For many in the American Library in Paris community, Charles Trueheart requires no introduction. Trueheart was the Director of the American Library from 2007 to 2017, during which time he oversaw remarkable growth and evolution at our beloved institution. He continues his service to the American Library as a member of the Board of Trustees.
Trueheart has recently published a memoir about his family’s involvement in American political history, specifically the Vietnam War. His godfather was Frederick “Fritz” Nolting, the US ambassador to South Vietnam from 1961 to 1963, and his father was William Trueheart, Nolting’s second-in-command. Nolting and William Trueheart were close friends for many years, but their friendship was torn apart by the war that went on to traumatize the populations of both the US and Vietnam for generations. In Diplomats at War, Trueheart draws from personal memory, family records, and his decades of experience as a political reporter to contemplate the breakdown of a friendship alongside the story of the US’s involvement in Vietnam.
About the speaker:
Charles Trueheart was director of the American Library in Paris from 2007 to 2017. Most of his earlier career was in journalism, including fifteen years at the Washington Post, first covering book publishing and literary topics, then as a correspondent in Canada and France. Before joining the Post, Trueheart was associate director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard University and director of the Kennedy School of Government’s Public Affairs Forum. His writing has appeared in the Atlantic Monthly and the American Scholar, where he is a contributing editor. His book on Vietnam during the Kennedy years, Diplomats at War, was released in February 2024. Trueheart was educated at Exeter and Amherst. He and his wife, Anne Swardson, live in Paris and Staunton, Virginia.
