The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam

by Max Boot

YET THE schism between the sanctioned diplomats of the Establishment and the new guild of covert operatives intent on saving “Western freedom from Communist darkness” continued to widen. Despite the support of Dulles and Spruance, Lansdale still complained of “sniping at me (verbally) by several folks at our Embassy to whom I am somewhat lower than a skunk.”50 Major General Albert Pierson did more than just snipe. He insisted that Lansdale’s continued presence in JUSMAG was an embarrassment and a violation of the embassy’s decree that U.S. personnel stay neutral in the election. (Spruance, who knew and approved of Lansdale’s behind-the-scenes machinations, had issued a disingenuous “warning” on March 13, 1953, to “all Americans resident here to refrain scrupulously from any kind of participation in the election.”)51 Pierson was not able to expel Lansdale from the country any more than Quirino could. But he did manage to expel Lansdale from JUSMAG’s organizational chart and its housing compound. Lansdale would soon get his revenge; his complaints to Allen Dulles contributed to Pierson’s dismissal and replacement in August 1953 by another general, Robert M. Cannon, who was more accommodating.