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Vietnam remains, possibly even more than Iraq, the foremost example of U.S., foreign policy gone disastrously wrong. To a large extent, Vietnam defined politics at home and abroad for the next half-century. For this week’s podcast we spoke with Brian VanDeMark, a professor of history at the United States Naval Academy and an eminent Vietnam historian, to discuss his new book Road to Disaster — a forensic history of the decision-making and psychology of U.S. leaders before, during, and after the war. VanDeMark argues that insights from cognitive science are necessary for policy to be truly strategic.