Customer Reviews

The Vietnam Wars (Wars of the Modern Era)

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The author of this book aims to give the reader a better understanding of Vietnam than if we were to read any of the other multitude of books written about Vietnam. Mr Wintle, the author does not jump straight in at the deep end of Vienamese history and start describing the prelude to the war between north and south Vietnam, he simply decribes this war as if it where just like any of the other wars in Vietnam's long, troubled history. This approach by Wintle gives the reader a very good perspective on the Vietnam war that the western world will be unfamiliar with as it is used to looking at this war in a very short sighted fashion. This different perspective helps the reader to understand the war from the Vietnamese perspective when for so long most of us have been looking at it through an American and European perspecive.
Although the author does give a good and concise history of the various Vietnam wars through the centuries, the account he has written of Vietnamese early history is rather tedious and uninteresting. Although this chapter on Vietnamese early history is necessary if we are to understand Vietnam properly, Wintle makes no attempt to link this early history to the modern era. This particular chapter seems to be written in a much more uninteresting way than the rest of the book, it seemed to me that the author wasn't interested in this chapter himself it is written with so little skill or enthusiasm. I found myself skipping through large tracts of the opening chapter which lasts for about fifty pages and it is this badly written chapter that lets the book down badly.
The rest of the book, however is as readible as a good novel, the story of the Vietnamese nationalists' fight first against the French, then against the Saigon government backed by the French, then backed by the Americans is a great one to read. The author details the various set-backs in the modern wars and also the great victories, like that over the French at Dien Bien Phu, this account is particularly brilliant and is about the best account I have ever read of any military encounter whether fact or fiction.
Although the author seems to take the side of the Vietnamese in all of their wars including that against the Americans, he does not hesitate to write about some of the terrible things that the Vietnamese done on their own people including the military tactic of sending charge after charge against fortified postions which resulted in thousands of unnecessary deaths. The book, on the whole is a good one and is very readible, (apart from the first chapter)it gives a very good histroy of the Vietnam wars and their preludes. This book is ideal for anyone looking to read a book about Vietnam that is not filled with great deeds that American soldiers done and details of their great bravery, it simply tells the history of a people who have fought for their freedom in many centuries and eventually won it.