Diplomats at War

Friendship and Betrayal on the Brink of the Vietnam Conflict

Charles Trueheart

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Hardback

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English

University of Virginia Press
31 March 2024

History; History of the Americas; Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000; Diplomacy

Series: Miller Center Studies on the Presidency

For two Americans in Saigon in 1963, the personal and the political combine to spark the drama of a lifetime

Before it spread into a tragic war that defined a generation, the conflict in Vietnam smoldered as a guerrilla insurgency and a diplomatic nightmare. Into this volatile country stepped Frederick “Fritz” Nolting, the US ambassador, and his second-in-command, William “Bill” Trueheart, immortalized in David Halberstam’s landmark work The Best and the Brightest and accidental players in a pivotal juncture in modern US history.

Diplomats at War is a personal memoir by former Washington Post reporter Charles Trueheart—Bill’s son and Nolting’s godson—who grew up amid the events that traumatized two families and an entire nation. The book embeds the reader at the US embassy and dissects the fateful rift between Nolting and Trueheart over their divergent assessments of the South Vietnamese regime under Ngo Dinh Diem, who would ultimately be assassinated in a coup backed by the United States. Charles Trueheart retells the story of the United States’ headlong plunge into war from an entirely new vantage point—that of a son piecing together how his father and godfather participated in, and were deeply damaged by, this historic flashpoint. Their critical rupture, which also destroyed their close friendship, contains the kernel of how the United States became inextricably embroiled in the Vietnam conflict.

By: Charles Trueheart
Imprint: University of Virginia Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 32mm
Weight: 272g
ISBN: 9780813951287
ISBN 10: 0813951283
Series: Miller Center Studies on the Presidency
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 31 March 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Charles Trueheart is a former foreign correspondent of the Washington Post, a former Associate Director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard, and a former Director of the American Library in Paris.

Reviews for Diplomats at War: Friendship and Betrayal on the Brink of the Vietnam Conflict

“An engaging narrative, an evocative memoir, and an important contribution to understanding a critical moment in America’s descent into the quagmire.”— Anthony Lake, former US National Security Advisor