In 1968, at the peak of the Vietnam War, Congressman Melvin Laird agreed to serve as Richard Nixon's secretary of defense. Lampooned as a ""missile head,"" but decisive in crafting an exit strategy, he pursued his program of Vietnamization. This biography reveals his role in managing the crisis of national identity sparked by the Vietnam War.

This authorized biography reveals Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird's central and often unrecognized role in managing the crisis of national identity sparked by the Vietnam War--and the challenges, ethical and political, that confronted him along the way.