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Backfire: A History of How American Culture Led Us into Vietnam and Made Us Fight the Way We Did
In a probing look at the myths of American culture that led us into the Vietnam quagmire, Loren Baritz exposes our national illusions: the conviction of our moral supremacy, our assumption that Americans are more idealistic than other people, and our faith in a technology that supposedly makes us invincible. He also reveals how Vietnam changed American culture today, from the successes and failures of the Washington bureaucracy to the destruction of the traditional military code of honor.
400 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1985
About the author
Loren Baritz
20 books1 followerA specialist in twentieth-century intellectual and cultural history, Loren Baritz has served as chairman of the Department of History at the University of Rochester, provost and acting chancellor at the State University of New York, and provost at the University of Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 6, 2014
Read 3 times; referred to many times
(I added this book to my shelf when I joined Goodreads in 2014, but I didn't review it until today) (7/06/22).
I wish every American would read this book (published in 1985), but I especially wish that President George W. Bush and Vice-President Richard Cheney had read it during the first weeks of their administration; not only read it, but absorbed it, and taken it to heart.
Had they done so, it might have prevented them from committing the country to two simultaneous, unwinnable, wars, one of which, being preemptive in nature, is considered by some legal experts to have been illegal.
The subtitle of the book is A History of How American Culture Led Us into Vietnam and Made Us Fight the Way We Did. Substitute Iraq and Afghanistan in place of Vietnam and the book would go a long way in explaining what led us into those two conflicts.
But Bush and Cheney did not read the book and did not heed the lessons that Vietnam taught us, or should have, instead they proceeded to repeat many of the same mistakes.
At ten years, Vietnam was once our longest war, but it was surpassed by the war in Afghanistan, which lasted twenty years. There are many sad things to contemplate about both of those conflicts, but this might be the saddest: If we had never set foot in Vietnam, that country would in all likelihood be what it is today, united under a communist government; and despite twenty years of conflict in Afghanistan, that country today is controlled by the same people we went to war against twenty years ago.
Baritz did not set out to write a book describing the Vietnam War, that he left to other writers. His focus was not on the “what” question, but “why.” “Why it happened; why we waged it as we did; why we negotiated the way we did; and why it was such a disaster for us.”
As the subtitle indicates, he believes that we can’t answer those questions if we ignore the role American culture played.
(I added this book to my shelf when I joined Goodreads in 2014, but I didn't review it until today) (7/06/22).
I wish every American would read this book (published in 1985), but I especially wish that President George W. Bush and Vice-President Richard Cheney had read it during the first weeks of their administration; not only read it, but absorbed it, and taken it to heart.
Had they done so, it might have prevented them from committing the country to two simultaneous, unwinnable, wars, one of which, being preemptive in nature, is considered by some legal experts to have been illegal.
The subtitle of the book is A History of How American Culture Led Us into Vietnam and Made Us Fight the Way We Did. Substitute Iraq and Afghanistan in place of Vietnam and the book would go a long way in explaining what led us into those two conflicts.
But Bush and Cheney did not read the book and did not heed the lessons that Vietnam taught us, or should have, instead they proceeded to repeat many of the same mistakes.
At ten years, Vietnam was once our longest war, but it was surpassed by the war in Afghanistan, which lasted twenty years. There are many sad things to contemplate about both of those conflicts, but this might be the saddest: If we had never set foot in Vietnam, that country would in all likelihood be what it is today, united under a communist government; and despite twenty years of conflict in Afghanistan, that country today is controlled by the same people we went to war against twenty years ago.
Baritz did not set out to write a book describing the Vietnam War, that he left to other writers. His focus was not on the “what” question, but “why.” “Why it happened; why we waged it as we did; why we negotiated the way we did; and why it was such a disaster for us.”
As the subtitle indicates, he believes that we can’t answer those questions if we ignore the role American culture played.
May 11, 2010
Engaging and also somewhat discouraging. Baritz proposes that two traits of American society led to the Vietnam debacle: solipsism and relentless faith in technology.
Solipsism is the fallacy of treating the external world as nonexistent -- or, in this case, of assuming that the rest of the world is exactly like the United States and desires to conform to its wishes -- as if every person is an American waiting to happen. American leaders and citizens failed to appreciate that the Vietnamese might have different plans for their own society based on a fundamentally different history and philosophy. Thus, Americans blundered into a war of "liberation" that took no account of the plans or proclivities of the Vietnamese people. Cultural misunderstandings continued throughout the war and led to escalating frustration and, in many cases, racism and thuggery as the Americans discovered the unsettling alienness of the Vietnamese. They also led to the United States' total failure to comprehend the true motivations of the Vietminh, whom Americans have persisted in viewing as an agent of world Communism -- the mirror image of globally minded American leaders -- rather than of a longstanding nationalist movement.
As for technology, Baritz argues that Americans, thanks to their history of rapid advance through the wilderness (and, more recently, their experience with industrialized warfare), tend to have overwhelming faith that the application of human knowledge is an agent of progress. Technology, the people of the United States assume, can transform the earth and solve any problem. During the Cold War, this created men such as Curtis LeMay and ultimately Robert McNamara, who applied the principles of scientific management to the war in the jungle. Far too few Americans appreciated the limits of air power or the effectiveness of ardent footsoldiers, however ill-equipped, in a harsh terrain. Americans never learned the lesson taught to the French at Dien Bien Phu at the outset of the war, when elite French paratroops were overwhelmed by the men, women, and children of a "primitive" society.
It's safe to say that this analysis is still relevant to the American situation 25 years after Baritz published this book. Now as then, these two blindnesses are not limited to one party or political ideology, but seem to be endemic to the nation.
Solipsism is the fallacy of treating the external world as nonexistent -- or, in this case, of assuming that the rest of the world is exactly like the United States and desires to conform to its wishes -- as if every person is an American waiting to happen. American leaders and citizens failed to appreciate that the Vietnamese might have different plans for their own society based on a fundamentally different history and philosophy. Thus, Americans blundered into a war of "liberation" that took no account of the plans or proclivities of the Vietnamese people. Cultural misunderstandings continued throughout the war and led to escalating frustration and, in many cases, racism and thuggery as the Americans discovered the unsettling alienness of the Vietnamese. They also led to the United States' total failure to comprehend the true motivations of the Vietminh, whom Americans have persisted in viewing as an agent of world Communism -- the mirror image of globally minded American leaders -- rather than of a longstanding nationalist movement.
As for technology, Baritz argues that Americans, thanks to their history of rapid advance through the wilderness (and, more recently, their experience with industrialized warfare), tend to have overwhelming faith that the application of human knowledge is an agent of progress. Technology, the people of the United States assume, can transform the earth and solve any problem. During the Cold War, this created men such as Curtis LeMay and ultimately Robert McNamara, who applied the principles of scientific management to the war in the jungle. Far too few Americans appreciated the limits of air power or the effectiveness of ardent footsoldiers, however ill-equipped, in a harsh terrain. Americans never learned the lesson taught to the French at Dien Bien Phu at the outset of the war, when elite French paratroops were overwhelmed by the men, women, and children of a "primitive" society.
It's safe to say that this analysis is still relevant to the American situation 25 years after Baritz published this book. Now as then, these two blindnesses are not limited to one party or political ideology, but seem to be endemic to the nation.
Want to Read
September 27, 2009This book, written in 1985, is virtually timeless when it comes to describing where America is socially, politically, intellectually and it can be used as a roadmap to discover what it is we are all about. I encourage people to read it so that they can perhaps glimpse a little about what makes us what we are as "a people". What is shows is that we have always had certain characteristics as a nation that have been with us even before we became a nation and that these characteristics are always going to be with us unless we actively do something to change them. It is like reading a key to a puzzle that you didn't even was a puzzle. I especially liked the amount of research that the author did and all of the annotations for his statements. At one point I even felt that he had been peering into my own personal life. Creepy.
November 10, 2017
I've read many books on the Vietnam War. Most were all about the who, what, where, and how. This book, however, is about the WHY! And while many of the reasons behind this debacle in US history were known to me or suspected highly, Mr. Baritz puts it all out there in this book; the motivations, the errors in judgement, the manipulations, the lies and deceit, the ineptitude of our leaders (civilian and military), etc. It's just the whole sad story that cost so many lives.
And for what?
So politicians could get re-elected? So bureaucrats could continue their cush gigs while feeding from the public trough? So military men could give themselves medals and advance their careers? I have no respect for the entire lot of them.
The ones involved in that cluster-screw who I have respect and empathy for are the U.S. servicemen and women who were out there every day getting the asses shot at. The grunts slogging through the mud and mines to achieve some cockamamie goal dreamed up by suits sitting in air conditioned offices 10,000 mile away.
I have respect and empathy for the innocent Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians who suffered so much during this era. They lost so much to gain so little.
I have respect for North Vietnamese people and leaders. They outlasted the US. They bided their time. They suffered. They lost much. They won.
If you have any interest in this era, you should read this book. It was written in 1985, but could be used as a blueprint of what NOT TO DO in our current era when it comes to "limited wars" and wasting of human life for causes that cannot even remotely be classified as noble.
And for what?
So politicians could get re-elected? So bureaucrats could continue their cush gigs while feeding from the public trough? So military men could give themselves medals and advance their careers? I have no respect for the entire lot of them.
The ones involved in that cluster-screw who I have respect and empathy for are the U.S. servicemen and women who were out there every day getting the asses shot at. The grunts slogging through the mud and mines to achieve some cockamamie goal dreamed up by suits sitting in air conditioned offices 10,000 mile away.
I have respect and empathy for the innocent Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians who suffered so much during this era. They lost so much to gain so little.
I have respect for North Vietnamese people and leaders. They outlasted the US. They bided their time. They suffered. They lost much. They won.
If you have any interest in this era, you should read this book. It was written in 1985, but could be used as a blueprint of what NOT TO DO in our current era when it comes to "limited wars" and wasting of human life for causes that cannot even remotely be classified as noble.
July 9, 2026
A really good overview of this war. Maybe a little wordy for some but to me, so much the better. It reaches back to 1945 to set the scene for this disaterous interferance in another nations affairs to the detriment of the US's reputation forever. And rightly so since the British Empire was a clue to where such interfering ends.
Strangely, writing this now, much of Nixon's performance reminds me of the similar unnerving behaviour of Trump in his second term. But in the former checks and balances in government brought it to a end but how it will end, presently, no one knows.
Strangely, writing this now, much of Nixon's performance reminds me of the similar unnerving behaviour of Trump in his second term. But in the former checks and balances in government brought it to a end but how it will end, presently, no one knows.
August 6, 2023
Painful to read. This book was published in 1985 and while many works, both specialized and general, have followed, it is as good as any in explaining the debacle that was Vietnam. Nearly 60,000 men lost their lives in a war that not only need not have happened but was also incompetently directed by our military and political leaders once it had begun.
August 6, 2010
Baritz leaves no subject untouched, and goes as far as looking back to the Wilson and Roosevelt administration’s and FDR’s concerns about Indochina and belief that the French had failed the people of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Subsequently the role that the Truman Administration played in Vietnam is evaluated. The Soviets, the French, and the Cold War are also key subjects in this book. Baritz feels that he wrote about the Vietnam War to clarify American Culture that the war was something that America should ascertain from and cease to repeat. Baritz wrote the book to help America understand its culture. Baritz feels he is qualified for such an undertaking since he has taught American Intellectual History, Political History, and was involved in the political opposition to the Vietnam War. He goes further to explain that he has written several books and articles on cultural myths, is educated in American Mythology, and understands political history. The war was something that distressed Baritz for an extensive time he read every major book and article on the war, and never found an explanation for the war, which motivated Baritz to write this book. Then bulk of the content covers the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations. The thesis statement in the preface that he wrote about the Vietnam War to clarify American culture is more defined during the explanation of Nixon’s role in Vietnam. Further, in the preface Baritz further explains that a chain of events led to Vietnam. While Kennedy may have been the one to initially, send troops over to Vietnam, Johnson defiantly, felt military intervention was necessary in Vietnam sending over more troops. During Johnsons reign, the nation turned against the war after the Tet Offensive. Johnson decided not to seek reelection. Nixon who was the focus of the aptly titled section “Politics of Ego” sought to use the war to his advantage to win the election. Nixon was incensed when a truce was possible and feared this would cost him the election. Nixon aligns politically with Henry Kissinger after winning the election. What some would seen as a mutual respect between political advisors is painted as a parasitic relationship where the two are joined at the hip, constantly planning and scheming, to manipulate the outcome of the war in their favor. The dynamic of Kissinger and Nixon’s shrewdness in fact is the way America is perceived in certain cultures, one big bully. Their philosophy of “peace with honor” was tainted by bloodshed and bombings to end the war during the first year of Nixon’s presidency. The book examines Nixon and his administrations role in war leading up to its end in 1973. The book examines that Vietnam enabled ignorance. That in fact Vietnam was one war with two fronts. Vietnam being the first war and the second war was actually the White House versus the State department. The role of bureaucracy is explained in a way, that even a politically ignorant individual could grasp. Finally, we come to the soldiers and veterans, what was expected of them and why they acted the way, they did. This book answered some of the most popular questions about Vietnam Veterans and their behavior. Such as how could they rape and murder. The evidence supporting the author’s theories is seemingly concrete as he cites various interviews, books, and articles. It seems that Baritz thoroughly researched and his essay by reading respectable and accurate articles, books, and interviews and it seems that none of the evidence conflicts and that the evidence is whole. The book while through and seeming accurate it could use a more organization and simplification. The book does not become cohesive until it is well past one hundred pages and one could lose interest quickly. The book is logical despite lacking unification at certain points. The third segment of the book could have easily been integrated into the first and second segments to interconnect his arguments more succinctly. This book is lacking colorful language and witticism to draw in the reader, at times this book was insipid.
Baritz manages to wrap up the Vietnam War in a nice tidy package with a bow. He does what any historian should looking to the past, present, and future so that the event can been seen in its full capacity to help the reader understand the what, where, when, why, and how. No aspect of the war was ignored, and I am considering scanning the book for the phrase kitchen sink. I am going to caution recommending this book on a limited basis. While it is historically accurate, it is more impersonal and lackadaisical. It serves better purpose as a companion to a lesson rather than being the focus of a report. Younger students who lack maturity and patience may tire of it quickly if forced to take it on as a whole assignment. I recommend breaking the book into the segments and giving assignments based on the segments. This book is edifying but can be overwhelming with the amount of information given. The book was didactic and shed light on a war that many do not agree with morally or politically.
Baritz manages to wrap up the Vietnam War in a nice tidy package with a bow. He does what any historian should looking to the past, present, and future so that the event can been seen in its full capacity to help the reader understand the what, where, when, why, and how. No aspect of the war was ignored, and I am considering scanning the book for the phrase kitchen sink. I am going to caution recommending this book on a limited basis. While it is historically accurate, it is more impersonal and lackadaisical. It serves better purpose as a companion to a lesson rather than being the focus of a report. Younger students who lack maturity and patience may tire of it quickly if forced to take it on as a whole assignment. I recommend breaking the book into the segments and giving assignments based on the segments. This book is edifying but can be overwhelming with the amount of information given. The book was didactic and shed light on a war that many do not agree with morally or politically.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 9, 2020
A well composed and thought out anthology about the role that films play in forming the American psyche about ourselves in relation to wars.
March 17, 2023
This book made me very angery (but in a good way)
May 24, 2012
It's been a while since I've read an undergraduate text--this is one of those that I "read" quickly in college to be ready for an exam. Now, I took my time reading it and pondering the issues surrounding the Cold War and the Vietnam conflict. As a matter of fact reading sessions were very exhausting! Author is quite pessimistic in his view that America will be forever hooked on failing war due to our culture. Also, when discussing the military, he seems to be stuck on those that were screwed up, on drugs, brutal to locals--ones that I hope to never meet. Glad I read it as I understand the 60s and 70s even more now than I did before. And Nixon--what a nut!
December 7, 2008
A great overview of the Vietnam War. His emphasis on American culture's influence on a social, political, and bureaucratic level is fascinating and horrifying. It is hard to ignore parallels between the current "war on terror" and conduct during the Vietnam War.
March 11, 2007
One of the better "basic" Vietnam War books. Baritz has a wonderfully straightforward and approachable writing style.
June 18, 2011
Much wisdom can be learned from this totally absorbing account of the political and military actions in a place we knew nothing about, and the people in charge who wanted to know even less.
March 27, 2024
The 2nd to last chapter/section was about bureaucracy, and ironically I got confused .
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews