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Vietnam
Herring, George C. 1996. America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950 -- 1975. New York: McGraw-Hill.
George C. Herring has laid out a comprehensive history of America's involvement in Vietnam. In addition to describing the events as they unfolded in Vietnam, Herring has provided detailed information of how the military operated and interacted with both presidents and Congress, and how U.S. foreign policy affected events. He also addresses how President Lyndon B. Johnson's management approach to the Vietnam War affected how it was conducted and details about the controversy over the war among the American people.
Thus, this book is more than a simple chronological list of events. Woven throughout, Herring shows the reader the larger context within which the war took place. While Johnson is often blamed for the escalation of the war, resulting in a rising tide of anger among Americans against the war, the history of the war is far more complex than a simple issue of trying to prevent one small southeast Asian country from turning to communism. All major events are placed in their historical contexts, making the larger issue of...
3). Herring explains the United States' enduring interest in Vietnam, an interest dating as far back as World War II, and credits our first involvement with Vietnam as being based on racial stereotypes rather than real knowledge of the country. This, plus our relationship with France as that of an ally, encouraged the U.S. government to provide military aid for France as it attempted to put Ho Chi Mihn's revolution down. In the early fifties, as the struggle continued, Eisenhower's administration worried that Vietnam was not ready for independence and would be vulnerable to a communist takeover, something intolerable to them during the Cold War with the U.S.S.R.
As the supposedly temporary partition of Vietnam continued, the United States encouraged the development of South…
In spite of Johnson's tendency to micro-manage, according to Herring the President did not have a coherent plan and established differing policies for fighting in the North as compared to fighting in South Vietnam. He also looked at incursions into neighboring countries, such as Laos, as separate issues. Herring reports that Johnson was greatly distressed by the growing number of U.S. casualties but did not see a way out of the conflict, and that that Johnson eventually boxed himself into a corner. He tried to defeat the Viet Cong militarily but could not, and did not have enough of a military advantage to force a negotiated settlement. It was left to Richard M. Nixon, elected President in 1968, to eventually end the Vietnam War.
The Nixon administration at first believed that if they could support the South Vietnamese government for two years or so, they would be able to defend their country on their own, and was greatly angered by war protesters in the United States.
Herring's book makes the events that took place during the Vietnam War understandable by providing a larger historical context as a backdrop. By doing so, he helps the reader make sense of a difficult time in United States history.
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