Does a remarkably great and sweeping job of describing the deepest delusions of the Vietnam War and how they fractally multiplied out as successive commanders attempted to do the impossible. Hard to not think the decadent Americans and their lapdogs had it coming.

Anchoring it around Vann is a handy measure to skip over chunks of the war and focus his attention, but all the biographical stuff pales in comparison to the Vietnam material. Sheehan even overreaches when he starts talking about the psycho-geography of the south and how that set Vann’s mind. It is handy, though, to see just how venal and spoiled even this workaholic could be. The opening mirrors Lawrence of Arabia, and the overall arc isn’t far off.