"The Funeral" Summary

A Bright Shining Lie opened with the funeral of John Paul Vann on June 16, 1972. Outside the chapel at Arlington, six gray horses were hitched to a caisson that would carry the coffin to the grave. Vann was a war hero who died in Vietnam several years after retiring from the Army. Vann believed that he knew how to win the war in Vietnam and was determined to do so for the people of South Vietnam. However, his supervisors did not appreciate Vann's zealous approach to attaining their attention, and he was forced to retire. Retirement did not keep Vann from the strategies and the fight he believed in so deeply. For the next seven years, Vann rose in the hierarchy of this company until he found himself in a position to advise generals in both the American and South...