Succinct history of a frustrating war that raised several painful
issues America's leaders are now encountering for a second
time.Lawrence (History/Univ. of Texas; Assuming the Burden: Europe
and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam, 2005) enjoyed access
to Soviet archives and North Vietnamese participants, so he
presents more information than was available 30 years ago - but
it's still largely an American show. After a bloody victory over
the French in 1954, charismatic Viet Minh leader Ho Chi Minh
vehemently opposed the treaty that divided Vietnam in half, on the
grounds that he had won the whole. It was Russia and China,
preoccupied with their own problems and unwilling to provoke the
United States, who twisted Ho's arm, the author reveals.
Ironically, American leaders also opposed the treaty because it
involved a compromise with communism, something they vowed never to
do. Keeping South Vietnam independent, U.S. authorities agreed,
required a capable South Vietnamese army led by a competent
government that enjoyed popular support. In less than 200 pages,
Lawrence records America's 20-year failure to accomplish this. The
author spends little time on the actual fighting but makes clear
the immense destruction U.S. firepower inflicted on insurgent
forces, North Vietnamese troops and North Vietnam itself, as well
as the civilian population on both sides. He excels in describing
Lyndon Johnson and then Nixon and Kissinger desperately struggling
to find an acceptable excuse to withdraw. In a justification that
contemporary readers will find familiar, all three repeatedly
asserted that retreating without victory would shame us before the
world and embolden our enemies. The author points out that the
opposite happened. America's popularity plunged the longer we
fought and recovered afterward. Neither North Vietnam nor communism
prospered following our withdrawal.A pithy and compelling account
of an intensely relevant topic. (Kirkus Reviews)
The Vietnam War remains a topic of extraordinary interest,
especially in light of the invasion of Iraq. In The Vietnam War,
Mark Lawrence offers readers a superb short account of this key
moment in U.S. as well as world history, based on the latest
European and American research and on newly opened archives in
China, Russia, and Vietnam. While focusing on the American
involvement from 1965 to 1975, Lawrence offers an unprecedentedly
complete picture of all sides of the war, drawing on now available
communist records to capture the complicated brew of motivations
that drove the other side. Moreover, the book reaches back well
before American forces set foot in Vietnam, describing for instance
how French colonialism sparked the 1945 Vietnamese revolution, and
revealing how the Cold War concerns of the 1950s warped
Washington's perception of Vietnam, leading the United States to
back the French and eventually become involved on the ground
itself. Of course, the heart of the book is the "American war,"
ranging from the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem to the impact of the
Tet Offensive on the political situation in the US, Johnson's
withdrawal from the 1968 presidential race, Nixon's expansion of
the war into Cambodia and Laos, and the final peace agreement of
1973, which ended American military involvement. Finally, the book
examines the aftermath of the war, from the momentous
liberalization-"Doi Moi"-in Vietnam that began in 1986, to the
enduring legacy of the war in American books, films, and political
debate. A quick and reliable primer on an intensely relevant topic,
this well researched and engaging volume offers an invaluable
overview of the Vietnam War.
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