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Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest Read: Tightrope

Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by the husband/wife team of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Nicholas is a two time winner of the Pulitzer Prize, in addition he has been a finalist seven times while Sheryl is also a Pulitzer winner.

Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
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Nicholas in fact, grew up on a sheep and cherry farm near Yamhill, Oregon and his hometown is the cornerstone of this book. Subsequently he graduated from Harvard and holds a law degree from Oxford, while Sheryl graduated from Cornell and holds an MPA from Princeton and an MBA from Harvard.

In addition, Sheryl and Nicholas have co-authored China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power and Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia. Furthermore, Sheryl wrote her third best-seller Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide in 2009.

Nicholas did not qualify to run for Governor in Oregon in 2022 due to his residence in NYC. His family still owns their farm in Oregon. I certainly hope he runs for office in the future. This book obviously reveals they hold a solid understanding of the challenges and opportunities confronting our country.

Tightrope should be difficult book to fully digest. The impact around our local community and our country are certainly profound. Likewise, Tightrope documents a real world view of where we are heading, and it is not all too positive.

Life is not a box of chocolates

Chapter One begins with a simple message as Nicholas reflects upon the kids he rode the school bus while growing up. In fact, one quickly becomes aware of how families across our country have struggled, faltered, and died just like the kids on bus number six.

Furthermore, this book addresses a deep level of concerns for America today: homelessness, isolation, obesity, depression, unemployment, drugs, alcoholism, incarceration, diabetics and suicide. Tightrope on the other hand, demonstrates how government programs can be very helpful to address long standing inequities at the federal to local levels.

Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Categories
Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest Read: The Origins of the Vietnam War

The Origins of the Vietnam War by Fredrik Logevall. He is a Professor of History at Harvard University. His book, Embers of War won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize.

The Origins of the Vietnam War by Fredrik Logevall

Previously, Fredrik taught at UC Santa Barbara and co-founded the University of California, Santa Barbara Center for Cold War Studies. In 2004 he began teaching at Cornell University. In addition, from 2006-07 was a Mellon Senior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He is an associate of the London School of Economics IDEAS Cold War Studies Programme.

This publication is rather brief, yet delivers impactful, easy reading. This short work should be considered mandatory for high school curriculum.

Part One looks at the First Vietnam war, between the French and Vietminh. He provides the French historical view of attempting to simply gain credibility and new markets. Their military, certainly humiliated by Prussia in the late 1970s and both World Wars sought victory. In addition, French financial and business interests needed to create new markets.

Fredrick follows up in Part Two, providing the foundation for America’s entry into Indochina from the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu to July 1965 under President Johnson. This serves everyone well by simply introducing the research to support America’s position of continued war across Indochina. By today, all the major players in this timeframe have died. In addition, documents classified during this timeframe are now available.

Categories
Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest Read: The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam by Max Boot. A New York Times bestseller, The Road Not Taken was a 2019 finalist for Pulitzer Prize in biography.

The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam by Max Boot

Max is a former writer and editor for Christian Science Monitor and The Wall Street Journal. Today he is a Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. In addition, Max is a contributor to The Washington Post and writes for The Weekly Standard, the Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times.

In providing a detailed story of Edward Lansdale’s entire life, perhaps for the first time Max documents the history of American counterinsurgency in post World War II Asia.

Edward certainly had a talent for winning the loyalty of people with honesty, respecting their cultures, and viewing the world from his family’s strong Christian Science beliefs. In addition, Max repeats the idea that Edward is indeed the agent in Graham Greeneā€™s The Quiet American.

The Road Not Taken certainly serves as a resource to understanding how the CIA established counterinsurgency and was very successful at first. Yet we see how Washington withdrew key support at critical stages in both Cuba and South Vietnam. It is no wonder that Edward was unable to fully apply proven lessons from The Philippines in partnership between CIA and US military operatives in confronting communist expansion in Laos and Vietnam.

Early life to College

Although, it would appear somewhat insignificant that Edward attended UCLA and began his career as an advertising executive, he would clash with Kennedy’s Ivy League White House. Yet, Edward would join the CIA (then known as The Office of Strategic Services) during World War II. Edward rose to become an advisor, then assigned as an intelligence officer deployed to across Southeast Asia. Edward clearly understood during his efforts how to successfully confront communist advances during the Cold War. Time has certainly proven the arrogance and lack of firsthand experience inside Kennedy’s White House drove Vietnam into the ditch. One of the stronger impressions is Edward establishing successful Asian counterinsurgency programs beginning in 1945.