Talk:Edward Lansdale

Jean Paul von Vann

I dunno who he is, and if *I* don't, hehe, I doubt if many other CZ readers would either. I suggest that you rephrase the lede to say, "The celebrated stripteaser and child actor John Paul Vanne, once said etc...." Hayford Peirce 22:29, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Point taken and expanded, but there is always the Vann bluelink -- not that I have, by any means, finished the Vann article. One eats an elephant one bite at a time, and Vietnam has elephants (well, Thailand does, anyway, and what's a border to an elephant?)

One of the asides is that while there were very good conventional military people, there were also the shadow warriors like Lansdale and Conein, and the military eccentrics like Vann and Hackworth. How to catch the color?

"Eccentric" isn't quite the word I want, but I want to capture the flavor of complex characters, sometimes with flaws worthy of Greek tragedy. British officers of this sort included T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia"), Orde Wingate, and Richard Meinertzhagen. Earlier Americans with this mad streak included Earl Ellis, maybe U.S. Grant, and Nathan Bedford Forrest.Howard C. Berkowitz 22:44, 28 November 2008 (UTC)