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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The lasting harm America did in Vietnam is all too easily forgotten... at least stateside, July 11, 2008
This review is from: Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost (Paperback)
Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost is an unflinching history of the United States involvement in the Vietnam war - America's motives, its cruelties, and why America ultimately failed to win the war, along with comparisons to the modern-day situation in Iraq. Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost takes especial pains to attack common American myths about the Vietnam War, particularly the idea that Americans were caught in the middle of a conflict between stable Vietnamese governments. In fact, America was propping up a horrendously incompetent, inefficient, and repressive puppet government that represented only a tiny part of the Vietnamese population - mostly its landholding elite. The South Vietnamese government further stirred up resentment among the majority of the population by overturning land reform, in effect demanding that peasants give up land and pay heavy back taxes to their former landlords. As a result, Ho Chi Minh and his North Vietnamese government had overwhelming popular support, which was only further intensified by American brutalities against Vietnamese civilians. A section of the American population recognized the injustices being perpetrated in the Vietnamese war, and actively worked to oppose it; and among the armed forces, resentment against the war expressed itself in ways ranging from absences without leave to incidents of "fragging" (maiming or murdering, often by means of a fragmentation grenade) unpopular officers. This trifecta is what ultimately brought victory to one of the world's poorest nations over one of the world's richest - but it was a victory with a high cost, as the effects of American poisons, defoliants, and the memory of American massacres linger to this day. "Now the big question: 'Is Iraq the next Vietnam?' The answer is that it could be. That will be determined by two forces: the Iraqi people and the American working class." Though not a politically neutral account, Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost is carefully researched and deserves a thorough examination especially in today's era when the lasting harm America did in Vietnam is all too easily forgotten... at least stateside.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent lessons to build on, November 3, 2008
This review is from: Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost (Paperback)
Joe presents a history never discussed in mainstream accounts. Aside from demonstrating the major factors which combined to end the war, the book shows the importance of movements influencing and overlapping each other. This is clearly laid out in discussing the impact the civil rights and black power movements had on the nascent anti-war movement. Another important thread in the book is the often ignored account of how brutal the intervention was. The revelations on the staggering amount of ordinance dropped on the Vietnamese people underscores the degree of violence the U.S. ruling class resorts to when imperial interests are on the line.
In the struggle against the empire's current horrific occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, the lessons laid out in "Vietnam: The (Last) War the US Lost" couldn't be more valuable. From fighting the endemic imperialist racism leading to My Lai and its modern counterpart Haditha, to linking social justice struggles to the enormous costs of the war, to supporting GI resistance in practice as well as principle. If there is any overarching lesson from the book, it is that an anti-war movement diminishes in the absence of an understanding of imperialism.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Putting the Pieces Together, July 29, 2008
This review is from: Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost (Paperback)
Joe Allen's brief summation of the U.S. war in Vietnam is an excellent and compact history of both the U.S. war of aggression, as well as the domestic revolution that occurred at home. With excellent precision and historical breadth Allen reviews the context of French colonialism in Vietnam, followed by the US' multiple attempts to reclaim the former colony, namely military funding and support, followed by an air invasion, followed by the full-scale deployment of troops. Allen traces the web of deceit that flowed from the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations, which culminated in the secret bombing of Cambodia. Allen demonstrates quite lucidly, how the war was stopped through a combination of resistance at home, NLF resistance, and GI resistance. There are excellent descriptions of the Black Power movement, as well as the rise of working class militancy in the 1970's. Allen demolishes the myth that opposition to the US war was primarily student/intellectual led, and demonstrates that opposition to the war was overwhelmingly led by the working classes. Perhaps the only thing that is missing in this account is an analysis of the economic considerations of US policy makers. Still, an excellent work of history.
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