Customer Reviews

The Vietnam War: A History in Documents (Pages from History)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

As one of the authors of the book, The Vietnam War: A History in Documents, I take exception to the review from the reader in Colorado. I have seen his actual comments and he must know that we have shown them to be incorrect. He claims that we are incorrect on certain pages but in fact we had the facts correct. He is entitled to his own opinion but he is not entitled to his own set of facts. He seems to think that we should have written another kind of book. That is his privilege. It would be decent for any reviewer to comment directly on the book being reviewed rather than a book that he thinks we should have written. His comments are very close to being dishonest and seem primarily interested in disparaging the book. The controversy over the Vietnam War has not yet ended. Yours truly, John J. Fitzgerald

This book should be very popular with teachers who teach that wars are more than battles and dates, who want students to go beyond pop culture's depiction of the experience of the individual soldier in Viet Nam, and who want students to understand that even publicly confident leaders are often baffled, uncertain, ignorant of history, or wrong. No textbook on this complex war can even begin to cover everything, of course. Instead of details about military operations, this book concentrates on presidential decision-making, personal responses on both sides, and efforts (e.g. songs, posters, propaganda leaflets) to persuade public opinion one way or another. The material in this book on how to read documents and on propaganda by both sides should be especially effective in the classroom. In fact, the book's great strength is its inclusion of (and guides to understanding) documents such as the 1945 Viet Minh Declaration of Independence, a state department policy statement, the 1954 Geneva conference's Final Declaration, and various responses to that declaration. Defenders of U.S. involvement in the war will likely be unhappy with parts of this book, including the suggested bibliography, but no book on this war will please everyone, and probably no book on this war can truly be neutral. Fortunately the inclusion of essential primary documents allows teachers of any persuasion to use this book. The materials from the Vietnamese side are probably especially valuable here, because those materials are not familiar to American students. As a documentary history this book naturally includes no classroom activities; for that, teachers might want to consult Echoes from the Wall (a free curriculum distributed by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund) and Lessons of the Vietnam War, by Jerry Starr's Center for Social Studies Education. A teacher might also want to supplement this history with a few disparate excerpts from Bill McCloud's wonderful collection, What Should We Tell Our Children About Vietnam?

I have been using this book in my college classes for about 10 years now. I assign it alongside a text (Herring or Hearden) and a novel--O'Brien's 'Things Fall Apart.' In this way, the documents work quite well with the broader historical context provided by the text and the war stories provided by O'Brien. After reading a couple of extremely negative reviews of this book, I thought I had better weigh in and try to help the potential reader. It is best to try to understand "America's War in Veitnam" (as the Vietnamese like to accurately call it) from a number of perspectives through many mediums. This book of documents will augment and enhance any readers knowledge of this important topic. One must remember, however, that primary source documents place a good deal of power and responsibility in the reader's hands. One then has to do the work of an historian, deciding where to place each document for proper context, considering matters of motive and perspective, etc. 'The Vietnam War: A History in Documents' does a good job of setting up the reader/student to do just that. I recommend it without hesitation or reservation.

Because of my work I see a great many books on Vietnam and the Vietnam era but this one really stands out as something special. Not only is the book an excellent introduction --it is also full of material that is fascinating even to those who know the subject well!
Steven A. Leibo Ph.D.
author of _East, Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific_ 2002

This book explains the Vietnam war more thoroughly than any other document on the subject.

Unfortunately this is another myopic book about the Vietnam War, that would have you believe the US fought alone in Viet Nam.

Both the design and content are seriously lacking for the intended audience, grades 7+. Important facts are left out while other facts are pathetically incorrect; most captions are mislabeled, and many documents are indistinguishable from the narrative text. Sadly, even in 2003 it appears America still has Post Traumatic Stress Denial with parts of our own history.

Living part-time in Ha Noi, Sydney, Seoul, and getting mail in Denver, I have taught about the American-Viet Nam War in all four countries from a multi-cultural perspective. Having read and reread the paperback version, the book unfortunately shows a limited view with significant design problems.

Detailed remarks have been submitted for publication elsewhere. More later.