The Road Not Taken by Max Boot

Author:Max Boot
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liveright

LANSDALE’S GOOD feelings had dissipated somewhat by the time he left Vietnam on January 14, 1961, after additional exposure to the hothouse atmosphere of Saigon, where political intrigue was an art form not infrequently practiced for its own sake. The self-serving politicos in the capital were far removed, geographically and ethically, from Father Hoa’s stout Sea Swallows, and their entreaties and imprecations depressed him. “Everyone wanted me to do some sort of miracle,” he wrote to Pat Kelly the day of his departure, “and did their level best to make sure I wouldn’t have a chance. . . . It’s heart-breaking to see what a bunch of self-centered people have done to ruin the dreams in the Philippines, Vietnam + Laos. . . . Whatever happened to people with guts like Spruance and O’Daniel?” 46

In that melancholy mood, Lansdale flew to Hawaii to write a lengthy report on the trip amid crashing waves and gently swaying palm trees. He returned to Washington via Los Angeles, Tucson, and Chicago, arriving home during an unwelcome cold snap on the afternoon of January 18, 1961.47 Two days later, a new president a decade younger than the fifty-three-year-old “Ugly American” would take office, uncertain of what to do about the growing Communist challenge in Indochina. One of the very first documents he would find on his Oval Office desk would be a report on Lansdale’s trip.

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