Little wonder that the New York Times wrote that Landale had “made a rather legendary reputation in Asia in the nineteen-fifties.”14 Stanley Karnow of the Washington Post wrote that, like T. E. Lawrence, “Lansdale has inspired admiration, ridicule—and, above all, controversy.” He quoted “one U.S. official” as saying, “If he doesn’t produce a miracle, his friends will be disappointed and his enemies delighted.”15 When Lansdale landed at Tan Son Nhut Airport, wearing
