Customer Reviews

Beyond Vietnam: The United States and Asia

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Many years ago, seeking an understanding of how it was that I wound up being sent thousands of miles away to participate in the Vietnam War, I read Edward Reischauer's book. As a former intelligence officer during World War II, a Harvard professor of Japanese history and with extensive knowledge of the Far East, he was eminently qualified to write this book. Several years in advance of the Pentagon Papers, Reischauer revealed much of the same history of U.S. decision making errors. If you still think the U.S. could have "won" this war, you need to read this book to see why we were doomed to fail by decisions that had been made many years before. There is plenty of blame to go around, from president to president and from Democrat to Republican. The essential point that can easily be seen, in 20/20 hindsight, that each time a fork in the road appeared, American officials took the wrong turn. At any point, had a different direction been taken, the outcome could have been much less costly (in terms of dollars and lives lost).