Whitewash, Blackwash Myths of the Viet Nam War

I found this book extremely valuable in my ongoing battle to fight misconceptions and distortions about this painful era. It is now required reading in a class I constructed on the Vietnam War at Southern Polytechnic State University. There are enough problems with the different interpretations of what actually happened without having to argue about blatant falsehoods. Laurie and del Vecchio have made a very useful contribution to understanding what we did, what went wrong and what lessons might be learned.

This is a concise, factual, and very readable booklet that takes on some of the major myths, legends, and misunderstandings of the war in Viet Nam, and sheds light on the realities. It provides a lot of basis for better understanding of what did and did not happen, and has a heavy-duty reading list as well as a lot of internet sites dealing with various aspects of the war and its aftermath. Anyone setting out to study the war is well advised to start with this primer, but even as a stand-alone work it'll be worthwhile for anyone interested in that war.