But it is no exaggeration to suggest that the whole conflict, the worst military defeat in American history, might have taken a very different course—one that was less costly and potentially more successful—if the counsel of this CIA operative and Air Force officer had been followed. Who was this singular visionary, this unhonored strategist, this sidelined adviser who wanted to follow, as Robert Frost put it, the road not taken? His name was Edward Geary Lansdale.
