Book 2, "Antecedents to a Confrontation" Summary

Edward Lansdale was sent to Vietnam in June of 1954. The Vietnamese war for independence from the French had just ended with the French agreement to pull out. Lansdale had just completed a mission in the Philippines, in which he secured the presidency for Magsaysay, an American supported politician. Lansdale's superiors thought his work in the Philippines was a miracle and wanted him to work the same magic in Vietnam. The CIA encouraged Bao Dai, the recognized emperor of Vietnam, to offer Diem the prime ministership from his exile on the Riviera. Diem was the best choice from the Americans' point of view, a good Catholic and a man with impeccable anticommunist credentials. The list had been short.

Lansdale also organized Operation Exodus, a mass evacuation of more than 900,000 refugees from North Vietnam to...