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(Also have reviews of good fiction and non-fiction, nasty reviews of bad books, and reviews of good physics biographies and memoirs. My favorite poetry is by James Dickey.)
For years friends have asked me, why books about the Vietnam War? Now that it's 2005, anyone who keeps up with the news knows why Vietnam is still relevant. Please send your recommendations for books on related themes.
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan.
A Bright Shining Lie won several prizes and deserved them. It's both a biography of an exceptionally devoted soldier and a history of the failure of the war. I learned a lot by reading it; for example, I didn't know that the Viet Cong had tanks. I didn't know that "Viet Cong" was a term made up by the American military. I didn't know that Daniel Ellsberg was a Marine who had once supported the war effort.
But to describe only the factual content of this book is to underrate it. Vann was a personal friend of Sheehan's, and the book is emotionally charged. In writing this work, Sheehan found out some shocking aspects of Vann's life that he didn't expect. The 800+ pages go by a lot faster than you would think.
In all the hand-wringing about military incompetence in Vietnam that one read in the '70's from armchair generals, it's easy to forget how many brilliant, dedicated people died there. This book is a useful corrective in that regard. One could easily argue that the military today is still crippled by having lost the best of its people in Southeast Asia.
The Long Gray Line by Rick Atkinson.
Atkinson's book is a nonfiction account of the lives and deaths of the West Point class of 1966. Like Sheehan's book, Atkinson's is very sad but well worth reading nonetheless. Atkinson convincingly argues that since the class of '66 had more casualties in Southeast Asia than any other, its story is really the story of the war. While there is a certain amount of discussion of the '66's as a group, what really brings the book to life are the stories of individual soldiers, some of whom were military successes and some of whom were washouts. One of the class went on to spearhead the effort to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, another died in the DMZ in Korea and others died on the ground in Vietnam. The subject matter of The Long Gray Line belies the title in that it reminds us that soldiers had different motives in going into the Army: personal ambition, patriotism, family tradition. Unfortunately the class of '66 had little luck in achieving its aspirations.
Fire in the Lake by Frances FitzGerald
This book deserves special mention since its focus is not on the Americans in Vietnam, but squarely on the Vietnamese themselves. The entire history of the country is summarized up through the French occupation and withdrawal. More importantly, the culture of Vietnam is described, with its important Confucian, Buddhist and agrarian traditions. FitzGerald describes the failure of the war effort as the inevitable result of the complete inability of the Americans to understand the Vietnamese people. In fact, she makes the case that not much of an attempt was even made. It's significant that this book is the only famous treatise on the War (as far as I know) which is primarily about Vietnamese in Vietnam, not about Americans.
FitzGerald's work portrays Ho Chi Minh as a genius of grass roots political organization, something like the Ralph Reed of his time (!). The Americans made a conceptual mistake in believing the war to have only two sides, and they never understood that the South Vietnamese Army wouldn't fight because the soldiers felt they had no personal stake in the war. The analysis is quite interesting although sometimes a bit too detailed for my taste. The description of the Buddhist religious figures and their political campaigns was particularly enlightening. Fire in the Lake won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award.
About Face by Colonel David H. Hackworth (US Army, ret.) and Julie H. Sherman
Hackworth's remarkable memoir describes his service during the Vietnam and Korean Wars and the peacetime in-between. It helps answer the "what went wrong?" question from the American perspective. Hackworth argues convincingly that the roots of Vietnam-era problems go far earlier, to the post-WWII era when the Army was down-sizing. During that time the Army instituted a "zero-defect" policy and began its emphasis on scholar-soldiers with advanced degrees. Many "warriors" with Hackworth's working-class background were mustered out, and less-than-honest performance evaluations and rampant "grade inflation" in battle assessments began to be the norm. Hackworth clearly feels that once officers learned to lie, the inflated "body counts" and ridiculous propaganda of the Vietnam War were almost inevitable. Hackworth's anecdotes about "ticket punching" among careerists in the Army are disquieting, although his description of the "M-1 pencil" (a writing utensil that could be used to punch a bullseye in a target) is amusing.
Hackworth has credibility in his criticisms of the Army if only because he is the US's most decorated living soldier. He has seen combat from the inside, and in About Face, he tells us all about it. I admire this book both for its constructiveness (Hackworth makes specific and thoughtful recommendations for reform) and its you-are-there intensity. Some of Hackworth's amazing tales of battlefield heroism have a tall-tale quality, but the vivid details and the overall feeling of sadness make me believe them. About Face took me six enjoyable weeks to read since its blow-by-blow battle descriptions cannot be skimmed. To his credit, Hackworth's accounts of the "forgotten war" in Korea are every bit as gripping as his descriptions of those of the Vietnam War. He makes it clear that military planning had already gone far wrong in the '50s.
This book was recommended to me by Stephen Barrett, whose email now bounces. Stephen, if you're reading this, do drop me a line!
Dispatches by Michael Herr
This is a grunts-eye view of the war told by a correspondent who was on the ground in Khe Sanh and Hue. Herr's concerns are not political or military but primarily personal, since he spends most of the time describing what the experience of Vietnam was like for individual Marines. It's refreshing to hear the stories by people who were actually in the thick of the fighting after reading so much analysis. Herr's anecdotes about life among war correspondents in Saigon provides welcome comical relief. At a mere 260 pages, this book is a lot more portable than most of the others.
The March of Folly: from Troy to Vietnam by Barbara Tuchman
Tuchman's history of government incompetence through the ages compares the US's entrance into the Vietnam War to the other really big historical boners. Tuchman defines folly as a calculated act undertaken with sufficient foreknowledge that its irrationality should have been readily apparent. Therefore, a really impressive blunder requires a Cassandra to warn about it in advance. Tuchman establishes in the case of Vietnam that plenty of wise old Asia hands warned that following in the footsteps of the humiliated French was not too bright. Time of course proved them right. Tuchman's analysis of the beginning of the American revolution in another section is also well worth reading.
Going after Cacciato by Tim O'Brien
I didn't actually dislike this novel, but I didn't find it very satisfying either. It deals with the War only very tangentially. Perhaps if I'd picked it up without any expectations I wouldn't have been disappointed. Haven't yet read The Things They Carried.
Delta Force by Col. Charlie Beckwith
Beckwith's book is sincere and funny and strong on mission planning and military politics. If you want to know what combat is like or why we lost the Vietnam War, look elsewhere.
On Strategy: A critical analysis of the Vietnam War by Col. Harry G. Summers, Jr. [be sure to follow this link]
A "critical analysis" of the War by an Army War College faculty member sounds like a complete snooze, but On Strategy is a remarkably plainspoken and direct account that isn't afraid to point fingers and name names. As the title suggests, the author believes that the primary cause of the military catastrophe was the lack of a coherent political strategy. Summers identifies Johnson's decision not to seek a declaration of war as the great initial mistake; the Gulf of Tonkin resolution began the long campaign of government deception. The fatal error was to be distracted by the militarily less significant Viet Cong rather than stay focused on the regular North Vietnamese Army. Summers points out that the major battles of the war (Dien Bien Phu, 1954; Ia Drang, 1965; Tet, 1968; Eastertide, 1972; and the final conquest, 1975) all corresponded to major troop incursions from the North. He makes an unfavorable comparison with the Korean War, where US forces worked to repel the North Koreans and left internal matters to the South Koreans. Summers suggests that the US could have won had it concentrated all its energies on simply blocking southward troop and materiel movements all along the DMZ to the Thai border.
On Strategy is organized around quotations from Carl von Clausewitz' On War with contrasting excerpts from the Army Field Service Manual of 1962. Summers argues that the military foolishly believed that it faced unique circumstances in Vietnam, while in truth the application of classic doctrine from the 19th century would have produced better results. Refreshingly On Strategy praises the leadership of the North Vietnam military, who seem to have thought more clearly about their goals than the US leadership did. This book was recommended by retired Army General Jack Merritt.
Fields of Fire by James H. Webb
Like Dispatches, this novel is a bottoms-up, day-by-day account of the life of Marines mired in the muck and almost-tedious danger of daily combat in Vietnam. The book has vivid descriptions but features too many characters, and the presentation of the back stories of each character kills the narrative's momentum. The love scenes between the hero Robert Lee Hodges Jr. and his Japanese girlfriend are somewhat painful to read. The author takes quite a few jabs at the incompetent if not malicious military brass and the hypocritical draft-dodgers back in North America. While the story is quite affecting in parts, Fields of Fire is something of a weak novel.
A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo
Caputo's non-fiction account covers the same ground as Webb's novel: the day-by-day, trudge-by-trudge life of a Marine in Vietnam. Caputo's tour occurred in the first year of the war, and his account of the troops' optimism and naivete during the early days is affecting. It's depressing to read how futile the US's military actions were from the very first boots-on-the-ground. In the early parts of the book Caputo is a sympathetic narrator but the tone dramatically and peculiarly shifts at the point where he recounts his trial for war crimes. My only other complaint is with the pretentious snippets of classic poetry at chapter heads, which are out of place in a book about trenchfoot and artillery. Fields of Fire and A Rumor of War read together are more interesting than they would be separately. Thanks to Lynn Kozma for the recommendation.
Highest Traditions by Tony Lazzarini
Lazzarini was a helicopter door gunner in Vietnam during 1965-1967 and Highest Traditions is a very personal memoir of his two tours of duty. The book includes some striking firsthand accounts of missions to apply Agent Orange and to covertly infiltrate Cambodia. Lazzarini's writing is informal and conversational, as if you were having a beer with an acquaintance and casually inquired about his war service. Since Highest Traditions has such a tight focus, it wouldn't be a good choice for a first book about Vietnam, but its frank reporting is has more impact on the reader than many books by professional journalists. When describing the death of friends or the horrifying emotional impact of the war on GI's, Lazzarini's writing will put a lump in almost every throat. Nonetheless there are several passages that are very funny. Thanks to Mr. Lazzarini for sending me a copy of his book.
A Short Rhetoric for Leaving the Family by Peter Dimock
Dimock's novel takes the form of a letter from the troubled narrator Jarlath Lanham to his nephews Des and General. The title refers to the narrator's formal but rather tortured attempt to use the devices of classical rhetoric to convey the horror of the Lanham family history to the boys. The novel is particularly clever in the way that it juxtaposes Jarlath's strangely mannered rantings with chilling excerpts from the Pentagon Papers. Dimock has done an excellent job of creating a disturbed character whose arguments are often sympathetic, reminiscent of The Unabomber Manifesto. The novel subtly raises the question, just who is crazy here anyway? A Short Rhetoric is a brief book that makes a lasting impression. Thanks to Gene Heller for the recommendation.
The Names of the Dead by Stewart O'Nan
Stewart O'Nan is a master of high-brow horror and consequently The Names of the Dead imagines the lives of Vietnam veterans as a lingering nightmare. Like A Short Rhetoric, O'Nan's novel features a strong but distant father figure and an evil double whose actions mirror but distort those of the sympathetic narrator. While A Short Rhetoric is an epistolary novel written by the unstable character, Names of the Dead is a plainly told story grounded in the details of everyday life and narrated by the more lucid character. O'Nan is a skillful writer who develops considerable suspense in telling the story of Larry Markham, a somewhat damaged veteran who's just trying to get by in both family life and the world of work. Thanks to Diane Heckman for the recommendation.
A Viet Cong Memoir by Truong Nhu Tang
Tang's book differs from previous memoirs I've read not only because the author writes from a Vietnamese perspective but because he tells the story from a political point of view, not a military one. While the War was certainly a traumatic event in the United States, reading Tang's memoir brings home how nightmarish the time period was for the Vietnamese.
Tang was born to a privileged family and was educated in France, where he met Ho Chi Minh and was converted to the radical cause. Upon returning to Vietnam he was for many years a secret supporter of the resistance until his ultimate arrest and torture. After Tang was released in a prisoner exchange, he headed out to the "Iron Triangle" jungle region where he became a minister in the Provisional Revolutionary Government. The memoir features vivid descriptions about being on the receiving end of B-52 attacks, which eventually caused the PRG to flee to Cambodia. There the PRG was subject to the notorious "secret Christmas bombing."
Tang discusses in vivid detail how the many American missteps played into the propaganda plans of the revolutionaries. The most fascinating section describes Tang's creeping realization that the North Vietnamese had no intention of allowing a democratic, independent South Vietnam. The tale of how the northerners subverted the PRG and took power after the "Great Spring Victory" is chilling. Despite the fact that Tang was nominally Minister of Justice, several of his brothers were forced into re-education camps and one never returned. The last chapter describes Tang's escape as a "boat person."
A political memoir of the war may sound like a deadly prospect, but A Viet Cong Memoir is required reading for anyone who cares about the history of the conflict. While much of the book lacks the you-are-there immediacy of a great memoir, the behind-the-scenes of analysis of events like the Paris Peace Talks will greatly interest anyone who remembers the early 1970's.
Discussed on a different page: Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone, only incidentally about the war but well worth reading.
Not read: Karnow's Vietnam, Hasford's The Short-Timers or Le Ly Hayslip's books. Any opinions? What memoirs by southeast Asian authors are worth reading?
