Pre-Event Reception at 5:30 p.m.
OLD LYME — On Thursday, March 27, at 6 p.m., the Southeast Connecticut World Affairs Council (SECWAC) hosts a conversation titled, Diplomats at War: Friendship and Betrayal on the Brink of the Vietnam Conflict. It will take place between Charles Trueheart, former Washington Post reporter and author, and journalist, author and Yale Law School lecturer Lincoln Caplan.
Before it spread into a tragic war that defined a generation, the conflict in Vietnam smoldered as a guerrilla insurgency and a diplomatic nightmare.
Into this volatile country stepped Frederick “Fritz” Nolting, the US ambassador, and his second-in-command, William “Bill” Trueheart, immortalized in David Halberstam’s landmark work The Best and the Brightest and accidental players in a pivotal juncture in modern US history.
Diplomats at War is a personal memoir by former Washington Post reporter Charles Trueheart—Bill’s son and Nolting’s godson—who grew up amid the events that traumatized two families and an entire nation.
The book embeds the reader at the US embassy and dissects the fateful rift between Nolting and Trueheart over their divergent assessments of the South Vietnamese regime under Ngo Dinh Diem, who would ultimately be assassinated in a coup backed by the United States.
Charles Trueheart retells the story of the United States’ headlong plunge into war from an entirely new vantage point—that of a son piecing together how his father and godfather participated in, and were deeply damaged by, this historic flashpoint.
Their critical rupture, which also destroyed their close friendship, served as a dramatic preface to the United States’ disastrous involvement in the Vietnam conflict.
Trueheart has enjoyed a distinguished career as a journalist and nonprofit leader before penning Diplomats at War. He spent15 years as a correspondent for The Washington Post, covering a wide array of topics including major European political and cultural events, and interviewing literary giants like Graham Greene and John Updike.
Trueheart also served as the director of the American Library in Paris for a decade, where he founded the American Library in Paris Book Award.
His background includes roles such as the associate director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard and a counselor and speechwriter for the US ambassador to France.
Throughout his career, Trueheart has contributed essays and book reviews to prominent publications like The Atlantic Monthly and The American Scholar.
Visit this link for more information about Charles Trueheart.
Visit this link for more information about Lincoln Caplan.
The event will be held at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme. It will be preceded by a reception at 5:30 p.m.
SECWAC members are free. Non-Member in-person attendance is $20. Non-Member Visit this link to register.
For more information on SECWAC, visit their website.
Leave a Reply