Turning Points, Ambassador Thomas J. Corcoran
Turning Points, Ambassador Thomas J. Corcoran
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Turning Points
The Role of the State Department in Vietnam (1945–75)

Author: Ambassador Thomas J. Corcoran, Col. Andrew R. Finlayson (USMC Ret.), Stephen Sherman

Narrator: Joel Richards

Unabridged: 9 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 02/20/2024


Synopsis

Details how the US State Department attempted, and failed, to save South Vietnam from North Vietnamese aggression and the powerful domestic political influences that ultimately led to America's defeat.

Ten years after the end of the American involvement in the Vietnam War, a career Foreign Service officer, Thomas J. Corcoran, set down in writing his thoughts on the history of US State Department policy during America's involvement with South Vietnam. Like many Americans of his generation, he was perplexed by the failure of America to achieve its goals in South Vietnam. As an ambassador and with over thirty years of diplomatic experience—beginning in 1948 when he was assigned to Hanoi and involving other postings in Southeast Asia—he brought to his analysis a long and rich personal experience with events in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.

The result is a thoughtful, objective, and well-researched study that chronicles the key policy decisions made by the US State Department throughout the entire period from 1945 to 1975; decisions that ultimately led to the first war lost by the United States. In his extensive study, Corcoran does an excellent job of exposing many of the myths and falsehoods found in orthodox histories of US involvement in Vietnam.

About Ambassador Thomas J. Corcoran

Ambassador Thomas J. Corcoran began his foreign service career in 1948. His first assignments abroad were in Spain and then, in 1950 in Hanoi and Hue in Vietnam, which was then under French control. He became the Charge d'Affaires in Vientiane, Laos, and then Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 1952. He went back to Hanoi from the beginning of September 1954 until about December 12, 1955. He was there about fourteen months. He later served in Upper Volta, Haiti, and in Quebec, Canada, and again in Vietnam for several years. He was Charge d'Affaires ad interim (Laos) from August 1975 to March 1978 and he was ambassador to Burundi from 1978 until retiring from the State Department in 1980.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jake

This book provides a comprehensive and compelling analysis of British politics since 1945 and gets at the root of the reasons why the country has developed (or in many cases not developed!) in the way it has. Its analysis, particularly from 1979 onwards, is pretty much spot on in my opinion. The onl......more

Goodreads review by Ricky

Informative, but not very entertaining. Indeed, it was quite dull. I learned a fair amount about some interesting episodes in modern British history (especially the 70s oil crisis and Blair's downfall with Iraq), but it reads a bit like a college textbook.......more

Goodreads review by William

The distance of time makes it stronger on the early post-War years. Ultimately, he js correct that we are trapped with the social reforms of the 1960’s and the Thatcherite economics of 1979. Thatcher’s legacy looming larger and longer than Attlee’s. Presented with so many turning points and crises (......more

Goodreads review by Evelyn

Until now, I’ve thought of politics as a pendulum swinging from left to right and back again, with the left periodically being elected to mitigate the least compassionate of right wing policies. After reading this, I fear our politics is more like a backstitch leading inexorably to the right, the nee......more

Goodreads review by Joe

There can be few more knowledgeable guides to British politics than the veteran reporter Steve Richards. But his latest historical analysis, “Turning Points”, doesn’t quite match the verve and insight as his previous volume, “The Prime Ministers We Never Had”. This is because Richards’ choice of his......more