Customer Reviews

The Aftermath, 1975-85 (Vietnam Experience)

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This is the last volume in the 25-volume Time-Life Series titled "The Vietnam Experience. Each of the volumes is hardback, large format, about 190 pages with many good black and white and color photographs and maps and with a decent bibliography.

There are shelves of books about the Vietnam War but very few that describe the aftermath of the war as this one does. The subjects covered include descriptions of the governments in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia after the communist takeovers, the refugees fleeing each country, the impact of Vietnam on America, and the continuing bitter debate about the war among the public and in the movies and on television. The impact of Vietnam on America's intervention and policy in Iran, Grenada, Nicaragua, Lebanon and other countries is briefly described.

A lot of new material has come to light since "The Aftermath" was published. For example, this book states that the Cambodian genocide caused the deaths of "probably" under one million people. Nowadays 1.5 million deaths is the more commonly accepted estimate. Also, there's more information available now about Vietnam "reeducation camps" and Hmong and Montagnard refugees. All in all, however, this is an excellent book: well-written, easy to read, and well-illustrated. You could do worse than to read all 25 of the Time-Life volumes to get a thorough understanding of "The Vietnam Experience."

Smallchief