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.
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 Greene’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.