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Vietnam and the Transformation of American Life
The Vietnam War, which dominated American life during the 1960s, helped to create, radicalize, and alter social and political life in the US.
- GenresAmerican History
289 pages, Paperback
First published February 28, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 2, 2009
His argument about the actual war, not so good. The part about how the war affected US society is good.
July 5, 2010
I wish there were a star for "I hated this book with a passion I rarely have" but, alas, I have to settle for "I didn't like it."
Buzzanco has pretty much written a book where Ho Chi Mihn is the bestest most wisest and benevolent leader to ever lead a nation and America is full of evil people who merely want to foist American goods on Vietnam. He refuses to use the term "communist" for the VC or Ho Chi Mihn. He calls them exclusively "nationalist" and while they were nationalist, they were communists as well.
He downplays the murder of North Vietnamese landlords by saying that it wasn't as many murdered as Nixon had claimed-- it was only a few thousand, he argues, not the half a million claimed by Nixon (when Nixon claimed half a million were put in camps he claimed 50,000 were killed) he justifies it by saying, essentially, Ho realized his mistake and therefore is not guilty. Well, maybe Ho is no more perfect than Nixon or LBJ.
There are omissions, errors of fact, and typos in the book aplenty. It's history at its worst. If he likes communism in third world countries so much, he should go live in one and quit writing American history.
Buzzanco has pretty much written a book where Ho Chi Mihn is the bestest most wisest and benevolent leader to ever lead a nation and America is full of evil people who merely want to foist American goods on Vietnam. He refuses to use the term "communist" for the VC or Ho Chi Mihn. He calls them exclusively "nationalist" and while they were nationalist, they were communists as well.
He downplays the murder of North Vietnamese landlords by saying that it wasn't as many murdered as Nixon had claimed-- it was only a few thousand, he argues, not the half a million claimed by Nixon (when Nixon claimed half a million were put in camps he claimed 50,000 were killed) he justifies it by saying, essentially, Ho realized his mistake and therefore is not guilty. Well, maybe Ho is no more perfect than Nixon or LBJ.
There are omissions, errors of fact, and typos in the book aplenty. It's history at its worst. If he likes communism in third world countries so much, he should go live in one and quit writing American history.
April 22, 2017
If you think the election year 2016 was bad, you don't remember 1968. I believe the premise of the title is true, that Vietnam transformed American life, but I don't think the book does it justice. It does give a good chronological history of time-related events in the Vietnam War and the American Civil Rights movement, and how the former stole resources and resolve from the latter. (The correct title doesn't include "Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq".)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews