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Twenty-five years after the last American troops withdrew from Vietnam, this unique two-volume anthology from the Library of America evokes a turbulent and controversial period in American history and journalism. Drawn from original newspaper and magazine reports and contemporary books, this volume along with its companion brings together the work of over eighty remarkable writers to create an unprecedented mosaic view of America's longest war and its impact on an increasingly fractured American society. The first volume traces the deepening American involvement in South Vietnam from the first deaths of American advisers in 1959 through the controversial battle of "Hamburger Hill" in 1969. Malcolm Browne, Neil Sheehan, and David Halberstam report on the guerrilla warfare of the early 1960s; Jack P. Smith, Ward Just, and Peter Arnett experience the terrors of close-range combat in the Central Highlands; Marguerite Higgins and Frances FitzGerald observe South Vietnamese politics; Jonathan Schell records the destructive effects of American firepower in Quang Ngai; Tom Wolfe captures the cool courage of navy pilots over North Vietnam. Writers who covered the bitter controversy at home are included as well-Meg Greenfield describing an early teach-in, Norman Mailer at the Pentagon March, Jeffrey Blankfort exploring the sorrowful impact of the war on a small town in Ohio. Thomas Johnson and Wallace Terry examine the changing attitudes of African-American soldiers fighting America's first fully integrated war. Volume 1 includes interviews and reportage by Neil Sheehan, David Halberstam, Russell Baker, Meg Greenfield, Martha Gellhorn, Ward Just, Tom Wolfe, Mary McCarthy, Seymour Hersh, Francine du Plessix and others. Volume 2 includes reportage by Seymour Hersh, Francine du Plessix Gray, John Saar, Gloria Emerson, Sydney Schanberg, Flora Lewis, Peter Arnett, and others.… (more)
User reviews
Prior to this book I really didn’t know much about the Vietnam War. For instances, I didn’t realize the complexity of the politics, tactics, and the Vietnamese culture was so obvious to so many of these authors. It seems naïve now, but I thought much of these details were only reveled to us through the lens of history. Granted this collection is very pessimistic or anti-war. There’s not must of a hawkish point-of-view presented within its pages. Which is a fault, my parents remember the public debate be much richer than what is presented in this collection. It’s hard to gauge whether this is an actual accounting of the history without the propaganda or if this is the whitewashed less complicated version. It would have been nice to be presented with both views, so that a reader like me could get a more balanced view of the time. Not that a single coherent thread is a bad thing. It’s just nice to have a few more counterpoints sprinkled throughout the collection for a more nuanced view of history. The advantage though of a single minded approach makes for a coherent thread and an understandable timeline for a novice.
This collection is informative, sad, and tragic. There’s no light reading, it’s all pretty rough and will leave you ragged by it all. But it’s worth it. It’s worth understanding the sheer stupidity of war, it’s worth understanding the motivations of those that serve, it’s worth understanding the social and political turmoil of the era, and it’s worth understanding the complexity of the decisions faced by the people that come before us. Vietnam was an important time for the America for so many reasons.
What emerges from these writers is a feeling that in war, the human being enters a new state of being. Ideological delusion, when acted out requires the soldier, the advisor, the
Because war destroys one's humanity, a survivor from this hellish state suffers agonies and fears that haunt the person, too often for a lifetime. It is heartbreaking to remember that the average age of the combatant in this devastating descent to madness was nineteen.
A masterpiece from the Library of America.