Customer Reviews

Vietnam Wars, 1945-90

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

You'll notice that the reviews posted so far for Marilyn Young's "Vietnam Wars" are quite polarized (1 star vs. 5 stars). Some complain of Young's agenda and anti-American viewpoint, while others find her tone appropriate and the book revealing; all of these points are valid. This book is biased, frustratingly so at times, but it is also informative and a good read.

"Vietnam Wars" covers the Vietnamese struggle for independence from France, the war with the US, and the war with China, naturally focusing on the American war. The substance of the book is a mix of details of the actual war and the politics concerning it, with ample, though not exhaustive, footnotes and plenty of fascinating anecdotes. The level of detail is perfect for a popular history.

The tone of the book is distinctly anti-American, partly because of the author's own bias, but also partly because of the information available. The details of North Vietnam's motivations, actions, etc. are lacking, I imagine because there are so few sources. As a result, the viewpoint is American, and the mistakes made by the US are on full display; I found these to be the most interesting aspects of the war, e.g., the astounding naiveness of Psy Ops.

The author's bias is irritating, though thankfully clear. While she does not engage in outright revisionism (her facts are supported by references), she does selectively emphasize information. For example, while civilian deaths inflicted by US firepower are mentioned repeatedly, over many pages, atrocities commited by the North are downplayed, in oneliners along the lines of "Only 15-thousand Vietnamese civilians were executed by the VC, not 500-thousand, as claimed in US propaganda!". Despite this selectivity, sufficient facts are presented to convey the moral ambiguity that surrounds the conflict.

Read skeptically, Marilyn Young's "Vietnam Wars" is an excellent starting point for understanding Vietnam.

Herein lies the terrible tragedy of Vietnam. Marilyn Young covers the First Indochina War, through the Second (the Vietnam War to Americans), and the Third. Written mostly from the American and foreign point of view, she narrates the events as they occurred without rancor or judgment or obvious bias. Yet one gets the distinct feeling that this account is anti-American, but how else could it be? The facts she lays out with no value judgment, messy opinions, or biased reporting unerringly points to the mistakes and false assumptions that America had about Vietnam. How these mistakes lead to the tragic war, a senseless war, that laid waste to an entire nation.

There is a famous saying in Vietnam, "At no time has Vietnam lacked heroes." The unsaid, but implicit understanding is that at no time has Vietnam lacked aggressors. What America at the time could not realize was that she was following in the footsteps of previous conquerors in Vietnam's past. America, though filled with good intentions, was simply another in a long line of overwhelming enemies like China, the Mongols, France, and Japan. In all honesty, at certain points I could not help laughing out loud. Not in amusement, but at the sheer, overwhelming stupidity and arrogance that compounded mistake after mistake by the foreign powers and every chance for peace was dashed because of Cold War politics and ignorance. France, the once mighty empire, was now an impotent, senile power that still clung to the trappings of imperial might. And the U.S., caught up in the Red Scare, failed to realize that the growth of Communism in Vietnam was an outgrowth of nationalism against imperialistic powers like France. To the U.S., it was a fight against Communism. To the average Vietnamese peasant, it was a war, in a long line of wars, for freedom.

I think that this is definitely a good book to read to familiarize oneself with the wars that Vietnam has fought. Though it covers all three of the Indochina wars, it only moderate covers the first, glosses over the last, and mostly details the second from the American perspective. In this area, I find the book is lacking because while it accurately describes what, how, and why the Americans did what they did, she did not pay enough attention to the first half of the equation, the Vietnamese. A fuller appreciation and understanding of the events would require us to have an accounting from the Vietnamese perspective, from Hanoi, to the average bo dai (grunt), and the peasant. It also is rather lacking in details and events that occurred during World War II and the Japanese occupation. Still, the harsh and unrelenting look that it gives us of American policy, practice, and presidents coupled with an easy to read yet grippingly eloquent prose makes this a book a must have for anyone wanting to better understand Vietnam and her wars for freedom.

Young's book is the best single volume detailing the American interventions in Vietnam. Unlike many, Young actually knows something about Vietnam as a country, and unlike many, she meticulously supplies references for her facts almost all of which are to accessible and checkable sources. But my real point in writing this is the idea, put forward by so many outside the profession of history (I am a University prof in a big state school history department) that grasping the disaster of Vietnam for what it was is an example of "bias." Is Young against killing peasants? You bet. Does she think US operations were failures? Sure. They were. It is hard to think rosy thoughts about fighting communism and so forth if you grasp how things went down in Vietnam itself, which is what this book supplies. BTW Young is not pro-North Vietnam and in my opinion feels (rightly) that the US destroyed the NLF ("VC"), a southern-based mass movement, with brutal means, which was a disaster. That and the support for dictators and not elections created the country we see today: run from the north, beholden to the north, yet (of course) ready to tackle capitalism. Will we repeat our inane dry-up-the-sea policies in Iraq?

It is rare that I will read a book twice, but Marilyn B. Young's history of American involvement in Vietnam is so packed with information and so clearly written, that I recently felt compelled to read it once again. It plots, very logically, how America went down the slippery slope that was Veitnam. Our foreign policy towards Vietnam was based on a culture never understood, and assumptions never questioned. I've read a dozen books on Vietnam in the past ten years, and this is by far the best.

Very well written, with lots of good reference material. Though I share the authors opposition to the Vietnam War I think she turns a blind eye to some of the atrocities committed by VC and NVA. All in all a good book.

Young details the war well, so that a reader who does not know anything about Vietnam will finish the book having a good idea of the issues that drove the war and the questions that are still asked about it today. History buffs should find this book informative and journalists will enjoy Young's inclusion of the press in her story. I particularly enjoyed Young's examination of events in Cambodia and the perfidy of President Richard Nixon. However, while I agree with Young's inclusion of material that serves to call into question America's actions during the war, I think that her bias as an author against the war was a little too obvious. As an academic, I guess she is entitled to argue against the war rather than simply presenting the facts on both sides, but at points the book reads more like an editoriral rather than an article you would find in the news section of your local newspaper. Nevertheless, the book is chock full of facts, good observations and is clearly written. It certainly gets my reccomendation.

Amazing book. I have often wondered why America waged a horrific bloody war on a small, third world, Asian country (and lost!). Now I know. This book is required reading for everyone who thinks that America always fights the good fight. This book will open and then change your mind. Definitive book on Vietnam wars. Required reading - 5 stars.

Bought this more as a review of the war to assist my lesson building. Great read and great review piece

Every Vietnam veteran should read this book. As a 19 year old kid serving in Vietnam, I actually believed I was helping to defend the freedom of the South Vietnamese people to choose the kind of government they wanted. What a shock to find that we were there to prevent that from happening. Thank you Ms Young.

As someone who came of age during, lived the Vietnam War as a member of the military, and have had that experience shadow me ever since, Marilyn Young's work, "The Vietnam Wars 1945 to 1990," provided a complete portrait of that historical era. A portrait that has always been swayed one way or the other depending on who was writing it. Many will criticize her effort, calling it leftist, defeatist, or a lie. But the idea encompassed in her work, it that there were many lies told during that 45 year period, with the vast majority being issued by the US Government.

Young's integration into the narrative of documents from all sources that have now come to light, weave a fascinating picture of deceit, deception and stupidity on the part of the US, seeking to fight monolithic communism in what was really a nationalist and civil struggle between the citizens of a single nation, separated by old white men at a table faraway in Europe. the US to keep up the illusion of Western invincibility and infallibility in the face of popular and indigenous forces to large to be kept at bay for too long, committed our children and treasure to fight in a war that was known to be unwinnable in the American historical context. That in reality, destroyed what little creditibility we had left and made clear that our nation was all about preserving privilege and power for the white western culture. While reading this work, the reader can see again the same mistakes being made all over again, in current wars in Southwest Asia and South Asia to promote the idea of Western hegemony over the world.

I encourage all to read this fascinating book, but especially my brother and sister veterans of that war, for it will give you the whole story behind, "Why, Vietnam," and not the fairy tale told to us in training and in theater. It will also give credence to the notion of never fighting a major land war with US troops in Asia, advice given by Douglas MacArthur to Lyndon Johnson, just before his death in 1964 and that was just repeated by Secretary of Defense Gates in a January, 2011 speech to the Cadets at The USMA at West Point.