Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Vietnam: A History
Book Review: A Great Starting Point!
Summary: 5 Stars
My brother died in Vietnam (1968), I spent two years in Vietnam with USO (1970-72), I've taught a Vietnam War history class at the college level, and I've written about the war. If you know little or nothing about the conflict, this book is a great starting point. Sincerely, Diana J. Dell, author, "A Saigon Party: And Other Vietnam War Short Stories."Book Review: A Well Written and Even Handed Account of the War.
Summary: 5 Stars
I had the unfortunate experience of taking a college level Vietnam Course that was completely one sided. The course was openly hostile to the American point of view and too sympathetic to the Communists. I am not saying I agreed with the war, but I feel a course or a book on the war should show boths side. I feel Karnow does this in his book. the book is well written and easy to read. Plus it does a good job of showing all the points of view of the war. Anyone looking for a book with a good background and overall history of the war should get this book. Read it and draw your own conclusions.Book Review: A fairly even-handed account
Summary: 4 Stars
I found this book to be very enlightening, especially the early history of Vietnam. I just missed out on going over, but I do remember the nightly updates on the news. Mr. Karnow sheds some light on the political intrigues going on behind the scenes, and the misguided thinking that got us into this morass....We (the US) of course denied it officially; but we were guilty of our share of "war crimes" in Vietnam. I recommend the book, and the companion video series (which I watched also). It was interesting seeing the cast of characters described in the book in real life (circa 1981-1983). Again, I think Karnow does a fairly even-handed job of covering the totality of our involvement in Vietnam. Have we learned anything from Vietnam? Well, as evidenced by our action in Kosovo, no. ...
Book Review: A good into book on Vietnam
Summary: 5 Stars
This book gives the reader with no knowledge about The Vietnam War good background information. This book is very descriptive in covering the History of Vietnam.Book Review: A good start - but hardly comprehensive
Summary: 4 Stars
Stanley Karnow's "Vietnam: A History," provides a decent overview of the history of this country -- dominated for so long by China and then France -- as well as the Vietnam War, and the quagmire that the U.S. involvement became. One reason for Karnow's unique perspective is his involvement as a reporter before, during and after the war, and his incredible access to some of the principles, including North Vietnamese. For someone like me, who was woefully ignorant about this embarassing but fascinating part of our history, I learned quite a bit about Vietnam in general, and the war in particular. And yet, I still feel like I know so little about it.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is the first chapter in which Karnow discusses the impact of the war over future foreign policy, and presents diverse opinions of military specialists who do some monday morning quarterbacking. Obviously, the easy answer is that the U.S. should never have gotten involved in this part of the world at all. But the best and the brightest, at that point in history, unwaveringly believed in the so-called "domino theory," where one country after another would be over taken by Communism. A stand had to be made, according to almost all of these experts (with almost unanimous agreement in Congress), in South Vietnam. Also, the best military minds were of the opinion that sustained air strikes and a policy of "escalation" would eventually bring the North to their knees, which turned out to be one of the most militarily and societally costly mistakes the U.S. ever made. So one question which must be asked, which Karnow covers in chapter one, is how we could have prevailed. It certainly didn't help matters that the South Vietnamese, mostly comprised of uneducated peasants (same as the North) were heavily infitrated by the Viet Cong, and didn't really seem to have their heart in the fight.
I agree with some other reviewers that Karnow often seems to root for the North Vietnamese, although he does write about their atrocities. I have to believe that ultimately, the South Vietnamese would have been a heck of alot better off if the North had been defeated, or, at least discouraged from conquering the South after a bogus peace agreement was reached, but, of course, it's hard to say.
The major short-coming of "Vietnam: A History," is the short thrift it gives to so many topics. For instance, Karnow mentions in a few sentences that when Ho Chi Min took over the North in 1945, two million North Vietnamese died from famine. This sounds like it could be an entire book in itself. Karnow covers the atrocities at Mylai and the consequential Court Martial of Lt. Calley in less than two pages. The horrors suffered by prisoners of war, including at the "Hanoi Hilton," are mentioned in a cursory manner. I still don't think I know or understand much about the elusive Ho Chi Min, or, for that matter, the equally elusive Henry Kissinger. I'm sure the ramifications of Nixon's decision to secretly bomb Cambodia could only adequately be presented in a much longer treatment than given here. Karnow covers the Vietnam protests, but never mentions Woodstock or the California based hippy drug culture, which centered itself politically on opposition to the war and the draft. In fact, the draft itself is barely discussed.
In summary, "Vietnam: A History," though a decent overview, left me hungry for much more about this fascinating and complex period of U.S. history, the effects of which we are still clearly feeling. Just look at how many times the situation in Iraq has been compared to the quagmire of Vietnam, as only one instance where the Vietnam war still lives with us.