Description: "In his comprehensive examination of Walt Rostow's role in Vietnam decision making, David Milne adds a valuable and nuanced perspective on the questions of how and why Vietnam became an American war and what went wrong there. America's Rasputin is a well researched and critical yet sensitive treatment of an exceptional man who wielded significant influence in the Lyndon Johnson Administration during a critical phase of the Vietnam War." -H.R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam "America's Rasputin is a splendid book, beautifully written, persuasively argued, and deeply researched. Milne's cautionary tale of ideas and idealism taken to their extremes is as historically important as it is currently relevant. Our understanding of the Vietnam War-and of American foreign policy in general-is greatly enhanced by this book." -Andrew Preston, author of The War Council "David Milne has given us an absorbing history of the rise to power of Walt Rostow and his disastrous impact on US foreign policy. The first civilian to advise Kennedy to deploy combat troops to South Vietnam and the first to urge bombing the North, Rostow was a true ideologue who believed an American version of democracy could be exported to other countries-if necessary by force. An American Rasputin-as Averrell Harriman described him-who refused to admit the limits of American power, Rostow helped bring about the worst military defeat in American history. The parallels with the present time-when America faces an even worse disaster in Iraq-are clear. A book that vividly illuminates the dangers of ideology in foreign policy, America's Rasputin could not be more timely." -John Gray, author of Black Mass "Insightful . . .Milne skillfully demonstrates that Rostow had very little understanding of Southeast Asian political or cultural history, and was analytically deficient in perceiving the conflict as a nationalist civil war first . . . Milne's prose is very readable, and absent of jargon. He takes what could be a complicated subject, and presents it clearly. The work is well documented . . . America's Rasputin belongs on the shelf of all university libraries, as well as any scholar or instructor of the period, especially those who teach the Vietnam War." -Richard Verrone, H-Net Reviews "Well written, meticulously researched, and robustly argued . . . America's Rasputin is a signal achievement. Henceforth, it will serve as the starting point for all wishing to do additional study on this man and the Vietnam War, particularly in relation to the air war against North Vietnam." -John M. Carland, The Journal of Military History

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