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Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959–1969
First published for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of Saigon, this unique two-volume anthology from the Library of America evokes a turbulent and controversial period in American history and journalism.
Drawn from original newspaper and magazine reports and contemporary books, this volume along with its companion brings together the work of over eighty remarkable writers to create an unprecedented mosaic view of the war and its impact on an increasingly fractured American society.
The first volume traces the deepening American involvement in South Vietnam from the first deaths of American advisers in 1959 through the controversial battle of “Hamburger Hill” in 1969. Malcolm Browne, Neil Sheehan, and David Halberstam report on the guerrilla warfare of the early 1960s; Jack P. Smith, Ward Just, and Peter Arnett experience the terrors of close-range combat in the Central Highlands; Marguerite Higgins and Frances FitzGerald observe South Vietnamese politics; Jonathan Schell records the destructive effects of American firepower in Quang Ngai; Tom Wolfe captures the cool courage of navy pilots over North Vietnam.
Writers who covered the bitter controversy at home are included as well—Meg Greenfield describing an early teach-in, Norman Mailer at the Pentagon March, Jeffrey Blankfort exploring the sorrowful impact of the war on a small town in Ohio. Thomas Johnson and Wallace Terry examine the changing attitudes of African-American soldiers fighting America’s first fully integrated war.
Included in full is Daniel Lang’s Casualties of War , the haunting story of a five-man reconnaissance patrol choosing between good and evil.
This volume contains a detailed chronology of the war, historical maps, biographical profiles of the journalists, explanatory notes, a glossary of military terms, an index, and a 32-page insert of photographs of the correspondents, many from private collections and never before seen.
LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
Drawn from original newspaper and magazine reports and contemporary books, this volume along with its companion brings together the work of over eighty remarkable writers to create an unprecedented mosaic view of the war and its impact on an increasingly fractured American society.
The first volume traces the deepening American involvement in South Vietnam from the first deaths of American advisers in 1959 through the controversial battle of “Hamburger Hill” in 1969. Malcolm Browne, Neil Sheehan, and David Halberstam report on the guerrilla warfare of the early 1960s; Jack P. Smith, Ward Just, and Peter Arnett experience the terrors of close-range combat in the Central Highlands; Marguerite Higgins and Frances FitzGerald observe South Vietnamese politics; Jonathan Schell records the destructive effects of American firepower in Quang Ngai; Tom Wolfe captures the cool courage of navy pilots over North Vietnam.
Writers who covered the bitter controversy at home are included as well—Meg Greenfield describing an early teach-in, Norman Mailer at the Pentagon March, Jeffrey Blankfort exploring the sorrowful impact of the war on a small town in Ohio. Thomas Johnson and Wallace Terry examine the changing attitudes of African-American soldiers fighting America’s first fully integrated war.
Included in full is Daniel Lang’s Casualties of War , the haunting story of a five-man reconnaissance patrol choosing between good and evil.
This volume contains a detailed chronology of the war, historical maps, biographical profiles of the journalists, explanatory notes, a glossary of military terms, an index, and a 32-page insert of photographs of the correspondents, many from private collections and never before seen.
LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.
858 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 1998
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October 3, 2017
Page 47 (my book) Ho Chi Minh (1962)
“The Americans are much stronger than the French, though they know us less well. It may perhaps take ten years to do it, but our heroic compatriots in the South will defeat them in the end.”
Page 387 reporter Jonathan Schell (1967)
I have no wish to pass judgement on the individual Americans fighting in Vietnam. I wish merely to record what I witnessed, in the hope that it will help us all to understand better what we are doing.
This book is an outstanding example of investigative journalism. These reporters inquired and explored Vietnam, bringing to us the implications of U.S. involvement. They go into small villages and the rural country-side on patrols and helicopter rides with U.S. troops. All levels, from small hamlets to air force bases and the ironies of living in Saigon are reported and diagnosed.
The very best stories are “Suffer the Little Children” by Martha Gelhorn, which as the title suggests is harrowing, “The Military Half: An Account of the Destruction in Quang Ngai and Quang Tin” by Jonathan Schell, and “Casualties of War” by Daniel Lang.
Page 467
Into an area of ten by twenty kilometres they [U.S. military] had dropped 282 tons of “general purpose” bombs and 116 tons of napalm; fired 1,005 rockets (not counting rockets fired from helicopters), 132,820 rounds of 20mm explosive strafing shells, and 119,350 7.62mm rounds of machine-gun fire from Spooky flights; and fired 8,488 artillery rounds. By the end of the operation, the Civil Affairs Office had supervised the evacuation of six hundred and forty of the area’s seventeen thousand people, to the vicinity of government camps.
In many of these stories we are given a personal view of war – what it did to the people of Vietnam and the soldiers there (soldiers on both sides – North and South). War is the ultimate negative side of humanity.
Page 761 – and American soldier
“We had to answer to something, to someone – maybe just to ourselves.”
As a personal criticism of an article by Tom Wolfe – he is so enthralled by the technology on an aircraft carrier that he is oblivious to the destruction caused to human beings.
Reading through all these essays one cannot (at least I cannot) answer what the purpose was of the U.S. presence in Vietnam – or more to the point what good it did to anyone.
Also what became apparent was the way this war was being evaluated at the time – largely through the use of statistics. There were many stories from both reporters and government officials in the early 1960’s warning of the futility of the U.S. military build-up in Vietnam – these were unheeded. I also believe that many of us tend to view military confrontations through large massed armies, like in World War II – but historically many long-term struggles, like Vietnam, have not been fought in this method. Rather they are extended guerilla civilian uprisings – akin to tribal warfare like Afghanistan, Iraq, the Congo...
And in reading this book we should always be thankful for the freedom we have and allow. The journalists in this book, in manifold ways, told us the truth about Vietnam (some lost their lives while doing so). They brought to us the consequences of war.
Memorial to Fallen Reporters in Bayeux, France
>
in the Newseum, Washington DC
“The Americans are much stronger than the French, though they know us less well. It may perhaps take ten years to do it, but our heroic compatriots in the South will defeat them in the end.”
Page 387 reporter Jonathan Schell (1967)
I have no wish to pass judgement on the individual Americans fighting in Vietnam. I wish merely to record what I witnessed, in the hope that it will help us all to understand better what we are doing.
This book is an outstanding example of investigative journalism. These reporters inquired and explored Vietnam, bringing to us the implications of U.S. involvement. They go into small villages and the rural country-side on patrols and helicopter rides with U.S. troops. All levels, from small hamlets to air force bases and the ironies of living in Saigon are reported and diagnosed.
The very best stories are “Suffer the Little Children” by Martha Gelhorn, which as the title suggests is harrowing, “The Military Half: An Account of the Destruction in Quang Ngai and Quang Tin” by Jonathan Schell, and “Casualties of War” by Daniel Lang.
Page 467
Into an area of ten by twenty kilometres they [U.S. military] had dropped 282 tons of “general purpose” bombs and 116 tons of napalm; fired 1,005 rockets (not counting rockets fired from helicopters), 132,820 rounds of 20mm explosive strafing shells, and 119,350 7.62mm rounds of machine-gun fire from Spooky flights; and fired 8,488 artillery rounds. By the end of the operation, the Civil Affairs Office had supervised the evacuation of six hundred and forty of the area’s seventeen thousand people, to the vicinity of government camps.
In many of these stories we are given a personal view of war – what it did to the people of Vietnam and the soldiers there (soldiers on both sides – North and South). War is the ultimate negative side of humanity.
Page 761 – and American soldier
“We had to answer to something, to someone – maybe just to ourselves.”
As a personal criticism of an article by Tom Wolfe – he is so enthralled by the technology on an aircraft carrier that he is oblivious to the destruction caused to human beings.
Reading through all these essays one cannot (at least I cannot) answer what the purpose was of the U.S. presence in Vietnam – or more to the point what good it did to anyone.
Also what became apparent was the way this war was being evaluated at the time – largely through the use of statistics. There were many stories from both reporters and government officials in the early 1960’s warning of the futility of the U.S. military build-up in Vietnam – these were unheeded. I also believe that many of us tend to view military confrontations through large massed armies, like in World War II – but historically many long-term struggles, like Vietnam, have not been fought in this method. Rather they are extended guerilla civilian uprisings – akin to tribal warfare like Afghanistan, Iraq, the Congo...
And in reading this book we should always be thankful for the freedom we have and allow. The journalists in this book, in manifold ways, told us the truth about Vietnam (some lost their lives while doing so). They brought to us the consequences of war.
Memorial to Fallen Reporters in Bayeux, France
>
in the Newseum, Washington DC
November 26, 2011
I learned so much about Vietnam -- the combat, the politics, the protests. Two of these articles were incredibly gut-wrenching and soul-shaking to read (one was a soldier's account of battle and the nightmares it caused, one a soldier's account of his fight to bring fellow soldiers to justice after their rape & murder of a Vietnamese girl) but all important stories.
It all feels so eerily relevant.
It all feels so eerily relevant.
July 10, 2016
An excellent collection, mostly of articles, written about the war in Vietnam from 1959 to 1969. Offerings snatched from books suffer from their deracination, as is usually the case, which means Tom Wolfe and Norman Mailer compare quite unfavorably to Sheehan and Arnett, for instance. Some of the reporting from the field really grabs you. The piece, Paddy War, really reminded me of Orwell's Shooting an Elephant. The reporter's overwhelming desire to monetarily compensate a wife whose husband was killed by south Vietnamese soldiers he accompanied on their patrol still gives me the shivers. Others deal with America's internal situation, politically & socially, like Meg Greenfield's After the Washington Teach-In. Mary McCarthy's piece on her trip to Hanoi is as fine an example of fellow traveler apologetics as you'll ever find in print. Jack Smith's Death in the Drang Valley comes alive before you in a way no war movie ever will succeed in doing. Karnow and Fall interpret the political scene in South Vietnam with skill, knowledge and conviction. Grant's For a Time We Lived Like Dogs provides witnesses' verbal chronicles during their time in a North Vietnamese POW camp. There is no way you can cover the ground offered in this volume and not learn more about the Vietnam War than you knew before. An excellent resource that is presently and puzzlingly undervalued in price on Amazon.
Some general thoughts on the Vietnam war gleaned from the pieces in this book:
1) Initially, American advisors were aghast by the brutality of the South Vietnamese army and how it dealt with its village people. Rather than change the demeanor of the SVA, American soldiers began to take on these callous and brutal characteristics. Needless to say, this did not help for relations between American military, which took on more and more field responsibilities from the inefficient SVA, and the average SV citizen.
2) the Diem regime was corrupt and unbearable. Johnson telling him that he was the man had an adverse affect by increasing his already sufficiently bloated sense of importance. Operation Bravo was a direct outgrowth of arrogance, corruption and delusion. Diem's removal, however, left no real "legitimate" figure to symbolize unity. Catholicism gave way to individualism as Saigon began to be perceived as an American business in which temporary CEOs were appointed. CEOs were regarded as figureheads by all concerned.
3) Reform from within in South Vietnam was impossible, or nearly so. The SVA had a Confucian tradition that refused adjustment to immediate needs, or reform from the top down through incentives. US forces found reform equally impossible as they structured their information back to Washington to serve as fodder against the popular war protests at home. US forces rewarded those who remained subservient to the change-of-command and its position, rather than speaking out against its errors, even when they are egregiously apparent. For this reason Tet in '68 was as much a surprise to Johnson as Cronkite. This prompted a disillusionment that was genuine at home, though rather cynical in the theater of war.
4) The mixture of air war in the north and ground war in the south both offered insufficient results for the manpower and resources involved. Air war seldom used very precise methods of targeting and was oftentimes wasteful, if not outright counterproductive. Ground war in the south was of the advance and retreat method as troops would not remain on acquired territory over night. Assets were squandered through abandonment. This resulted in the US military having to reclaim territory previous won on a regular basis. Both approaches did little to foster allies SV gov had amongst the common people of the villages and often drove them into the VC, when they weren't napalmed.
5) Social engineering of the "hamlet" system implemented driving SV villagers off their traditional land was costly and pointless. Villagers were no more safe on their new "lands" as government forces generally left them to their own meager resources. Village economic output suffered in these transitions, to put it mildly. French war left the peasant alone, generally. The US war enfeebled him, when it didn't totally impoverish him.
6) North Vietnamese were very mindful of protests and unpopularity of the war in the US. Negotiations for peace were completely impossible due to this. When waiting out the US's commitment and its eventually collapse bored NV & the VC, they switched to the offensive to push the matter further.
7) Resources improved for the VC as the war continued. When the VC stopped picking up US weapons to supplement their arms, the war had entered a new phase.
8) US troops on the whole respected "Charlie"; it held those they were fighting for mostly in disdain. No protective war can be successful under these conditions over a lengthy period of time.
9) "Hearts & minds" won by VC & NVA in the field, where it counts most. Grass roots approach paid enormous dividends, both offensively and defensively. Grass roots extended past nightfall in the ground theater and could go deep underground in the air theater. Violence and terror were always available and utilized to support this approach, making for a holistic strategy. In this sense, the US military's approach was hopelessly schizophrenic, refusing to acknowledge, much less openly advocate its use of brutality, as well as its abject inefficiency in capturing Vietnamese "hearts & minds" through pragmatic solutions of personal trust, 24 hr commitment, and economic betterment across the social board.
Some general thoughts on the Vietnam war gleaned from the pieces in this book:
1) Initially, American advisors were aghast by the brutality of the South Vietnamese army and how it dealt with its village people. Rather than change the demeanor of the SVA, American soldiers began to take on these callous and brutal characteristics. Needless to say, this did not help for relations between American military, which took on more and more field responsibilities from the inefficient SVA, and the average SV citizen.
2) the Diem regime was corrupt and unbearable. Johnson telling him that he was the man had an adverse affect by increasing his already sufficiently bloated sense of importance. Operation Bravo was a direct outgrowth of arrogance, corruption and delusion. Diem's removal, however, left no real "legitimate" figure to symbolize unity. Catholicism gave way to individualism as Saigon began to be perceived as an American business in which temporary CEOs were appointed. CEOs were regarded as figureheads by all concerned.
3) Reform from within in South Vietnam was impossible, or nearly so. The SVA had a Confucian tradition that refused adjustment to immediate needs, or reform from the top down through incentives. US forces found reform equally impossible as they structured their information back to Washington to serve as fodder against the popular war protests at home. US forces rewarded those who remained subservient to the change-of-command and its position, rather than speaking out against its errors, even when they are egregiously apparent. For this reason Tet in '68 was as much a surprise to Johnson as Cronkite. This prompted a disillusionment that was genuine at home, though rather cynical in the theater of war.
4) The mixture of air war in the north and ground war in the south both offered insufficient results for the manpower and resources involved. Air war seldom used very precise methods of targeting and was oftentimes wasteful, if not outright counterproductive. Ground war in the south was of the advance and retreat method as troops would not remain on acquired territory over night. Assets were squandered through abandonment. This resulted in the US military having to reclaim territory previous won on a regular basis. Both approaches did little to foster allies SV gov had amongst the common people of the villages and often drove them into the VC, when they weren't napalmed.
5) Social engineering of the "hamlet" system implemented driving SV villagers off their traditional land was costly and pointless. Villagers were no more safe on their new "lands" as government forces generally left them to their own meager resources. Village economic output suffered in these transitions, to put it mildly. French war left the peasant alone, generally. The US war enfeebled him, when it didn't totally impoverish him.
6) North Vietnamese were very mindful of protests and unpopularity of the war in the US. Negotiations for peace were completely impossible due to this. When waiting out the US's commitment and its eventually collapse bored NV & the VC, they switched to the offensive to push the matter further.
7) Resources improved for the VC as the war continued. When the VC stopped picking up US weapons to supplement their arms, the war had entered a new phase.
8) US troops on the whole respected "Charlie"; it held those they were fighting for mostly in disdain. No protective war can be successful under these conditions over a lengthy period of time.
9) "Hearts & minds" won by VC & NVA in the field, where it counts most. Grass roots approach paid enormous dividends, both offensively and defensively. Grass roots extended past nightfall in the ground theater and could go deep underground in the air theater. Violence and terror were always available and utilized to support this approach, making for a holistic strategy. In this sense, the US military's approach was hopelessly schizophrenic, refusing to acknowledge, much less openly advocate its use of brutality, as well as its abject inefficiency in capturing Vietnamese "hearts & minds" through pragmatic solutions of personal trust, 24 hr commitment, and economic betterment across the social board.
August 14, 2020
Library of America has put together a unique collection of newspaper and magazine articles from some of the most prominent writers and journalists from the Vietnam era; detailing America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Part 1 covers everything from the first deaths of American advisors in 1959 to the growing protest movement of 1969. Included in this collection is everything from detached and dispassionate pieces on policy to gut wrenching firsthand accounts of battles and protests. Laid out in chronological order, this collection is the history of the Vietnam War’s first ten years, at least from the American perspective.
Prior to this book I really didn’t know much about the Vietnam War. For instance, I didn’t realize the complexity of the politics, tactics, and the Vietnamese culture was so obvious to so many of these authors. It seems naïve now, but I thought much of these details only revealed to us through the lens of history. Granted this collection is very pessimistic or anti-war. There’s not must of a hawkish point-of-view presented within its pages. This is a fault, my parents remember the public debate be much richer than what is presented in this collection. It’s hard to gauge whether this is an actual accounting of the history without the propaganda or if this is the whitewashed less complicated version. It would have been nice to be presented with both views so that a reader like me could get a more balanced view of the time. Not that a single coherent thread is a bad thing. It’s just nice to have a few more counterpoints sprinkled throughout the collection for a more nuanced view of history. The advantage though of a single-minded approach makes for a coherent thread and an understandable timeline for a novice.
This collection is informative, sad, and tragic. There’s no light reading, it’s all pretty rough and will leave you ragged by it all. But it’s worth it. It’s worth understanding the sheer stupidity of war, it’s worth understanding the motivations of those that serve, it’s worth understanding the social and political turmoil of the era, and it’s worth understanding the complexity of the decisions faced by the people that come before us. Vietnam was an important time for America for so many reasons.
Prior to this book I really didn’t know much about the Vietnam War. For instance, I didn’t realize the complexity of the politics, tactics, and the Vietnamese culture was so obvious to so many of these authors. It seems naïve now, but I thought much of these details only revealed to us through the lens of history. Granted this collection is very pessimistic or anti-war. There’s not must of a hawkish point-of-view presented within its pages. This is a fault, my parents remember the public debate be much richer than what is presented in this collection. It’s hard to gauge whether this is an actual accounting of the history without the propaganda or if this is the whitewashed less complicated version. It would have been nice to be presented with both views so that a reader like me could get a more balanced view of the time. Not that a single coherent thread is a bad thing. It’s just nice to have a few more counterpoints sprinkled throughout the collection for a more nuanced view of history. The advantage though of a single-minded approach makes for a coherent thread and an understandable timeline for a novice.
This collection is informative, sad, and tragic. There’s no light reading, it’s all pretty rough and will leave you ragged by it all. But it’s worth it. It’s worth understanding the sheer stupidity of war, it’s worth understanding the motivations of those that serve, it’s worth understanding the social and political turmoil of the era, and it’s worth understanding the complexity of the decisions faced by the people that come before us. Vietnam was an important time for America for so many reasons.
September 3, 2021
Excellent. To the extent that journalism is "the first draft of history," these folks contributed mightily to the analysis that would follow. And yes, the parallels with Afghanistan -- an eerily similar disaster in so many ways -- are constant and disturbing. The best and brightest never seem to learn. Standouts:
- a prescient early interview with Ho Chi Minh, who predicts the Americans will tire of their mission in ten years and go home (he was quite close)
- Tom Wolfe's remarkable attempt to understand and explain the heroic risk-taking Navy pilots
- the closing piece on a soldier who calls out his colleagues for rape and murder
- Jonathan Schell's long and devastating report on the destruction of villages
- Steve Lerner's article on the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago (much better than the two bloated Norman Mailer musings included)
But each of these reports has something valuable to offer in understanding the war.
- a prescient early interview with Ho Chi Minh, who predicts the Americans will tire of their mission in ten years and go home (he was quite close)
- Tom Wolfe's remarkable attempt to understand and explain the heroic risk-taking Navy pilots
- the closing piece on a soldier who calls out his colleagues for rape and murder
- Jonathan Schell's long and devastating report on the destruction of villages
- Steve Lerner's article on the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago (much better than the two bloated Norman Mailer musings included)
But each of these reports has something valuable to offer in understanding the war.
September 18, 2021
An anthology of journalism from the Vietnam War, this book may be a bit dry to read cover to cover, but this is an excellent resource for understanding how American attitudes towards the Vietnam shifted in response to the fall of South Vietnam.
October 20, 2023
Very moving and educational collection of writings on the early stages of Vietnam. Despite how heavy some of the material is, I found it hard to put down and I’m looking forward to going straight into the companion volume.
May 17, 2016
Would like to believe that journalists of the same caliber could be as widely read today as these men and women were during the Vietnam War. Sometimes the horrors of war are difficult to read about but how brave for the journalists to go where our military presence was and report while being embedded with them. I will read volume 2 but I may need some time between the two.
May 13, 2015
Terrific!
April 16, 2017
Painful but riveting, particularly the final piece (Casualties of War). There are pieces from a number of different vantage points and I imagine the editors were trying to be as balanced as possible, but history has rendered anti-war articles eerily prescient and pro-war articles embarrassingly wrong. Similarly, the hubris displayed by elected (and unelected) officials and the (still) unlearned lessons about the war and about human behavior in extreme conditions are stunning.
But why, dear god why, why are there TWO Norman Mailer pieces? And how did that clown ever have a career?
But why, dear god why, why are there TWO Norman Mailer pieces? And how did that clown ever have a career?
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews