lessons in Disaster" is a two-part narrative, the first commenting on the Kennedy years and the latter, Lyndon Johnson. The second part is far more intriguing. JFK had shied away from using ground troops or air strikes but within a year or so after his assassination, things had changed dramatically for the worse. Bundy, in arguing for more military involvement in Vietnam, helped to create the quagmire. Yet, in reading Goldstein's book I was struck by how minor a player McGeorge Bundy seemed to be in all of this. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara was certainly more in the forceful forefront of policy decisions and one gets the impression that this Harvard dean....Bundy....was in the wrong place at the wrong time. His inadequacies were only exacerbated by his own intimidation by President Johnson. He should never have been in the White House and he left too late. A nice continuing career in academia would have suited him better.

Goldstein, without saying so, gives us a reminder that although Korea should have been a model for future military involvement, Iraq has been the third disaster in modern times. The questions that weren't asked of LBJ and his advisors during Vietnam were subsequently not asked during George Bush's presidency with regard to Iraq. He begs the question about why our leaders continue to fall into traps that lead to disaster and for that reason alone, I highly recommend "Lessons in Disaster". Its merits are well-received.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Time fo Choosing
An intimate look at the beginnings of what became the Vietnam War, told by the author, but also through the eyes of McGeorge Bundy, who had a seat at the table when both Kennedy... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Craig E. Schlanger

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent but Painful Analysis of the Buildup of the Vietnam War
Reading "Lessons in Disaster; McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam" is a very painful experience - especially if one happens to be a Vietnam veteran -- because the book... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Ted Marks

5.0 out of 5 stars Managed to Catastrophe
This fascinating book tracks the US escalation in Vietnam under Kennedy and Johnson primarily through the career of McGeorge Bundy, who served as national security adviser to each... Read more
Published 5 months ago by J. Moran

4.0 out of 5 stars One Of The Not So Brightest
Another good read of one of the Kennedy men who cannot come to terms with the Vietnam War and the American involvement,who first said no with Kennedy then yes with Johnson.
Published 7 months ago by Andrew T. Kiln

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read...
Lessons in Disaster provides unique insights into Kennedy's decision making process and the possile outcome of our war effort if he had remained President. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Daniel Cruise

5.0 out of 5 stars GOLDSTEIN IS A GREAT NEW VOICE


I read Dr. Goldstein's posting, "JFK's Lessons for Commander-in-Chief Obama", on the Huffington Post and was directed to "Lessons in Disaster. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Richard J. Kassner MD

2.0 out of 5 stars A MEDIOCRE DEFENSE OF KENNEDY AND MAC BUNDY
HAVING KNOWN SOME OF THOSE MENTIONED IN THIS BOOK, AND HAVING BEEN TO VIETNAM SEVEN TIMES AND READ AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE IN FRENCH, ENGLISH, AND F B I S TRANSLATIONS OF VIETNAMESE... Read more
Published 8 months ago by 100%

5.0 out of 5 stars Crisp, well-written account of the people and events surrounding the Vietnam War
This excellent account of what happened in the days and months leading up to the war in Vietnam is a must-read; both for scholars and historians as well as for laypeople trying to... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Vijaya Ramachandran

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