The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked
Washington DC: The Brookings Institution, 1979. First Printing [Stated]. Trade paperback. xi, [1], 387, [1] pages. Footnotes. Table. Figures. Documentary Appendix. Bibliographic Note. Index. Ink notation inside the front cover. Corner of front cover creased. Cover has some wear and soiling. Leslie Howard "Les" Gelb (March 4, 1937 – August 31, 2019) was a correspondent and columnist for The New York Times, a senior Defense and State Department official, and later the President Emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was diplomatic correspondent at The New York Times from 1973 to 1977. He served as an Assistant Secretary of State in the Carter Administration from 1977 to 1979, serving as director of the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs and winning the Distinguished Honor Award, the highest award of the US State Department. In 1980 he co-authored The Irony of Vietnam which won the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Book Award in 1981. From 1980–1981, he was also a Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. According to Gelb and Betts, the foreign policy failed, but the decisionmaking system worked. They attribute this paradox to the efficiency of the system in sustaining a heavy commitment based on the shared conviction of six administrations that the United States must prevent the loss of Vietnam to communism. The analysis that supports this reflects the widest use thus far of available sources, including declassified portions of negotiations documents and files in presidential libraries. The frequently quoted statement of the principals themselves contradict the view that U.S. leaders were unaware of the consequences of their decisions and deluded by expectations of easy victory. The record reveals that these leaders were both realistic and pessimistic about the chances for success in Vietnam. Whey they persisted is explained in this thorough account of their decisionmaking from 1946 to 1968, and how their mistakes might be avoided by policymakers in the future is considered in the final chapter. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Vietnam War, Decision-making, Decisionmaking, Domino Theory, Indochina, Escalation, Robert McNamara, Roger Hilsman, Maxwell Taylor, William Westmoreland
ISBN: 0815730713
[Book #78718]
Price: $20.00