The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War [Hardcover]

William Conrad Gibbons (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 7, 1995 | ISBN-10: 0691006369 | ISBN-13: 978-0691006369

This volume covers the core period of US involvement in Vietnam, from July 1965, when the decision was made to send large-scale US forces, to the beginning of 1968, just before the Tet offensive and the decision to seek a negotiated settlement. Using a wide variety of archival sources and interviews, the book examines in detail the decisions of the president and Congress, and the growth of public and congressional opposition to the war. Differences between US military leaders on how the war should be fought are also included, as well as military planning and operations. Among many other important subjects, the financial efforts of the war and of raising taxes are considered, as well as the impact of a tax increase on congressional and public support for the war. Another major interest is the effort by Congress to influence the conduct of the war and to place various controls on US goals and operations.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The merits of volume 4 (and all the volumes to date) are numerous. Most important is the sustained, in-depth attention given to the congress and the war. . . . Gibbons's usage of archival sources for the period under study is very impressive. . . . -- Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 992 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr (August 7, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691006369
• ISBN-13: 978-0691006369
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,254,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Available Serious Vietnam War Study, July 18, 2000

By 

Bob (Costa Mesa, Californa) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War (Paperback)

This is the fourth and largest volume of a mammoth five-volume study (volume five is not yet complete). This review applies to both this volume and to the study in general.

The Gibbons Study is the largest, most balanced, and most complete study of US Government Vietnam policy currently available. Its goal is much like that of the Pentagon Papers, and in size it is just as big as the analysis section of that study. However, it is much more comprehensive, using resources (like the LBJ library) which were unavailable in the late 60s. It is all original analysis, and contains only a few pieces of contemporary primary documents (unlike the Pentagon Papers, which contains a million words of documents).

The study was commissioned by the Senate Foreign Relations committee in the late 1970s, and the work was done by Gibbons, a researcher in the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress. True to his mission, Gibbons keeps his work as apolitical as possible.

Every page is very detailed and impeccably-referenced. The references themselves are worthy of note, as they use the rarely-used form of footnotes, as opposed to endnotes. Such a format puts the references right on the page with the main text, so it is far easier for the reader to make use of them. And, in the Gibbons study, the footnotes are often huge and detailed.

This work is frequently cited as a principal reference by many recent Vietnam writers, including Karnow, Hendrickson, Gardner, and Herring, exceeded in such references only by Foreigh Relations of the United States. It is a big, serious study, appropriate for only the most dedicated student of the war.

This volume is by far the largest in the series, amounting to approximately 645,000 words. In comparison, Stanley Karnow's great general history, "Vietnam: A History," is considered a large book, yet it measures 330,000 words. But don't be intimidated -- the size and detail of Gibbons' work only adds to its usefulness.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "No, Mr. President, you're not winning the war.", February 1, 2008

By 

Alexander Grant "Alexander Keen Grant" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The U.S. Government and the Vietnam War (Paperback)

From this book:

Congressman Tim Lee Carter (R-KY), 1966:

"No, Mr. President, you are not winning the war."

On August 28, 1967, Carter stated

"Let us now, while we are yet strong, bring our men home, every man jack of them. The Vietcong fight fiercely and tenaciously because it is their land and we are foreigners intervening in their civil war. If we must fight, let us fight in defense of our homeland and our own hemisphere."

Colleague of Senator Sherman Cooper (R-KY), who later drafted the Cooper-Church amendment to end that mess.

Pearls like those above make this author's work extremely valuable.