John,
Nice reference. I have ordered a copy and look forward to going through it in detail. Vietnam went bad from the start, so I look forward to learning more about the start. From the blurbs on Amazon though, It sounds to me that Rufus argued for better tactics, but IMO promoted the same flawed strategy of creating a separate Southern state to counterbalance a Northern state. I still believe we would have been best served by out-competing China to champion a unified state, regardless of the Communist government it had at the time. I think this would have prevented the extremes that government ultimately had to resort to to overcome the obstacle of US intervention to prevent a unified Vietnam. We'll never know. The Mid 50s were a scary time for US foreign policy, and I appreciate why men like Lansdale and Phillips pushed for what they did. I just don't think it was the right thing, and that blaming ultimate failure of such approaches on the tactics that were later applied to secure an unsustainable condition is to me missing the main point.
Bob
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