Ending the Vietnam War: A History of America's Involvement in and Extrication from the Vietnam War

This is what happened as told by someone on the inside. People interested in history will find this book invaluable. Others should read it to get a good feel for how much dishonesty and incompetence existed in journalism and academia at the time. Things have not changed much in these fields during the 30 years since then.

After years of hearing about the 'unjust war' in Southeast Asia, finally, all of the facts of Vietnam are presented. While Baby boomers proclaim that the war protesters and the Daniel Ellsbergs were the heroes, the facts depict the truth about Vietnam. The JFK and the LBJ administration prolonged the war by hoping for a stalemate with negotiators from the North and then assasinated their "ally" Ngo Dien Diem and left the South in utter chaos. Despite domestic upheaveal, anarchy, a bitterly divided nation, and an unfriendly press, Nixon and Kissinger somehow were able to make Vietnamization work, which forced Giap to fight conventionally as proved in the Easter Offensive, and allowed an imperfect agreement to take place because the Democratic controlled Congress was about to cut off all aid from South Vietnam. The facts are this: Nixon claimed that if the U.S. stopped supporting South Vietnam the North would slaughter the inhabitants and leave Vietnam in a totalitarian regime and a blood bath. Meanwhile, the supposed war protestor 'heroes' were claiming that Ho Chi Minh was an agricultural reformer representing the will of the people and were assasinating innocent civilians and bombing schools in the name of Uncle Ho. Well, after Congress cut off all aid, guess what, Vietnam fell and thousands of innocent people were slaughtered by the North Vietnamese. Of course, the destructive generation blames Nixon and Kissinger and cannot face up to the fact that the death of all those in Vietnam rests on THEIR hands. It is not Richard Nixon's fault. It is not Henry Kissinger's fault. It is time that the baby boomers who fought the 'establishment' take a long look in the mirror and admit to themselves that VIETNAM was a just cause and that their actions led to the deaths of thousands. The real heroes of Vietnam are Nixon, Kissinger, and the soldiers who sacrificed their lives in the name of freedom while an ungrateful counterculture pretended to have the answers and supported a murderer.

It took me weeks to read this, due to the level of detail, but I almost couldn't put it down. A lot of things that didn't quite make sense before have now become clear.

I'm only about 1/3 through this book and I wanted to see what others think/thought of it so I visited here to read the reviews. I share the analysis of the one positive review from a reader from New York. This book is worth a read and should not be boycotted as the other reviewer, Labradorman, recommends. Labradorman's vituperative appraisail of the book is just and simply that: vituperative...playing the Ad Hominem (sp?) card alone. Where and what exactly are the lies, Mr. Labradorman.I picked up this book thinking I knew quite a bit about this period as well only to find that Kissinger's insider perspective allows a completely new light to reflect. This book is a must read. You may not like it if your from the generation that took part in it (as I am) but Kissinger's rememberance and depiction (and documentation) of the US public to the announcements by both the admistration and the North Vietnamise about and from the Paris Peace talks will light up memories. And, mine pretty much coincide with the way Kissinger depicts them. It was a surreal time. We, the public, pretty much dictated right through the media and our elected officials how the "war" should be settled based on how we felt it should be without having much good information except for the body counts of GI's and our morally superior position that it was simply "wrong." Nothing is simple.The long and short of it is that Nixon/Kissinger inherited a mess from two prior administrations (Kennedy and Johnson) and were "forced" to negotiate with Leninist North Vietamese communists who considered themselves morally superior to the running dog imperialists because of their doctrinaire Marxist's beliefs. If Kissinger aggrandizes himself (it would be surprising if he doesn't and probably he deserves some) , he also admits to having participated in a diplomatic record of sorts: being connected to some 170 meetings out of which nothing was accomplished. That's a real notch on the gun for a negotiator, eh?If you can take it, read this book. If for no other reason than the one that Kissinger asks: we should not forget what happened to a country that did not deserve it, Cambodia.As an aside: for me, this book adds credibility to the thesis that the 60's was "one of the most remarkable religious fevers ever recorded" to quote from Tom Wolfe's book, "Hooking Up". We, maybe it was just me, were just morally superior to those Kissinger and "his own efforts at establishing (along with his unindicted cohort in crime, Richard M. Nixon) a contemporary American realpolitick in world affairs." Whatever that last phrase means!

I have been meaning to read some of Kissinger's work for quite a while. From the critic reviews of this book, I thought this would be a logical place to start because it encapsulates a large swath the Vietnam War writing Kissinger has produced over the years.Personally, I found this book is an incredibly involving recount and analysis of the Vietnam War. I thought I had a fairly in-depth understanding of the Vietnam War beforehand, but quickly discovered that there was so much I was never aware of. Because Kissinger was part of the inner circle of powers that shaped the Vietnam conflict, he writes from a vantage point only an insider can lay claim to. The competing egos, opposing political agendas, infighting, confusion, hope and desperation-all these factors played a part in the conflict and Kissinger does a wonderful job of presenting how each influenced the Vietnam War. I picked up this book one weekend and could not put it down. If you're looking for an engaging reading on the Vietnam War, you cannot go wrong with this selection.