Logevall’s definitive history of the French war in Indochina, 1946-1954, casts new light on how the United States failed to learn the lessons from France’s tragic attempt to hold on to its colonies of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam in the aftermath of World War II. The postwar lessons ignored or misunderstood reverberate to this day in U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria.
Logevall documents how, from the Truman Administration on, a succession of French and U.S. leaders made catastrophic policy choices that claimed the lives of 3.4 million Vietnamese, 90,000 French and 58,000 Americans in a 30-year conflict that has been called the most mysterious of American wars.
Critics have praised the Pulitzer-winning Embers of War as “a magisterial achievement,” “the story of how the American statesmen of the period allowed this country to be drawn into the quagmire.” Logevall is John S. Knight Professor of International Studies and professor of history at Cornell University.
Mann covered foreign affairs at the White House from 1982 to 2002, spanning four presidents, from Reagan to George W. Bush.