Honest mistakes

the long version

"Villian of Graham Green's The Quiet American and hero of Edward G. Lansdale's In The Midst of Wars, dissident General Trinh Minh Thae (1922-1955) skyrocketed to prominence as a leader of a "private army." But his violent death remains a historical mystery and Trinh Minh Thae arguably dropped into oblivion. This book endeavors to examine many questions such as whether Trinh Minh Thae was an uniformed hoodlum or a national leader in the making, and did he really die in a street skirmish or fell victim to conspiracy? The importance of the book springs out of the author's enthusiasm for the subject and his belief that the crisis of April 1955 came as a pivotal point in the history of Vietnam. In order to elucidate the origins and nature of Trinh Minh Thae's army, their role in the fighting of Saigon in the spring of 1955, and implications of Thae's tragic death, a thorough study was undertaken. A complex story full of complicated characters is delivered, sometimes bordering a non-fiction version of Greene's The Quiet American."--BOOK JACKET.