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The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990
The first book to give equal weight to the Vietnamese and American sides of the Vietnam war.
448 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews
December 24, 2020
A stunning example of New-Left revisionism gone too far. LBJ and Nixon are treated as dime-novel villains. It is dreck like this that gives liberals, such as me, a bad name. Stay away. Stay far away.
UPDATE: I have decided to add more detail on why this book is among the worst works of history I have ever read. There is something odious about a book that goes on and on about our atrocities but confines communist murders to a page or two. Johnson and Nixon were flawed presidents, their motivations were complicated. There is none of that here. The result is a bias so heavy I cannot trust her. One part that angered me was when she disregarded the courage of the French soldiers at Dein Bein Phu because they were fighting for a bad cause.
I do not endorse US foreign policy since 1945. It has mostly gotten us into useless wars. In the case of Vietnam we tried to prop up a bad government. But this war was not a manichean affair. Sadly, it is perfect for this age.
UPDATE: I have decided to add more detail on why this book is among the worst works of history I have ever read. There is something odious about a book that goes on and on about our atrocities but confines communist murders to a page or two. Johnson and Nixon were flawed presidents, their motivations were complicated. There is none of that here. The result is a bias so heavy I cannot trust her. One part that angered me was when she disregarded the courage of the French soldiers at Dein Bein Phu because they were fighting for a bad cause.
I do not endorse US foreign policy since 1945. It has mostly gotten us into useless wars. In the case of Vietnam we tried to prop up a bad government. But this war was not a manichean affair. Sadly, it is perfect for this age.
Currently reading
April 29, 2009This is nostalgia/therapy reading for me. I lived in Viet Nam from'66 to '70. I have returned for several brief visits since and am always surprised at how functional my Vietnamese remains. I have the handicap of having lived much of what this book reports and find it an objective and genuinely informative historical assessment. The book stands by itself in this category of objective information on the topics that I have first hand experience.
October 3, 2009
educate yourself.
October 27, 2021
A well-written and informative history of the French and American wars in Indochina.
Young covers the mistakes and wishful thinking that influenced US policymakers, and the book does focus mostly on the American side. The narrative is concise but comprehensive. She does cover the North Vietnamese perspective, but not always thoroughly for every period of the war; she also does a great job covering South Vietnamese peasants and their relationships with the government, and the region’s postwar problems.
She also could have devoted more space to the role of the French war, the US intelligence community, and North Vietnamese blunders, and a few other select topics like the Phoenix Project, allied participation, the Russians, the Chinese, or the situation in Cambodia. China’s later war with Vietnam isn’t covered in depth. Some might also reach the conclusion that allied excesses are covered more than communist ones, and that communist interventions in other Southeast Asian nations weren't really acts of "aggression." She does cover the communist side, but her skepticism towards the war and America’s rationale behind it is very clear. At one point Matt Ridgway is called a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs. She also writes of “Nixon’s campaign assurance that he had a ‘secret plan’ for peace.” Nixon did allow people to think this, but that story originated with a reporter, not Nixon.
A solid, accessible work.
Young covers the mistakes and wishful thinking that influenced US policymakers, and the book does focus mostly on the American side. The narrative is concise but comprehensive. She does cover the North Vietnamese perspective, but not always thoroughly for every period of the war; she also does a great job covering South Vietnamese peasants and their relationships with the government, and the region’s postwar problems.
She also could have devoted more space to the role of the French war, the US intelligence community, and North Vietnamese blunders, and a few other select topics like the Phoenix Project, allied participation, the Russians, the Chinese, or the situation in Cambodia. China’s later war with Vietnam isn’t covered in depth. Some might also reach the conclusion that allied excesses are covered more than communist ones, and that communist interventions in other Southeast Asian nations weren't really acts of "aggression." She does cover the communist side, but her skepticism towards the war and America’s rationale behind it is very clear. At one point Matt Ridgway is called a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs. She also writes of “Nixon’s campaign assurance that he had a ‘secret plan’ for peace.” Nixon did allow people to think this, but that story originated with a reporter, not Nixon.
A solid, accessible work.
October 16, 2022
Excellent, the best book I've read so far on the Vietnam War.
One of the biggest strengths Young brings to her book is a clearer (and in many ways, more damning) analysis of American aims during the war. For being much shorter than Karnow's book on the war, or Sheehan's book on John Paul Vann, it's both more memorable and more insightful—like not pretending the post-Diem coups were due to arbitrary personalities; instead, casting them as who was willing and able to uphold American aims during the war, and not slip into a neutralist stance or even negotiate with Hanoi.
It's also, frankly, a lot clearer about how much of the war was an outright atrocity knowingly perpetuated on Vietnam by American money, American troops, and American bombs. Highly highly recommended, even though it'll drive you a little more crazy to live in this hell nation.
One of the biggest strengths Young brings to her book is a clearer (and in many ways, more damning) analysis of American aims during the war. For being much shorter than Karnow's book on the war, or Sheehan's book on John Paul Vann, it's both more memorable and more insightful—like not pretending the post-Diem coups were due to arbitrary personalities; instead, casting them as who was willing and able to uphold American aims during the war, and not slip into a neutralist stance or even negotiate with Hanoi.
It's also, frankly, a lot clearer about how much of the war was an outright atrocity knowingly perpetuated on Vietnam by American money, American troops, and American bombs. Highly highly recommended, even though it'll drive you a little more crazy to live in this hell nation.
September 14, 2021
Ottimo saggio di taglio universitario che ha il pregio di inquadrare il conflitto vietnamita in tutte le sue dimensioni: storica, sociale, politica e diplomatica. Una menzione particolare per l'accurata descrizione del versante USA e dell'inner circle politico delle varie amministrazioni che hanno portato avanti le operazioni. Particolarmente utile la parte finale dedicata al dopo guerra, (che ha colmato una mia lacuna e che ha presentato un periodo men che pacifico) con i gravosi strascichi dei conflitti con Cina e Cambogia (sobillati dai soliti USA). Non ho messo la quinta stella solo per una questione "stilistica"; la scrittura e' risultata abbastanza piatta, si puo' scrivere meglio anche un bel saggio come questo.
June 1, 2010
Counter-insurgency: Providing justification for neo-colonial policy since colonialism went out of style.
December 26, 2016
This is an adequate treatment of the 2 parts of the Vietnam War, which are the French and the American. The French portion understandably gets much less coverage than the American. The book also goes into American conflicts well after the United States left Vietnam such as Grenada to show how Vietnam today impacts American thinking on military involvement in other nations. The book is more political and about the home fronts (Vietnam and the United States) than it is about the actual campaigns and battles.
The author definitely has a political slant which is readily discernible. There are a couple of misspellings but the book overall does a competent job of describing what happened. The author's writing style is not particularly interesting. There are various stretches that are a struggle to get through. This is a brief work and covers the key aspects, but not in great detail. It's a decent introductory read on the overall conflict.
The author definitely has a political slant which is readily discernible. There are a couple of misspellings but the book overall does a competent job of describing what happened. The author's writing style is not particularly interesting. There are various stretches that are a struggle to get through. This is a brief work and covers the key aspects, but not in great detail. It's a decent introductory read on the overall conflict.
June 2, 2016
This gives a more human face (if it is possible to give war a human face) to a conflict that never had any basis in reality, and only occurred because of a few politicians who believed it was advantageous.
The consensus is that Young's narrative is anti-American; it is only anti-American insofar as it recounts the facts the way they actually occurred materially. The waste of life on both sides is beyond lamentable.
The atrocities committed by the US military in the Vietnam war are put on an ugly and full display and so are the atrocities committed by Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese. One reads with a heavy head and one can see the exact mistakes repeated in the Iraq war. An excellent study; indeed, the most objective I've yet read concerning this subject.
The consensus is that Young's narrative is anti-American; it is only anti-American insofar as it recounts the facts the way they actually occurred materially. The waste of life on both sides is beyond lamentable.
The atrocities committed by the US military in the Vietnam war are put on an ugly and full display and so are the atrocities committed by Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese. One reads with a heavy head and one can see the exact mistakes repeated in the Iraq war. An excellent study; indeed, the most objective I've yet read concerning this subject.
August 23, 2024
Another Masters course reading - but more enjoyable because I really do not have much background on the Vietnam Wars or American involvement. I learned a ton from this book, but it is almost textbook or history styled, so not great for the everyday reader or pleasure readers. Young is incredibly critical of basically all of America's decisions towards involvement in Vietnam. I just do not find many solutions from this book for our issues. I do not know what else we were really able to do in such a horrible situation that the French just threw into our hands. Everyone saw the ultimate collapse of South Vietnam once we left, so I guess we should have left way sooner... but as I read in "Unwanted" the people of South Vietnam suffered immensely upon us leaving.
March 9, 2013
Just finished this book this evening. It was a great history of the Vietnam War.. at least a great introduction to the wars in that sad country. It is not the most amazing book ever about that war (A Bright Shining Lie), but it does a soldier's job of getting all the facts out. It is certainly weighted to highlight the stupidity of American leadership in this time, and it is way overstating it to say that it tells the story of the war from the Vietnamese perspective. But it was a good read. I paid a quarter for it at Goodwill.
September 8, 2010
Riveting!
February 7, 2018
Eminently readable, this is probably the definitive Vietnam War history, or one of them. (I can't claim to be a Vietnam expert.) There's not a lot of historiography — that is, saying how Young's argument fits into the claims of other historians — but that's to be expected, since HarperCollins and not an academic press published the book. Young makes a strong case that the Vietnam War violated American principles and that America should not have been there at all. I suppose her argument is based on the assumption that non-intervention in foreign powers and democratic self-determination are innate American values, which the Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations violated. Critics farther to the left would probably say that America lacked such altruistic innate values. No matter; we all have our biases, and Young is no different in that regard. The book is an educational, thought-provoking, and somber read. In short, it does exactly what it should as a history of such an atrocious war.
April 14, 2021
Some of her criticisms of the American war effort were accurate, but her portrayal of the communist Vietnamese was completely biased. She obviously favors communism over Western civilization and is not afraid to fudge numbers of casualties in battles or amount killed in bombing raids to make America look bad. She should realize that the war looked bad without any exaggeration and instead try to get the truth out there. Instead, she relies on North Vietnamese counts of the number killed in bombing raids because they have no interest in inflating the numbers to make America look worse... Her sources, like Howard Zinn, tend to be from newspapers, but she does have some scholarly sources. Her use of the Pentagon Papers is obvious throughout so maybe go read those instead of this.
June 26, 2018
even to a hardened cynic as myself, the way in which young pulls together the entire picture of US conduct during the war, and really, as the title indicates, from the end of WWII onward, is breathtaking. I didn't think I could be shocked and appalled again by the Vietnam war because I thought I knew what it was, but really I only had a bare idea of how outrageous, cruel, brutal, and frankly genocidal our policies and practices there were. Eye-opening. a little hagiographic on the topic of Ho and the Communists, but still a welcome counterbalance in that regard to the standard racist dehumanized portraits given in even liberal critiques of the war.
April 23, 2020
Superb coverage from the inception in 1945 to the closure in 1990. The details tell of the tremendous loss of life on the Vietnamese side to what was incurred by the French and then the Americans, which while significant, pales in comparison. The French should never have been given the support by the U.S. and the U.S. should have followed what the UN recommended. The U.S. had multiple opportunities to not fall into the morass the Vietnam War became. The winners were always going to be the Vietnamese, as they were willing to make any sacrifices to do that.
May 27, 2020
I read this book for my History class. It gives a general picture of the wars from an orthodox point of view. Readers can gain basic knowledge of chronicle of events and development of the Indochina/Vietnam Wars. It does not include a lot of analysis, so if you were looking for something more in depth, this is not the one. But if you just want to know what was going on during the war, this is the correct book.
February 29, 2024
A bit formulaic at times and lacks the storytelling prowess of a truly great history book, but for the time it was written I have to emphatically agree with the evaluation of the work Howard Zinn made, which the book chooses to put on its cover: It is the (social) history of the war that was/is much needed.
August 8, 2019
Balanced account of the Japanese, French, American, and Chinese wars in Vietnam. Good discussion of the war's impact on the US domestic front - but lacked the similar scholarship of the domestic front in France.
April 14, 2024
Learned a lot about this war and the conditions that lead up to it. The Americans, like the French couldn’t keep their hands out of another countries sovereignty. Hope to visit the country some day soon.
June 3, 2024
As good evidence as any for the US being the greatest purveyor of death and suffering in the ~80 years of its world hegemony. A terribly sad book.
August 2, 2024
Book for class: the CIA and the US government have done a lot of crazy stuff
October 11, 2022
Really good overview of the Vietnam War, going into what happened before to give context and what happened after as a sort of historical epilogue. This is the fourth book I've read about the Vietnam War as I prepare to write a chapter about it in the history book I'm working on, and this is definitely the book I'd recommend to anyone looking to learn about the topic.
If I have one complaint, it's that the criticism of the Viet Minh is... weird? Young is pretty clearly sympathetic to the Viet Minh and Viet Cong, which from everything I've studied about the war makes sense, as they were pretty clearly the ones fighting an invading empire. Sometimes, though, she'll criticize them, which is also fair, no group should be portrayed as saints. But her criticism will often be vague yet dramatic. There often isn't any actual information given to back up these criticisms.
For example, when she talks about the land reform measures the Viet Minh took in North Vietnam in the mid-1950s. She talks about how there was a lot of violence and overly zealous actions taken, which I'd agree with based on my study of it from other sources, but here there isn't really information given for it. That might make it sound like she's trying to paper over it, but she uses menacing language about their actions that make them sound severe. So I'm not sure what the goal was, but giving tangible information to support what she was saying would've been helpful.
That aside, this is an excellent overview. Young has her sympathies (as ALL historical writers do, unless you're reading a textbook that goes out of its way to give weight to extra sides), but still doesn't portray any one side as complete villain or saint. If you're looking to read only one book about the Vietnam War, this is it, whether you're a casual reader or scholar.
If I have one complaint, it's that the criticism of the Viet Minh is... weird? Young is pretty clearly sympathetic to the Viet Minh and Viet Cong, which from everything I've studied about the war makes sense, as they were pretty clearly the ones fighting an invading empire. Sometimes, though, she'll criticize them, which is also fair, no group should be portrayed as saints. But her criticism will often be vague yet dramatic. There often isn't any actual information given to back up these criticisms.
For example, when she talks about the land reform measures the Viet Minh took in North Vietnam in the mid-1950s. She talks about how there was a lot of violence and overly zealous actions taken, which I'd agree with based on my study of it from other sources, but here there isn't really information given for it. That might make it sound like she's trying to paper over it, but she uses menacing language about their actions that make them sound severe. So I'm not sure what the goal was, but giving tangible information to support what she was saying would've been helpful.
That aside, this is an excellent overview. Young has her sympathies (as ALL historical writers do, unless you're reading a textbook that goes out of its way to give weight to extra sides), but still doesn't portray any one side as complete villain or saint. If you're looking to read only one book about the Vietnam War, this is it, whether you're a casual reader or scholar.
July 4, 2018
It is better than I expected and really influential to me. I want to read a lot more on the subject.
September 9, 2019
Very in-depth, and not just for the American side. Highly recommend this to anyone interested in Vietnam war-era history!
March 15, 2024
heavily focused on demonstrating the atrocities of American foreign policy which it does rather successfully
March 19, 2025
great for comprehensive history on the Vietnam wars !! Wish it talked about the methods of containment a little more and Diem/Lansdale.
April 8, 2025
Simultaneously a good overview of the Vietnam War and has excellent detail. It is very approachable and easy to read.
May 3, 2025
Now i have to take my final o_o;
June 20, 2025
Not our country's finest hour. Surely we've learned our lesson.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 49 reviews