Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann was a hero and a renegade, a brilliant, dynamic man full of contradictions. He was a warrior who worked hard for peace. He was a career militarist who shared confidential information with journalists who were critical of the war. He was an officer who resigned from the Army in 1964, only to return in 1965 as a civilian who was given the unprecedented designation of General and even led combat troops. His maverick ways made Vann a controversial and unpopular figure to a military mired in institutional delusion and unwilling to listen to an officer who understood his enemy and believed he knew how to win the war.