A Bright Shining Lie

A Bright Shining Lie-sixteen years in the making is a monumental account of Vietnam by a prizewinning journalist who was there.

A Bright Shining Lie melds biography and history in a masterly way to tell the story of Lt. Col. John Paul Vann, a soldier cast in the American hero mold, the closest the United States came in Vietnam to a Lawrence of Arabia. And, like Lawrence, he was a complicated man with a dark secret that haunted his career.

Outspoken professionally and fearless, Vann went to Vietnam in 1962, full of confidence in America's might and right to prevail. When he was killed there in 1972, he was mourned at Arlington by renowned figures across the politi- cal spectrum, from Daniel Ellsberg to General William Westmoreland.

A Bright Shining Lie reveals the truth of the war in Vietnam as it unfolded before the eyes of John Paul Vann: the arrogance and professional corruption of the U.S. military system of the 1960s, the incompetence and venality of the South Vietnamese Army; the nightmare of death and destruction that began with the arrival of the American forces.