After The War Was Over: Hanoi and Saigon

by Neil Sheehan

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Bright Shining Lie revisits the scene of his magisterial account of the war in Vietnam and reveals the country that is just beginning to emerge from the war's ashes. "Enlightening . . . mesmerizing . . . luminously clear."--The New York Times.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, War, Journalism, Travel, Historical

131 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Cornelius Mahoney "Neil" Sheehan is an American journalist. As a reporter for The New York Times in 1971, Sheehan obtained the classified Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg. His series of articles revealed a secret U.S. Department of Defense history of the Vietnam War and led to a U.S. Supreme Court case when the United States government attempted to halt publication.
He received a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for his 1989 book A Bright Shining Lie, about the life of Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann and the United States involvement in the Vietnam War.

Reviews

[William2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam took Neil Sheehan sixteen years to write and earned him the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. It is the great book about American involvement in Vietnam. It has no peer. It is the secret decoder-ring of America in the late twentieth century. It should be required reading for anyone who truly wishes to understand the hubris of this sometimes bumbling colossus.

After the War Was Over: Hanoi and Saigon is a coda to the earlier book. It first appeared in shorter form in The New Yorker in 1991. Sheehan then published it in slightly expanded book form (135 pages) the following year. Three years later, in 1995, the United States established diplomatic recognition of Communist Vietnam for the first time. Previous diplomatic recognition had been of the South Vietnamese American client state, which really doesn't count.

In this snapshot of the country not sixteen years after the war--and three years before America's rapprochement which allowed NGOs to enter the country--we are shocked anew by its dismal poverty. Sheehan looks at the country’s then fledgling industry, its horrendous sanitation and healthcare crises, and he visits locations deep in the jungle key to the Vietnamese victory. At one point he exclaims: "Why in the name of God had we bombed a country as poor as this?" It's a good question. That the answer should be fear itself, which we were properly warned about, seems just too paltry. But it is the answer.

Recommended for those who’ve read A Bright Shining Lie.

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Neil Sheehan, author of 'A Bright Shining Lie', covered the war in Vietnam, off and on, beginning in 1962. By 1967 he'd become critical of the U.S. involvement there and in 1971 he was instrumental in obtaining a copy of the Pentagon Papers for the New York Times.

This moving and insightful book details portions of his return to Vietnam, accompanied by his wife, in 1989. It is in two parts. The first centers on Hanoi, a city new to him, the second on Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon, once very familiar. In both he visits representative Vietnamese, high and low, Communist and not, giving the reader a sense of how it felt on all sides to experience their wars with the French, the Americans, the Cambodians, the Chinese and themselves.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only negative was no paragraphs at all. Overall, the book was well researched, written, sad and true about both sides in the years of the VN war. The atrocities, lies, destruction, started by Kennedy and forward including Presidents Johnson, Nixon and their "players" resulting in wasted lives all for the sake of the "Corporate-Industrial War Machine and profits . A disgrace and a waste not fighting against Communism but fighting for CORPORATISM!

[Dominik Vu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the chapter about Hanoi was more developed than the SGN part, I would have appreciated more insight into the Southerners' feelings and daily life after the war

[Stacia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written, although I wish there were chapters or sections throughout the book (rather than just two parts with no stop between).

I learned a lot and enjoyed reading this book but mostly due to my having lived in Saigon for two years. Sheehan's writing is an in-depth look at Hanoi and Saigon after the war. If I did not have personal interest in Vietnam and some background knowledge of the war and the country already, I would not have enjoyed this book nearly as much (I probably would not have gotten through the whole book).

For anyone interested in Vietnam, learning where the country has come from to get to where it is today, and/or the Vietnam ("American") War, I definitely recommend reading this book.

[Ronnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book....this book...this book..is magnificent in its totality, coverage and sensitivity . I read about this bool but hadn't read it. Yes he wrote A Bright Shining Lie. I read the book " Once Upon a Distant War" by William Prochnau. I cannot write enough ..say enough about these two book. Yes the damnable lies are strewn all over the place. But there are nuggets. To wit....the part where Ho Chi Minh overestimated the USA in that he didn't believe that the Americans would behave like the French and stay too long. He really thought that once the Americans saw what the war making effort entailed and that the Vietnamese were stalwart and insistent on being independent of their own volition they w0uld leave. Sheehan writes the response well. But the best was the rejoinder that it wasn't Karl Marx and Das Kapital that influenced the leaders of the Viets. It was Victor Hugo and "Les Miserables". It was the portrayal of Jean Valjean who had to steal bread to stay alive and was pursued by Inspector Javert. That was the key to social Justice. For All...Read it ...You will be stunned.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 3 out of 5]

After The War Was Over is a languid and wandering coda to A Bright Shining Lie, as Sheehan tours the newly opening, but still very poor and very communist country in 1989. Interviews with prominent Vietnamese are interspersed with his own reminiscence about the war, and about what going back to these sites was like. There isn't really much here: most of the people he interviews are plucky entreprenuers who survived the war to set up their own small business, and who have no hard feelings towards Americans. The communist bureaucracy is stubborn and occasionally cruel, but managed to step back from the brink of absolute collapse in 1986. Nearly 30 years on from the renormalization of relationships between Vietnam and the West, this book is as much a historical artifact as Sheehan's reporting.

[Richard Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This relatively small book is something of an epilogue to his highly influential 1988 book, "A Bright Shining Lie" about the Vietnam War. Returning to Vietnam in 1989, Sheehan highlights the pride, resilience, and complexities of the Vietnamese people and leadership, including the challenges they faced during the post-war period under Communist rule. This book is a fitting companion piece to his earlier work and completes the Vietnam story from war to peace, reflecting the reconciliation process and Vietnam’s ongoing transformation. Having lived through that period, I am both saddened and angered to see how utterly wrong America was in its assumptions and actions in that war.

[Thomas Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A year ago while cycling across northern Vietnam I read Neil Sheehan’s masterpiece “A Bright Shining lie” and the book lit up my journey with such power that when I saw that Sheehan passed away recently— I searched out this short book, originally published in the New Yorker of a journey Sheehan took with his wife, Susan, back to Vietnam in 1989 — and read it. If you want to understand the Vietnam War, read Sheehan, and if you’re planning a trip to Hanoi and Saigon, most certainly read this book.

[Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A time capsule of Vietnam in transition, told through the reminiscent eyes of a journalist returning to the war he once covered in person decades prior. A slice of the lives of many people whom he met before, during, and after the war.

Despite the subject matter, it's fairly easy and engaging reading.

[Greynomad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good read

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important contribution to the growing literature and appreciation of Vietnamese economic flexibility and experimentation post-wars. Telling that within one year of doi moi Vietnam begins to export rice en masse. Today, it is the second largest rice producer in the world. Thoroughly enjoyed the brief interviews with Gen. Giang and various players, especially in the Chu Chi area.

Like "A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam" this should be a primer for all American high school students.

Only regrets: no index or photos!

I read this book as "Two Cities: Hanoi and Saigon", 1991-92.

[Caitlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Assumes readers are REALLY familiar with the Vietnam war, quite dated but interesting look at Vietnam in the 80s. I read this before a trip to Vietnam and guess it's helpful to see much wealthier the country has become in the past few years.

[Cws]

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