Tucker's Last Stand
-
- £13.99
-
- £13.99
Publisher Description
The year is 1964. Lyndon Baines Johnson and Barry Goldwater are vying for the presidency, and CIA master spy Blackford Oakes has been sent to South Vietnam to halt its infiltration by men and materiel coming down the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Working out of Saigon with Tucker Montana, a shadowy Texan who designs a brilliant system for breaking the North's supply route, Blackford Oakes is caught up in the ambiguity and confusion generated as America's involvement in the conflict escalates. As Tucker's murky past, his torrid romance with the seductive Lao Dai, and the growing menace of global war come into focus, Oakes—and Tucker—find their loyalty called into question. Both men are forced to make a decisive move that will have consequences neither man can foresee.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Occupied more by politics than adventure, Buckley builds his ninth Blackford Oakes tale ( Mongoose, R.I.P ) around the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution passed by Congress a few months prior to the 1964 U.S. presidential election. CIA operative Blackie and an Army special projects major named Tucker Montana meet in Vietnam, where Tucker's assignment is to stall the movement of troops and materiel down the Ho Chi Minh Trail and Blackie must stop similar shipments in the Gulf. Tucker, a priapic engineer who worked at Los Alamos, devises a brilliant plan, while Blackie outfits junks with radar to detect hidden cargoes. Meanwhile, back home, candidates Goldwater and Johnson spar, with Johnson eager to use the conflict in Southeast Asia to his own ends--resulting in clandestine maneuvers in the Gulf that leave even the patriotic Blackie feeling dirty. As Tucker's involvement with a beautiful NVA spy leads to its inevitable end, Blackie beds some local talent and converses archly in overseas phone calls with his recently widowed true love, Sally. A few sex scenes, a remarkable scenario at sea and fascinating glimpses of such Capitol figures as Abe Fortas, the Bundys and Robert Kennedy are ingredients in a story most memorable for the questions it raises about a still-troubling episode in our political history.
