Lyndon Johnson's War: America's Cold War Crusade in Vietnam, 1945-1968 (Hill and Wang Critical Issues)

As one of the previous reviewers have already noted, Dr. Hunt spends a lot of time telling us how Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Nixon made decisions that ultimately led the slide into the Vietnam War. What Hunt does say in one chapter is that Johnson made the critical decisions which ultimately led to the disaster of the Vietnam War. At a little over one hundred pages, the author describes the slide into the war with clear concise readable pages. The Vietnam War was one of the battles of the Cold War. He also shows how poor leadership on Kennedy's part led us into this disaster, and how a poor game plan kept us there past the 1968 election (Nixon's fault). There is a lot of blame to go around between both parties and presidents. However Johnson was the key decision maker. This a compact readable book. It makes its arguments concise and to the point. This a nice diplomatic history of the slide to war with the Vietnamese Communists.

Michael Hunt has written a compact yet thorough history of the U. S. involvement in Vietnam. Hunt's premise, in effect, is that due to ignorance, arrogance, and ethnocentrism, U.S. leaders are prevented from a real understanding of Vietnam before embarking on a series of ultimately tragic decisions.The title of the work suggests two themes. One, Lyndon Johnson made the crucial decisions and thus made the war his own and is therefore to blame for the resulting quagmire. Two, while it is LBJ's war, it is actually part of a larger struggle, the Cold War, an effort in which the United States ultimately prevailed. This is, perhaps, the proper prism through which Vietnam should be viewed.This work is particularly strengthened and distinguished by Professor Hunt's exploration of the major criticisms of Lyndon Johnson's prosecution of the Vietnam War. He concludes that Johnson was not candid with the American public, and that he proceeded knowing full well the risks involved. Additionally, while Johnson did go to war with clear goals, utilizing power decisively, he was ultimately strait-jacketed by the times in which he lived.

This book shows the eagerness of the U.S. to stomp out communism and protect our Asian friends'. It is this parental instinct and portrayal of understanding that all people want to be "american" that led the U.S. into an inconclusive battel. The idea that the North won ater the U.S. withdraw falters the necessity of U.S. intervention.