War Comes to Long An: Back Story to the Writing of a Military Classic

In 1965, Jeffrey Race was the most junior Second Lieutenant in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge, then in the '70s and 80s served on high-level U.S. Army and Defense Department staffs, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. Later, he worked as a university professor and consultant to the Government, industry, and international organizations. His teaching and research have focused on political economy, the link between technology and political and social change, pathologies of policy-making, and human and institutional conflict. He has published extensively on these subjects in the press and in academic journals. In 2004, he testified at the Washington Free Trade Agreement hearings on the rule of law in Thailand. Race's 1972 book, 𝘞𝘢𝘳 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘯, recently republished in an expanded edition after 40 years in print, is considered the canonical analysis of why the U.S. effort in Vietnam turned out so badly. On the Army Chief of Staff's reading list, its insights into human behavior have inspired diverse work by many others, including two books, 𝘈𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘝𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 by John D. Caldwell (comparative examination of four successful and failed American Wars) and 𝘞𝘢𝘳 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘎𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘴𝘦𝘳 by Carter Malkasian (an Afghanistan province study). 𝗛𝗶𝘀 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆. Race is a Life Senior Member of The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and founded a high-tech firm in the telecommunications field to manufacture electronic products he designs. He grew up in New England, was educated at Harvard University, and then lived in Asia for 45 years. In 2012, he returned to harvard to begin a project on pathologies of public decision-making, of the kind leading to the Vietnam War outcome and to more recent catastrophes in the areas of American national security and economic policy. Aside from his professional work, Race is a student of many languages, volunteers in several education and spiritual activities in Asia and in the U.S., and is keen on physical fitness. He became an avid marathon runner at the age of 67. 𝗩𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗵 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗷𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗿𝗲𝘆𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲.𝗰𝗼𝗺.

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