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A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam-Neil Sheehan
Sixteen years in the making this book is a monumental account of Vietnam by a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who was there -- melding biography and history in a masterly way to tell the story of Lt.-Col. John Paul Vann, a soldier cast in the American hero mold; the closest the U.S. came in Vietnam to a Lawrence of Arabia. And, like Lawrence, he was a complicated man with a dark secret that haunted his career. Outspoken professionally and fearless, Vann went to Vietnam in 1962, full of confidence in America's might and right to prevail. When he was killed in 1972, he was mourned at Arlington by renowned figures across the political spectrum, from Daniel Ellsberg to General William Westmoreland. The book reveals the truth of the war in Vietnam as it unfolded before the eyes of John Paul Vann: the arrogance and professional corruption of the U.S. military system of the 1960s; the incompetence and venality of the South Vietnamese Army; the nightmare of death and destruction that began with the arrival of the American forces. In the early years, Vann spoke out against the brutality and ineffectiveness of the U.S. strategy. His superiors refused to listen and, frustrated and angry -- and dogged by his shameful secret -- Vann left the army that he loved. He returned to Vietnam in 1965 as a civilian worker in the pacification program and rose to become the first American civilian to wield a general's command in war. Winner of the 1988 National Book Award for nonfiction. 861pp. Large/heavy. HARDCOVER with pictorial dustjacket. Clean and unmarked pages throughout, binding tight appears lightly read. FINE/FINE.
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6.
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City in History: Its Origins, Its Transformations, and Its Prospects-Lewis Mumford
This magnificent and vitally important book by the master of the study of urban culture opens with a city that was a world and closes with a world that, potentially, has become a city. It reinterprets the origins of the city on the basis of newly discovered evidence about early man, and move through succeeding urban cultures--Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, the medieval cities and monasteries, the rising industrial centers, concluding with the tumultuous modern period of nuclear power. It is an engrossing story of the past and the troubled present; it is also a prophecy for the future---of the city and of human civilization, threatened as it is by wholesale destruction from both within and without. Winner of the 1962 National Book Award. 657pp. Binding is black cloth on boards, black lettering on red block on spine. Overize fine hardcover with very good dustjacket. Original price unclipped.
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