The Vietnam War: An International History in Documents

I grew up with the words "From Saigon" on the evening news. I was 25 when Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese. I realized recently, that I knew nothing about the War in Vietnam other than the media presentation at the time. I started looking for a reasonably short, readable history of the war that did not project someone's political agenda. This book filled that need. The author did not editorialize much (refreshing in today's journalistic world where fact and opinion get blurred by writers). It did not answer the big question for me: why did 58,000 American troops have to die in Vietnam? Of course, that would be a matter of opinion. It did provide perspective about the world events that surrounded the war and put it into context for me. I would recommend it to anyone looking for some knowledge of this war that so changed the landscape of US politics.

This book will be of great service for laypeople interested in a concise and wide-ranging overview of the Vietnam War. In fact, it would also be a good, safe choice for college history instructors looking for a short text to use in undergraduate classes on the Vietnam War or U.S. foreign relations. A big plus of this book is that Lawrence frames his story widely, giving considerable room for discussion of French colonialism in Vietnam, World War II, and the origins of U.S. involvement, which make up about 1/3 of the book. A second plus is that he provides views from all sides of the conflict, not just the view from Washington. We learn quite a bit about power struggles and disagreements over strategy within the North Vietnamese communist party and with its allies in China and the Soviet Union. For example, it was the big communist powers who pushed Hanoi to accept the 1954 Geneva accord out of fear of provoking U.S. intervention at a time they felt they could not match U.S. power. In his judgment of U.S. policies, Lawrence is solidly in the orthodox camp, repeatedly pointing out that despite short-term successes of U.S. economic aid to the Diem regime, it was doomed due to its internal corruption. The same argument is used to evaluate U.S. military tactics: Successes on the battlefield petered out due to a fundamental flaw in strategic assumptions. Revisionists such as Mark Moyar will surely disagree, but Lawrence does represent the majority opinion among U.S. historians at the moment. The book has no major flaws, but Lawrence's prose isn't exactly lively. At times "The Vietnam War" reads like a textbook. Given its brevity, the book merely alludes to topics such as the experience of soldiers, the effects of chemical warfare, the war in American and Vietnamese memory, etc. But then again, that's when the "for further reading" essay comes in extremely handy. As a solid foundation for further exploration of this major conflict--whether in a classroom or at private leisure--this short text does the job well.

This is an outstanding read for anyone seriously trying to understand the Vietnam war. I was in a lot of areas of South Vietnam during my combat tour, and this book helped me understand the rationale behind the reactions I encountered. It has helped bring closure to this segment of my life.

Well written and researched, yet is short and concise. This book looks to write about the Vietnam wars from a "international history" perspective which gives a reader a very good big picture view of the era. Which is quite a accomplishment due to the long and complicated history of the Vietnamese and foreign powers involved in this piece.

As a New Zealand soldier serving in this quagmire- this book put it all in perspective. After serving in a well run conflict in Malaysia and then a very clever campaign under British guidance in Borneo- Vietnam was American doctrine warfare gone mad. We were appalled at the callow ignorant mainly Black American grunts, the lack of overall objectives and it simply became do your time till wakey and goodbye. I still see the arrogance and ignorance that led America into Vietnam prevailed again in Iraq and now Afghanistan. I fear American leadership in this direction and wonder how it could happen when you meet so many erudite educated Americans who are proud of their country and reflect the ideals under which the USA was founded. Should be compulsory reading for all State dept employees, Senate aids and field grade officers of the US armed services.

A nice, concise history of the causes of the Vietnam war and its major battles. More a review of the forces at work that led to the war and its aftermath than details of individual battles. I wanted a better understanding of this rather than a simple military chronology, so this was overall a good book in this regard.

This is a fairly short book which covers a very very large span of time. I do not have much to compare it with since I almost never read history, but I will say that it does a very nice job of explaining the history of Vietnam as a nation, and spends the right amount of time explaining the French colonial period which precipitated the US entry into the war. I did appreciate the information on decision making for both sides, and I thought the background info on Ho Chi Min as a person was extremely valuable to give shape and color to the appeal which communism had to very large percentage of the population. I do feel that once the Nixon years were reached, the book began to rush past things a bit, and no longer afforded the depth of information on policy making and events which shaped the end of the war as it gave on the origins and escalation of the conflict. All in all still a good primer and I would say more than sufficient to understand how it all started, but it did leave me wanting to know a bit more about the middle and the end.

This is a very good introduction to the Vietnam War. Precise but quite concise. Would definitely recommend.

Readable

A complete and comprehensive narrative of the whole Vietnamise history. Focusing different opinions. Interesting comparison of many point of view.

If you want to learn more about the Vietnam war and what led to it, without having to read a 1000 pages book, then this is the right one. The numerous references allow you to deepen your knowledge on a particular issue if you feel like it.

Für eine "sehr kurze Einführung" ist das Buch recht informativ. Wenn auch sehr sachlich geschrieben, bietet es aber leider hauptsächlich die amerikanische Sichtweise der Dinge. Es steht halt das drin, was man als Amerikaner nicht leugnen sollte, sofern man sich nicht blamieren will. Es zeigt aber, was Amerika zu dieser Zeit auch war: ein zur Empörung über seine Regierung fähiges Volk. Rührend die Story vom heutigen Außenminister Kerry. Es ist nicht jeder Amerikaner vom Teufel...