Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam (Hardcover)

"A compelling portrait of a man once serenely confident, searching decades later for self-understanding.... It offers insight into how Bundy, a man of surpassing skill and reputation, could have advised two presidents so badly. On the long shelf of Vietnam books, I know of nothing quite like it. The unfinished quality of Bundy’s self-inquest only enhances its power, authenticity and, yes, poignancy.... An extraordinary cautionary tale for all Americans."—Richard Holbrooke, The New York Times Book Review

"[Goldstein] painstakingly recounts his subject’s role as national security adviser and ponders the complexity of the elusive ‘inner Bundy’... surprising revelations."—Publishers Weekly

"Illuminate[s] the five years (1961-1966) during which the defense of South Vietnam was Americanized…. A strange yet fascinating book."—Newsweek

"Astute distillation of the essential lessons now-deceased national security adviser Bundy learned from Vietnam….an invaluable record of Bundy’s thoughts and actions during the war, as well as unusually candid commentary on his admitted failures in ‘perception, recommendation and execution.’… A significant then-and-now reassessment."—Kirkus Reviews

"No American who has lived through the Iraq experience will doubt how important it is for us to understand why and how American presidents take our country to war. Key to understanding how John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson took the nation into Vietnam is the story of McGeorge Bundy’s service to both men as national security adviser. Thanks to his many long and penetrating talks with Bundy, his assiduous study of the written record, and his mastery of the interplay among personality, politics, and national security strategy, Gordon Goldstein has brought us a dispassionate, powerful, and brilliant assessment of McGeorge Bundy’s performance during the years he was given his cardinal moment in history. Goldstein’s book helps us comprehend how Americans were led, step by step, into the abyss of Vietnam. It also provides crucial lessons for future presidents, members of Congress, and citizens as we grapple with the problems of where, when, and how to apply American power around the world."—Michael Beschloss

"A compelling and personally sympathetic appraisal of Bundy as a brilliant statesman but also as a fallible human being. Despite his remarkable intellect, Bundy ultimately failed to grasp the fundamental novelty of the historical challenge posed by a communism fanatically driven by nationalistic anticolonialist passions. In that context, presidential decision-making became increasingly focused on the imperatives of a local war and less on its damaging impact on America’s world role."—Zbigniew Brzezinski

"Thanks to Gordon Goldstein’s superb book, we have fresh evidence for judging between a facile mind and a wise one, and we can now assess more accurately the role of McGeorge Bundy in the Vietnam tragedy."—A. J. Langguth

"This meticulously researched book gives us remarkable insight into one of the most critical foreign policy decisions in U.S. history. Anyone aspiring to a leadership position in American politics or public policy should carefully examine this perceptive work and its many valuable lessons."—Warren B. Rudman, former U.S. senator (R–N.H.) and former chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board 

"Gordon Goldstein's Lessons in Disaster provides a close, careful look at Kennedy's mindset at the time of his assassination.... As the title suggests, this fast-paced, well-written book is organized around the abiding lessons of Vietnam. Barack Obama and his new foreign policy advisers should read it."—Mike Pride, Concord Monitor