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Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam (Paperback)

by Frances FitzGerald (Author) "The emperor of China sits on a raised dais in a vast hall thronged with the mandarins in their embroidered robes..." (more)
Key Phrases: khiem thao, montagnard tribes, first junta, United States, Viet Minh, North Vietnamese (more...)

4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Fitzgerald's Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning study of the Vietnam War remains essential reading 30 years after its initial publication. Fitzgerald's analysis differs from combat histories in that it presents the Vietnamese and Americans from a sociological point of view. This edition contains a new afterword in which Fitzgerald updates the story three decades after the American withdrawal.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description
This landmark work, based on Frances FitzGerald's own research and travels, takes us inside Vietnam-into the traditional, ancestor-worshiping villages and the corrupt crowded cities, into the conflicts between Communists and anti-Communists, Catholics and Buddhists, generals and monks -and reveals the country as seen through Vietnamese eyes. With a clarity and authority unrivaled by any book before it or since, Fire in the Lake shows how America utterly and tragically misinterpreted the realities of Vietnam.

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Product Details

Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: Back Bay Books (July 17, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0316159190
ISBN-13: 978-0316159197
Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #145,952 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
Popular in this category: (What's this?)
#93 in Books > History > Asia > Southeast Asia

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
The emperor of China sits on a raised dais in a vast hall thronged with the mandarins in their embroidered robes. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
khiem thao, montagnard tribes, first junta, strategic hamlet program, civilian candidates, pacification program, province chief, village notables, junta members, struggle movement

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Viet Minh, North Vietnamese, South Vietnam, Viet Cong, Ngo Dinh Diem, Tri Quang, First Corps, Hoa Hao, Southeast Asia, President Johnson, Cao Dai, Bao Dai, General Khanh, Mekong Delta, Red River Delta, Second World War, General Thieu, National Liberation Front, Communist Party, General Westmoreland, Cochin China, Ngo Dinh Nhu, Cabot Lodge, State Department

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 48 books:

The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon on 7 pages
Report on the War in Vietnam by Ulysses S. Grant Sharp on 5 pages
The Making of A Quagmire: America and Vietnam by David Halberstam on 4 pages
The Economics of Insurgency in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam by Robert L. Sansom in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
Last Reflections on a War: Bernard B. Fall's Last Comments on Vietnam by Bernard B. Fall in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)

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100 books cite this book:

Diem's Final Failure: Prelude to America's War in Vietnam (Modern War Studies) by Philip E. Catton on 6 pages
Military Justice in Vietnam: The Rule of Law in an American War (Modern War Studies) by William Thomas Allison in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
The Vietnam Experience: A Concise Encyclopedia of American Literature, Songs, and Films by Kevin Hillstrom on page 102, page 109, and page 261
Japan and the Enemies of Open Political Science (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies) by David Williams in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Run for the Wall: Remembering Vietnam on a Motorcycle Pilgrimage by Raymond Michalowski in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)

See all 100 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

Dereliction of Duty by H. R. Mcmaster

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	89% buy the item featured on this page: Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam 4.3 out of 5 stars (15) $13.49
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	3% buy Vietnam: A History 4.2 out of 5 stars (65) $14.28
	2% buy The Best and the Brightest 4.5 out of 5 stars (63) $11.53

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Customer Reviews

15 Reviews

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4.3 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars East is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet, March 14, 2000

By	Brian Leverenz (Palatine, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam (Paperback)

Like the Kipling saying, this book portrays the tragic collision of two cultures unable to understand one another. Arguing that American values of freedom, democracy and optimism were inconsistent with Vietnam's values, culture, and above all, its bloody history and essentially agrarian existence, the effort was doomed from the start. THe Vietnamese's sense of government, history,politics and even conflict is completely different from our own, as is their cultural tradition of ancestor worship and their belief in what constitutes effective government (i.e. the mandate of heaven) and we never took these differences into account. Whether this is the fault of the military or the U.S government is really irrelevant, either way it was a crucial factor in the tragedy. Fitzgerald's book is of course an incomplete picture of the reasons we failed there, but is one of the most important and overlooked. While other books focus on the flawed military strategy of endless bombing, destruction and body counts, or the corruption of both Vietnamese regimes, or the arogance of the US military establishment, this book hones in on the cultural issue. Its also one of the best written books on the subject, regardless of the message, one written with passion and insight, and one that clearly shows that there are parts of the world that operated and still operate very differently from what we understand. While the world might be glowing with the promise of democracy i nthe new milennium, in the 60's and 70's it was still a place where ideological differences could sink even the best-intentioned efforts. Highly recommended, along with The Best and the Brightest, A Bright Shining Lie, and Stanley Karnow's Vietnam. This quartet of books would give you the most complete picture of the war and its history.

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74 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still One of the Very Best Books on Viet Nam, December 7, 2000

By	Samuel Freeman (Edinburg, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam (Paperback)

Twenty-eight years after publication, and 25 after the war's end, Fire in the Lake remains one of the very best books on the Viet Nam war. Sadly, Americans are woefully ignorant of the rest of the world. We have little real knowledge of our own history; but for the rest of the world's history and culture, we have neither knowledge nor regarad. We do not even do the Vietnamese people the courtesy of respecting the name of their country--Viet Nam, not Vietnam; Sai Gon, not Saigon. FitzGerald helps to correct some of this ignorance and arrogance. She begins examining the U.S. in Viet Nam from the perspective of Vietnamese history and culture; and in the process, demonstrating the tenacity and courage of the Vietnamese people, as well as their determination to rid themselves of any foreign invaders, even if, as with the Chinese, it takes 1,000 years. Another great strength of FitzGerald's book is, with her attention to Viet Nam's history and culture and their 20th century struggle against the French, she demonstrates, in an almost matter of fact way, a fundamental tenent of U.S. foreign policy which has been repeated numerous times in the post World War II era. That central tenent is to support thugs over patriots, to elevate to power those who will sell out their people for 30 pieces of silver rather than work with those committed to the well being of their people. Ho Chi Minh was our ally during WWII; his hero was Thomas Jefferson, not Karl Marx or Stalin. He was very pro-American; yet he was a nationalist and a patriot first, which meant, from the perspective of the U.S., he was not only unreliable, but someone who had to be destroyed. And though FitzGerald does not carry her analysis beyond Viet Nam, an informed or a curious reader quickly can draw the parallels between U.S. policy in Viet Nam and U.S. policy in Africa, the Middle East, the Pacific rim (Indonesia specifically), South America, the Caribbean, and most obviously of all, Central America. Thus FitzGerald gives us not only the means of understanding the war in Viet Nam, and why we were doomed to lose, but also a point of departure for understanding the travesty of U.S. foreign policy for the last 100 years. Simply stated, the United States is an (economic) empire which cares nothing about democracy, self determination in other countries, which sees other people's patriotism and love of country as a threat to U.S. imperial interests. We can learn a lot from what FitzGerald has to say, about the Vietnames, and especially about ourselves.

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17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful assessment of why the US could not win in Vietnam, April 22, 1998

By	Mark Thomas (pmthomas@tranquility.net) (Columbia, MO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam (Paperback)

In my opinion, this work is a must read for anyone interested in studying American and Western involvement in Vietnam. This book studies the influence and power Ho Chi Minh and suggests that the US ignored the will of the Vietnamese people, who looked to Ho as 18th century Americans looked to George Washington - as the acknowledged leader of their country.

By supporting dummy regimes that encouraged Western Market Capitalism, but did not have the support of the Vietnamese population, America failed to learn from the mistakes of the French and ended up backing the losing side in the Vietnamese civil war.

Fitzgerald's work is an articulate study of Vietnamese society and culture. "Fire In the Lake" elucidates the problems with America's "black and white" assessment of Cold War International Politics and also underscores our inability to look at things from a perspective other than our own.

A significant piece of work!

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The BEST book about the US in Vietnam
If you want to begin to understand the US involvement in Vietnam read this book, then read "The Best and The Brightest" and then read "A Bright Shining Lie".

Published on August 19, 2006 by JBS

1.0 out of 5 stars Book made irrelevant and untrue by history
It is difficult to give this book a critical look because it has become as unquestioned as the Bible is in certain circles. Read more

Published on September 27, 2005 by Bruce Irvine

3.0 out of 5 stars Hard Read, but Informative
Being a young student learning about the Vietnam war for the first time, it was definately a hard read. Read more

Published on May 14, 2005 by Future History Teacher

5.0 out of 5 stars Mostly true, except for the information from McNamara
People were looking for a book that could grab them about Nam when this was a best seller in 1972, and this book has details that people were not getting from television or the... Read more

Published on August 20, 2004 by Bruce P. Barten

5.0 out of 5 stars revisit the recent past
This has got to be one of the most important books i've read in my life. It's 1972 or 1973, i've finished several years of college, VietNam dominates our thinking and hangs like a... Read more

Published on February 17, 2004 by R. M. Williams

5.0 out of 5 stars A moving book whatever your politics
This book had a huge impact on me as a young man. It describes American involvement in Vietnam. While my position about Vietnam has changed considerably as the years pass, the... Read more

Published on January 31, 2003 by Mykal Banta

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Document of Human History
People who read often have favorite books as children; it is perhaps a measure of our times that this one was one of mine. Read more

Published on September 13, 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars A lotus in a pond of murky water.
As a Vietnamese reader, this book is a precious one about a dark period of our country's history. Ms. Read more

Published on June 22, 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars A basic insight into Vietnamese culture and thinking
I bought my first copy of FIRE IN THE LAKE from a used book seller on the streets of Saigon in 1974. Read more

Published on May 31, 1998 by fredkeller@relaymail.net

5.0 out of 5 stars Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Natl. Book Award
As a writer for the Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, New York Times Sunday Magazine, and the Village Voice Francis Fitzgerald visited Vietnam in 1966, a critical year in the U. Read more

Published on May 26, 1998 by macson@earthlink.net

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