ON NOVEMBER 2, 1953, VICE president Nixon found himself riding shotgun in a green military troop transport, enduring bone-rattling bumps as the truck ground its way along a rutted path in the dank jungle of southern Vietnam. Alongside the vice president’s vehicle, French and Vietnamese soldiers carried their weapons on their hips and periodically unleashed bursts of gunfire into the jungle undergrowth at unseen enemy targets. Suddenly a few mortars landed close by and live rounds sizzled overhead. But this was only an exercise.
