The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked

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The failure of Vietnam could be laid at the door of American foreignpolicy but the decisions that led to the failure were made bypresidents aware of the risks, clear about their aims, knowledgeableabout the weaknesses of their allies, and under no illusion aboutthe outcome.

The book offers a picture of a steely resolve in government circlesthat, while useful in creating consensus, did not allow for alternativeperspectives. In the years since its publication, The Irony of Vietnam hascome to be considered the seminal work on the Vietnam War.

Author Bio

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Leslie H. Gelb is among America's most prominent foreign policy experts. A Pulitzer Prize winner, former correspondent for the New York Times, and senior official in the state and defense departments, he is currently president emeritus and board senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he served as president from 1993 to 2003. When he conceived of The Irony of Vietnam, which was awarded the American Political Science Association's Woodrow Wilson Award, he was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Richard K. Betts is an adjunct senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Arnold A. Saltzman professor of war and peace studies, as well as director of the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, and director of the international security policy program in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. On the faculty of Harvard University when he began work on The Irony of Vietnam, he completed it while a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.