The Vietnam War: An Intimate History (Audible Audio Edition):
Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns, Fred Sanders, Brian Corrigan,
Random House Audio: Books
From the award-winning historian and filmmakers of The Civil War, Baseball, The War, The Roosevelts, and others: a vivid, uniquely powerful history of the conflict that tore America apart - the companion volume to the major multipart PBS film to be aired in September 2017.
More than 40 years after it ended, the Vietnam War continues to haunt our country. We still argue over why we were there, whether we could have won, and who was right and wrong in their response to the conflict. When the war divided the country, it created deep political fault lines that continue to divide us today. Now, continuing in the tradition of their critically acclaimed collaborations, the authors draw on dozens and dozens of interviews in America and Vietnam to give us the perspectives of people involved at all levels of the war: US and Vietnamese soldiers and their families, high-level officials in America and Vietnam, antiwar protestors, POWs, and many more. The book plunges us into the chaos and intensity of combat, even as it explains the rationale that got us into Vietnam and kept us there for so many years. Rather than taking sides, the book seeks to understand why the war happened the way it did and to clarify its complicated legacy. Beautifully written, this is a tour de force that is certain to launch a new national conversation.
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Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 31 hours and 14 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Random House Audio
Audible.com Release Date: September 5, 2017
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Andy in Washington
TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE
5.0 out of 5 starsAn Awesome Book about a Horrible WarSeptember 7, 2017
Format: Hardcover
If you are a fan of Ken Burns’ style of history, you will love this book. Burns and Geoffrey C. Ward take us on a long and poignant journey through the Vietnam war, starting with events in the early 20th century and ending with modern, “capitalist” Vietnam. Along the way are any number of tragic tales, acts of bravery, desperation and savagery all in the name of a tiny country of little political or military significance. And yet it dominated the politics of at least three of the largest and most powerful countries on the planet. Ward and Burns do a masterful job at probing many of the small stories that made up the big story.
=== The Good Stuff ===
* If a picture is worth a thousand words, Ward and Burns are the people to supply those words. The book is full of an incredible collection of photographs, some familiar, some not, and excellent commentary built around many of them. If you look at the serious expression in the eyes of a young Ho Chi Minh in Paris in 1918, you can’t help but wonder what would have happened had Woodrow Wilson ever read the petition he so badly wanted to deliver. How can you not shake your head at a 1941 photo of an American OSS officer training Viet Minh soldiers how to fire rifle grenade?
* The text is quite easy to read and well written, but be prepared for a long book. The book covers a lot of ground, but it not what I would consider a detailed and complete history of the war. Rather it seeks to capture, in detail, small segments of the war, concentrating on individual characters and their motivations and actions. In various segments, the authors concentrate on US soldiers, US military leadership, Vietnamese military and civilian leaders, antiwar protestors, US politics, and any number of other viewpoints. In the end, the sum of all the parts gives a pretty complete look at what happened.
* The authors mostly try to maintain a neutral viewpoint, but they find it harder and harder as the book progresses. I can’t speak for the authors, but I suspect their opinion would be along the lines of “How on earth did we ever get ourselves into that mess?” And while they may be officially neutral, they can not help but note that the “stakes” we were playing for in no way matched the costs.
=== The Not-So-Good Stuff ===
* I hate to disagree with historians of the stature of the authors, but I will anyway. I think that they are looking back at events in Vietnam with too much benefit of hindsight. Sure, from 2017, the whole domino theory and the importance given to a 100 mile wide strip of jungle seems absurd. But in 1966, you couldn’t get elected dog-catcher if you weren’t “tough on communism”. Likewise, blaming politicians for getting all caught up in the hysteria is also a bit unfair. Presidents and Congressmen aren’t going to take any viewpoints that the majority of their constituents don’t already support.
* I realize it is not the author’s style to engage in this kind of analysis, but after reading a few hundred pages, it would have been nice to get a “professional opinion” on what we got for the trillion dollars and 60,000 casualties.
=== Summary ===
The book was long and sometimes the content was a bit tough to read- it didn’t always catch Americans at our best. But in the end it provided a look at the war from many different viewpoints, and examined the price paid by many of the participants. While the text is well written and quite informative, it was the pictures that really made the book for me. Probably the most powerful photos were a few near the end, where former enemies from the US and Vietnam are reunited, and you can’t but notice the look in their eyes of “Why?”
I would recommend the book for anyone with an interest in this period of history, although some who have lived through it may find some of the viewpoints and content a bit upsetting.
=== Disclaimer ===
I was able to read an advance copy through the courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley.
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John Plowright
5.0 out of 5 starsCasting a strong light on Vietnam's long shadowSeptember 5, 2017
Format: Hardcover
‘The Vietnam War’ is the companion volume to the 10-part, 18-hour Ken Burns PBS documentary series of that name but like other books co-authored by him and Geoffrey C. Ward, including ‘Jazz’, ‘The War’ and, most recently, ‘The Roosevelts’, it stands in its own right as a richly illustrated work which utilises evocative primary sources to the full within a strong narrative framework.
There are ten chapters and an Epilogue, punctuated by five essays by other authors. The most controversial of these is undoubtedly Frederk Logevall’s ‘Kennedy and what might have been’ pondering whether had he survived Dallas and won a second term, Kennedy’s scepticism regarding the wisdom of military action in Vietnam would have triumphed over the felt need to be seen to be tough on communism and prevent toppling dominoes.
After judiciously reviewing the contradictory evidence Logevall comes down against the Oliver Stone school of thought that JFK had already sanctioned ‘incipient withdrawal’ before his death, arguing that the President was sensibly keeping his options open but that on balance “JFK most likely would not have have Americanized the war, but instead would have opted for some form of disengagement, presumably by way of a face-saving negotiated settlement.”
In the event, of course, Johnson allowed himself to get progressively drawn into the war (although it is rightly pointed out that he enjoyed very limited room for manoeuvre) and it was left to Nixon to find a superficially honourable way out.
America’s formal exit from south-east Asia was humiliating and Vietnam casts a very long shadow so that it is still capable of exciting extreme emotions (note, for example, Trump’s disgraceful characterization of former POW McCain as a “loser”).
Personally I would have liked more on the war’s legacy but one cannot have everything and what one does have here is a superb one-volume history of the war which is much more substantial than the coffee-table book which it appears to be at first sight.
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John A. Jago, Jr.
5.0 out of 5 starsReceived this unique book in perfect time; although not fully completed in reading itDecember 9, 2017
Format: Hardcover|Verified Purchase
Received this unique book in perfect time; although not fully completed in reading it, it's an eye opener to a tragic piece of American history.
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Nita
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent companion to the documentary series.October 24, 2017
Format: Hardcover|Verified Purchase
Incredible. Excellent companion to the series. It's going to take me the better part of the year to go through this in detail. It's a massive book and I would say it's worth its weight, for sure.
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vera l
5.0 out of 5 starsFive StarsOctober 1, 2017
Format: Hardcover|Verified Purchase
this book is done beautifully. will be a keepsake to share with family.
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Gail S.
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat hidt!November 29, 2017
Format: Hardcover|Verified Purchase
Got this for my Vietnam Veteran's birthday. He loved it!
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Matthew B. Grippi
5.0 out of 5 starsEverything!November 19, 2017
Format: Hardcover|Verified Purchase
So thorough and as close to the truth as it can be gotten to.
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otto t althoff
4.0 out of 5 starsFour StarsOctober 13, 2017
Format: Hardcover|Verified Purchase
A Bit over rated
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