Editing Edward Lansdale (section)

==Later Life and Legacy== 
After retiring, Lansdale settled in McLean, Virginia, writing *In the Midst of Wars*, which romanticized his career but drew criticism for inaccuracies, as noted by historian Edward Miller.  He lectured on counterinsurgency, consulted for the Nixon administration, and worked as a civilian analyst for the RAND Corporation. Lansdale’s health declined in the 1980s due to heart issues, and he died of a heart attack on February 23, 1987, in Alexandria, Virginia, at age 79. He was buried at **Arlington National Cemetery**, survived by Helen and their sons.

Lansdale’s legacy is complex. Celebrated as the “father of counterinsurgency,” his Philippine success inspired U.S. policy, earning him the **National Security Medal** (1960). However, his Vietnam failures, chronicled in *The Quiet American* by Graham Greene (a fictionalized Lansdale as Alden Pyle), highlighted the limits of his approach against determined insurgencies. His methods, blending propaganda, civic action, and covert operations, influenced modern counterinsurgency but were criticized for enabling authoritarian regimes, per *The Road Not Taken* by Max Boot.