Customer Reviews

Intervention: How America Became Involved in Vietnam

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This book is an excellent introduction to the complexities of the Vietnam war. It is particularly strong on the subject of South Vietnamese politics, though it makes clear that the American side was the more byzantine. In particular the book indicts both military and civilian advisors to LBJ. It is thinnest on the activities and motivations of the enemy.

I have read only the preface and to page 122 (the book is 432 pages plus notes) of the 1986 hard cover edition by publisher Alfred A Knopf. The ISBN is 0-394-54367-X and is from the Chandler Public Library, Chandler, Arizona. I purchased the book via Amazon. I intend to finish the book. Because the book is so good and I am so excited about this subject, I am writing this review before I complete it. The author, now deceased, was a professor of political history at Cornell University. He tells exactly how the US became involved in Vietnam.

This book is based on three sets of the Pentagon Papers, thousand of documents the author asked the US Government for under the Freedom of Information Act, and numerous interviews with civilian and military leaders of Vietnam and the United States.

Reading the Notes significantly adds to understanding the thesis of the book.

The author writes clearly. It is somewhat slow reading because it is as scholarly as a book can be. I do not discern much bias.

The book documents everything. US State Department memos and cables, National Security Council directives and reports, US Congressional reports, Joint Chiefs of Staff documents, political journals, etc. comprise the sources of this book, titled Intervention--How America Became Involved in Vietnam.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to find out about US involvement in Vietnam, which began from the Harry S. Truman Administration and ended with the Richard M. Nixon Administration. The book details American involvement before the end of the Lyndon B Johnson Administration.