The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Vietnam War

This book provides a very good, if abridged, overview of the entire Vietnam War. It begins with French colonialism and follows through all the way to modern cultural and political influences which survive the war. It is insightful and easy to read. Most importantly, it is interesting. There are some drawbacks. About every second page Dr. Maga has included the kiss of death of writers everywhere: the cliché. I'm sure Maga didn't notice it when he was writing the book, but neglecting a decent copy edit is truly the kiss of death of what could have been a very good book. Yes, by writing "the kiss of death of" so very, very often, Maga has given himself the kiss of death. Kiss of death, kiss of death, kiss of death. Hopefully the next version will be improved.

A lot of books, movies, commentaries, editorials, etc. have been written about the Vietnam War (or American War, as called by the Vietnamese), but each only covered some aspects, perspectives, or periods, of this long, multi-faceted 30-year military conflict, obviously one of the longest conflict of the 20th century, and the most divisive in American history. The problem is a lot of them were written with hindsight in mind, assessing the situation-then with what we know now, building upon certain myths or legends that never really took place. Most of these books are not necessarily accurate, true accounts of historical events - in the context, mood and thinking of the time - but rather interpretations of what happened under their own biased, political prism. Obviously, all these books, movies, or novels have some personal political agendas in mind. Contrary to all these books, I think Dr. Maga's book is a very erudite and scholarly written piece of work, covering the Vietnam War from its very origins, in the early 1940's, all the way to its conclusion in 1975, and a little beyond. The credit that we should give to Dr. Maga is he has astonishingly succeeded in bringing us back in time, to those decades, years and months, right after World War II, going deep into the political mood, pulse and thinking of that early era, in an effort to explain why certain crucial decisions were made by the different political players. And he has done all this with humor and candor, as well as a deep understanding of the political culture and all the different political persuasions and nuances of yore. Some of those turning-point decisions may look "goofy" right now, but at that time, the majority or mainstream might not think it that way. The only reservation I have is the title of the book. Even though it's title is "The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Vietnam War", but the book delves very deep into discussions about political and military strategies, US foreign policy debates and formulation. And all of these topics were from a primarily US (government, executive administration & political culture) observational vantage point. Very few sections talked about the perspectives and sequence of events as seen and interpreted by the South Vietnamese or North Vietnamese ("the enemy" at that time), which were the main players, at least towards the end of the conflict. In this regard, the book is somewhat lop-sided. But the author did go into painstakingly detail about all of the politics - sometimes really twisted, convoluted, and ugly - behind the scenes, thanks to the more and more, now-declassified government documents of the National Archives. Consequently, this book should be a great document for any political science and history major, who wants to see a glimpse of the "real political landscape" at the highest echelon of the US government at work. After finish reading the book, these seem to be the general conclusions that the author wanted to make (which you

Having gained an interest in the war nobody seems willing to discuss, I started reading about the Vietnam war about a year ago. During this time I've read some pretty heavy books and some very moving personal accounts, yet found it difficult to recieve an overall picture of the war. This book does a great job of giving that background story and very general sort of history from which to build on. I must admit that I find the comments that the book may not be entirely accurate somewhat unsettling, but I still think that the book has great value. In High School and even college I recieved virtually no instruction on the Vietnam war, and having to start from scratch I found this book very valuable. In the end, it may not be the definative history of the Vietnam war, but if you take it for what it is it doesn't have to be.

This isn't a book that Henry Kissinger needs to read. It's a book for those of us who feel like we don't know what happened during the Vietnam era and who want to be able to converse halfway intelligently about it.I did not find the approach bizarre at all. The section on Indonesia, for example, was one of the book's best parts in that it attempted to show the the US's view of Vietnam involvement was based upon its (America's) experience with Indonesia. This section compared Indonesia and Vietnam in a variety of ways in order to show that American involvement in Vietnam, while ultimately disastrous, may have been partly motivated by our hope that events would unfold the same way there as they had in Indonesia.

Despite its unfortunate title, this is the best guide to the history of the Vietnam war available. Dr. Maga has mastered the sources and fully understands the various interpretations regarding the war. As a result this book is an expert synthesis of original and earlier scholarship which is of value to both the expert and the general reader. Two aspects of this study are worthy of special note. First is Dr. Maga's view of the war as "America's Thirty-Years War", which allows him to take in a more comprehensive, longer-range view of the conflict. Second, his placing the war in the context of US relations with east Asia generally is a valuable reminder of the greater regional issues at stake in America's Vietnam efforts. As our leading scholar of post-World War II relations between the US and East Asia, Dr. Maga is uniquely qualified to provide this vital perspective. The fact that the Vietnam War still rages in some minds is proven by the earlier reviews of this fine book. There seems to be general agreement that the Vietnam War was a failure for the US. Paths diverge over the reasons for this failure. Some, such as the earlier reviewers, seem to take the position that Vietnam was a praiseworthy effort sabotaged by traitors in the press and on the streets and anyone who disagrees with this analysis must be some sort of "leftist" himself. But Dr. Maga is no leftist; he is a realist. He understands the essential truth of our Vietnam experience: that it was a mistake based upon our sometimes willful ignorance of the circumstances and situation in Southeast Asia itself. There is nothing in this book that suggests that Dr. Maga does not believe communism was not worth opposing. The strategy was sound but the tactics failed. The US never confronted communism by force everywhere. We did not do so in Hungary in 1956, in Czechoslovakia in 1968, or effectively in Cuba at any time. We picked our spots. In Vietnam, we picked the wrong one. Dr. Maga's admirable book shows how and why we made such a horrible mistake and I highly recommend it to everybody especially for use in college survey and specialized courses.