Kennedy's Coup - by Jack Cheevers (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Combining the dark intrigue of a Cold War thriller and the propulsive writing of a novel, Kennedy's Coup is a landmark work that will change your understanding of America's involvement in one of the most controversial and consequential wars in our history.

Based on a decade of research and writing, enriched by eyewitness interviews and revealing documents obtained through dozens of freedom of information requests, Kennedy's Coup vividly recreates the Kennedy Administration's secret encouragement of the fatal 1963 military coup against South Vietnam's defiant president.

The brutal assassination of Ngo Dinh Diem by his own generals--which capped weeks of bitter White House infighting amid JFK's wavering--led to dreadful consequences for the United States, opening the door to nine years of costly and futile warfare in Vietnam. A meticulous researcher and fluid writer, Jack Cheevers etches unforgettable portraits of the people behind this fascinating drama: the kindly, philosophy-loving American ambassador who tried to save Diem; the powerful Pentagon and State Department figures who battled for JFK's ear; the hard-driving young American journalists in Saigon who braved police beatings and death threats to dig out the story; the adder-tongued Madame Nhu, Diem's beautiful sister-in-law, who enraged critics with outrageous insults; the scheming South Vietnamese generals who slowly tightened a noose around their commander in chief; the hard-drinking CIA agent who carried secret US messages to the generals; and Diem and his Machiavellian brother Nhu, head of the feared secret police, who tried but failed to outwit both the Americans and their traitorous generals.

While many Vietnam books mention Diem's murder in passing, this gripping account delves into the participants' personalities, motives, and actions in greater detail than ever before. The definitive history of one of the most catastrophic decisions ever made by a US president, shedding new light on events that altered the world, Kennedy's Coup will be a work of lasting importance.

Review Quotes

"Cheevers finally gives the coup the detailed attention it deserves. This is the creation story, or birth, of the worst American foreign-policy disaster of the 20th century, a war that produced enduring American social and cultural fissures."
-Air Mail

"Cheevers' immense contribution here is to show how power dynamics in war work, how the Cold War mentality ate the brains of our best and brightest. "
-Responsible Statecraft

"A very gripping story about one of the most momentous events of the Vietnam era."
-Michael Isikoff, award-winning investigative journalist

"A shocking history of the politics and personalities behind one of America's gravest foreign policy blunders."
-Kirkus Reviews

"Fascinatingly detailed... The text reads like an adventure novel, and readers will be drawn in. This work is significant and certainly belongs in every academic library, as well as most other libraries."
-Library Journal, Starred Review

"In a paradigm-shifting work of vast research and scholarship, veteran political reporter Cheevers summarily chronicles the failed U.S. mission in Vietnam from perspectives that are both broad and narrow, recounting with precision and nuance the complete specter of confusion, chaos, and destruction."
-Booklist, Starred Review

"Persuasive political history... a consistently gripping narrative that reads like an espionage novel. This sheds new light on a well-covered historical moment."
-Publishers Weekly

"Intriguing...first-rate history."
-Independent on Sunday (Ireland)

"Jack Cheevers has done the seemingly impossible: By mining newly declassified documents, memoirs (including unpublished works), and interviews with participants, he has uncovered new information about this epochal event. In the process he has crafted a crackling historical narrative about one of the pivotal events of the 20th century."
-Max Boot, author of Reagan: His Life and Legend and The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam

"The importance of what Jack Cheevers does in this book cannot be overestimated. He presents the first inside account of President John F. Kennedy's role in the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem, considered America's "Miracle Man" by Life magazine only a few years earlier. Cheevers explains in detail for the first time one of the most important and secret chapters in America's war in Vietnam and Kennedy's involvement in it."
-Christopher Goscha, Professor of International Relations, Université du Québec à Montréal, author of The Road to Dien Bien Phu: A History of the First War for Vietnam and Vietnam: A New History

"Jack Cheevers's Kennedy's Coup combines impeccable research and elegant writing. Cheevers sheds fresh light on an important turning point in America's war in Vietnam through a tale well-told that combines fascinating characters, intrigue, and the fates of nations."
-H.R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam

"From its first words to its haunting conclusion, set in the twilight of the turbulent 1960s, Cheevers's book captures the heat of the action... a remarkable feat of research... indispensable."
-National Review

"Rich in detail and depth... genuinely engrossing... The book is an exceptional piece of historical journalism. Kennedy's Coup is carefully researched and compellingly written. It well deserves a read."
-The Cipher Brief

"Deeply researched and clearly written... a valuable, detailed history of the (Diem) assassination and its impact on the earth-shattering events that would follow for the next twelve years in Vietnam."
-The VVA Veteran Online

About the Author

Jack Cheevers is the author of Act of War: Lyndon Johnson, North Korea, and the Capture of the Spy Ship Pueblo, winner of the 2014 Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature. He worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for twenty-seven years, including stints at the Los Angeles Times, Oakland Tribune, and the Associated Press and United Press International bureaus in San Francisco. A Massachusetts native, he is a proud graduate of the University of California at Berkeley. He lives on a pond in New Hampshire.