Operation Vulture

Here is the shocking and true story of "Operation Vulture," a plan designed by President Eisenhower and his top advisors that came within a hairsbreadth of implementation. It was designed to aid the French who were losing a crucial battle at Dien Bien Phu in their long and frustrating war with the Vietnamese nationalists in Indochina. Operation Vulture provided for major U.S. involvement in Vietnam a decade earlier than it acually happened-specifically through heavy bombing missions up to and including the use of atomic bombs, large-scale commitment of ground troops, and probable war with the People's Republic of China. Using de-classified government documents, John Prados recreates a series of frantic meetings and confrontations among the most famous cold-warriors. Prados shows precisely how immediate U.S. intervention was narrowly averted-to the astonishment of the French-but proves that the formulation of "Vulture" led our government to take unprecedented steps that led inexorably to the United States' own Vietnam War.