A House Divided: The CIA, State, and a Coup in South Vietnam

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It's a dark moment in American history that leads to a lot of what-ifs. By the spring of 1963, eight years into the Vietnam War, two opposing factions across the CIA and the State Department had President John F. Kennedy's ear. One side wanted to keep South Vietnam's first president, Ngô Đình Diệm, in power. The other wanted to see him removed. Then, unrest in Saigon caught the CIA by surprise, and the rift in Washington grew deeper. Author Jack Cheevers spent a decade piecing together and writing Kennedy's Coup, which lays out the grave decision to oust Diem, a move that led to his death and, arguably, escalated the war. The first U.S. combat troops deployed two years later. Subscribe to…