Frank Leith Jones, Blowtorch: Robert Komer, Vietnam, and American Cold War Strategy (Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2013)   Robert W. Komer is probably best remembered today as the principal architect of the Johnson administration’s pacification campaign in South Vietnam, the so-called “other war.” Komer—whose abrasive personality, constantly blazing tobacco pipe, and ability to motivate … Continue reading Blowtorch Bob: An Instrument of the Cold War State