About the Author

Brian VanDeMark teaches history at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, where for more than twenty-five years he has educated students about the Vietnam War. A Ph.D. graduate of UCLA and an elected visiting fellow at Oxford University, he served as research assistant on Clark Clifford's bestselling autobiography, Counsel to the President, and coauthor of Robert McNamara's number one bestseller, In Retrospect. A Texas native, he now lives in Maryland.

Reviews

"This book is sure to appeal to those still searching for Vietnam War answers that even McNamara, Johnson, and their best and brightest advisers never found."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"[An] exceptional work....VanDeMark offers a valuable corrective to the Good Guys/Bad Guys theory of war making, and there's no doubt he knows his research. Will interest military history buffs and anyone still trying to understand America's most outstanding military fiasco."--Library Journal (starred review)
"Engrossing.... Absolutely first-rate."--USA Today (four stars)
"Why do smart people do stupid things? That is the tragic question at the heart of this brilliant exploration of American leaders and the Vietnam War."--Evan Thomas, author of Ike's Bluff, Robert Kennedy, and Being Nixon
"Original and thought provoking....The sense of introspection it provides adds poignancy to the records of meetings and field trips by U.S. civilian and military leaders, who never quite came to grips with the unfolding tragedy."--Foreign Affairs
"A monumental achievement....Brian VanDeMark shows that we still have much to learn about America's war in Vietnam. Road to Disaster is an excellent and accessible history of decision making in the Kennedy and Johnson years."--Robert K. Brigham, Vassar College, author of Reckless: Henry Kissinger and the Tragedy of Vietnam
"An immensely readable and richly informative book, the best study to date of those fateful years when the Kennedy and Johnson administrations Americanized the war in Vietnam."--George C. Herring, University of Kentucky, author of America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975
"Brian VanDeMark's Road to Disaster: A New History of America's Descent into Vietnam is a startling read, a book that puts America's leaders on the couch and analyzes the psychology behind the decisions that led us into an unwinnable war in Southeast Asia."--Military.com
"Monumental...a landmark... This is the book I've been waiting for -- a thorough and thoughtful history of what led to the war that shaped my life."--Washington Independent Review of Books
"The most thoughtful and judicious one-volume history of the war and the American political leaders who presided over the difficult and painful decisions that shaped this history. The book will stand for the foreseeable future as the best study of the tragic mistakes that led to so much suffering."--Robert Dallek, New York Times bestselling author of An Unfinished Life and Franklin D. Roosevelt