inexperienced, he brings to the job a keen intelligence and a rich sense of adventure.   He soon becomes involved with one of the most beautiful Vietnamese women. Unforgettably depicted are scores of characters -- ambitious journalists, Saigon bargirls, diplomats, clandestine agents, a disenchanted general, a Catholic bishop, Buddhist monks, the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and one truly unforgettable Southern belle. This important novel demonstrates brilliantly how and why the United States engineered the 1963 coup that overthrew the South Vietnamese government and resulted in the assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother. These actions irrevocably enmeshed us in a situation from which there was no turning back. They led to a full scale war that should never have been fought the way it was, a war that reshaped American, Asian, and world history.

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