A shocking history of the politics and personalities behind one of America’s gravest foreign policy blunders.
An in-depth examination of the Kennedy administration’s role in the 1963 coup overthrowing the president of South Vietnam.
Ngo Dinh Diem, along with his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, ran South Vietnam in near-dictatorial style after becoming president in 1955. Cheevers, author of Act of War: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo, writes that Diem “used police-state methods to control his people; routinely ignored U.S. advice intended to make his government more effective; meddled in his army’s operations for political reasons; and was congenitally unable to delegate authority (to the point that he personally reviewed passport applications).” Meanwhile, communist insurgents—the Viet Cong—aided by North Vietnam, were gaining ground in their war against the government. Diem’s domestic problems were almost worse. In May 1963, police massacred Buddhists protesting repressive measures by the regime. In response, a monk publicly burned himself to death. Until then, John F. Kennedy had paid only intermittent attention to Vietnam, and his advisers were seriously divided in their opinion of Diem and Nhu. But news photos of the burning monk convinced him that Vietnam was going to be trouble. In August, State Department intelligence chief Roger Hilsman drafted a message—later known as “the green light cable”—advising newly appointed Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge that Washington wouldn’t oppose a coup. Kennedy, on vacation, OKed the memo with little input from other advisers. On Nov. 2, a clique of generals stormed the palace, capturing and killing Diem and Nhu. Three weeks later, Kennedy himself was dead, and the real disaster of Vietnam was underway. Cheevers’ impressive research underpins his story with quotes from dozens of officials, military personnel, and journalists. “American support for toppling Diem,” Cheevers concludes,” originated not with Kennedy, but with Hilsman, a third-tier State Department bureaucrat who, with his green light cable, commandeered the president’s Vietnam policy and enmeshed the United States in the generals’ conspiracy. JFK recognized the cable as a mistake, but never overrode it.”
A shocking history of the politics and personalities behind one of America’s gravest foreign policy blunders.Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2026
ISBN: 9781668082409
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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