Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Penguin (Non-Classics) (1984), Paperback, 768 pages
Description
Examines American involvement in the Vietnam War, delves into the decisionmaking process in Washington and Asia, and presents interviews with participants on both sides.
Media reviews
Boston Globe
"The most comprehensive, up-to-date and balanced account we have of the Vietnam War."
New York Times Book Review
"First-rate as a popular contribution to understanding the war."
Chicago Sun-Times
"This is history writing at its best."
Washington Post Book World
"A landmark work. Exceptionally well researched and well written, it is the most complete account to date of the Vietnam tragedy."
User reviews
LibraryThing member georgematt
Sometimes your reading is chosen by your travels. This is one of them. A recent trip through South East Asia inspired me to read Vietnam: A History; searching through the many tomes on the Vietnam War in Foyles bookshop in London, I decided after much internal debate on picking up this hefty (and
It was a good choice: engagingly written and bringing to life the main political and military leaders on both sides of this terrible conflict, Stanley Karnow writes an historical narrative that is also a page turner. He is well qualified to do so being throughout a correspondent in South East Asia. This is history concentrated on the power elites rather then the experiences of the ordinary American GI or Vietcong fighter and this is its weakness. But at the end you get a fuller understanding, if it is ever possible to get an understanding, of the insanity of the Vietnam War.
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expensive) volume.It was a good choice: engagingly written and bringing to life the main political and military leaders on both sides of this terrible conflict, Stanley Karnow writes an historical narrative that is also a page turner. He is well qualified to do so being throughout a correspondent in South East Asia. This is history concentrated on the power elites rather then the experiences of the ordinary American GI or Vietcong fighter and this is its weakness. But at the end you get a fuller understanding, if it is ever possible to get an understanding, of the insanity of the Vietnam War.
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LibraryThing member wildbill
I was looking forward to reading this book and was a little disappointed. The coverage of the background to the American War and the politics of the war were very well done. I was looking for the military history of the war and did not feel that subject was covered well.
I grew up in The Vietnam era
This book had some excellent interviews and other information from the North Vietnamese side. The author did a good job of being objective as possible. It is a good one-volume narrative of the major issues presented by the war. The military history is not very detailed and I was looking for more explanation of what happened in that area. I would recommend this book as an introduction to the war but I am going to have to look elsewhere for a good military history.
I grew up in The Vietnam era
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and have a fair knowledge of the subject. I also enjoyed The Best and the Brightest which provided a good coverage of the American political situation.This book had some excellent interviews and other information from the North Vietnamese side. The author did a good job of being objective as possible. It is a good one-volume narrative of the major issues presented by the war. The military history is not very detailed and I was looking for more explanation of what happened in that area. I would recommend this book as an introduction to the war but I am going to have to look elsewhere for a good military history.
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LibraryThing member Schmerguls
Ths book was published in 1983 and is a full history of Vietnam from 1945 to April 1975, when the government we spent so many milliongs propping up fell. It is a sad story and while my reading was admriatory of the way Karnow tells the story it is a sad story, with no American president coming out
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as a farseeing and wise man. Sometimes the account is not organized as well as one would want, with the story dropping back and forth. Show Less
LibraryThing member JustMe869
The definitive text on the Viet Nam war.
LibraryThing member carterchristian1
This is a book you wish Bush 43 had read somewhere along the line. The author believes that we made every mistake possible. Vietnam did not want to be taken over again by China, and nationalism not communism waws driving so many citizens there. Well written. What is most interesting is the fact the
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author was there most of the time, from 1950 forward in France to start. He was assigned to write about Ho in 1954. There are videos to go with the book. Show Less
LibraryThing member Borg-mx5
An extensive and intelligent history of the Vietnam. Chapters are devoted to almost every aspect of the war from origins to the bitter end.
LibraryThing member MattGorzalski
This is another history written by a journalist who was covering the war while actually stationed in Vietnam, thus giving him a unique insight as opposed to a historian looking back years later. What I like most is that the author has maintained relationships with the Vietnamese military leaders he
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interviewed while in Southeast Asia, using more recent interviews from the 1990s of the same leaders to provide an additional historical angle in retrospect. The book covers the roots of Vietnamese nationalism throughout its long history, then the war with the French, all the while showing how the US slowly became entagled in the Vietnam quagmire. One interesting tidbit I learned was how much LBJ disliked Robert Kennedy. The first chapter reads more like a last chapter in that it looks back at what has happened in Vietnam since the war ended. But it is an excellent way to begin the book because it asks the question, whether intentionally or not, just who won and was it worth the cost? Show Less
LibraryThing member cwhouston
This book represents just that - the best single volume history of the war, in my opinion. The first couple of chapters cover the early history of 'Indochina' and French colonialism, and then the rest of the text covers the history of Vietnam up to ~1980. This breadth of coverage (notably the war
The chapter structure is logical and the writing style maintained my interest throughout the book. It won the Pulitzer, so why write more? A wonderful history book.
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under Nixon) is not available in 'Bright Shining Lie' or 'Fire in the Lake' - the best of the other histories of the Vietnam war, and 'Best and the Brightest' is a political history.The chapter structure is logical and the writing style maintained my interest throughout the book. It won the Pulitzer, so why write more? A wonderful history book.
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LibraryThing member FKarr
phenomenal, detailed, intelligent, considered, and mostly unbiased history of the country and war
LibraryThing member bookmarkaussie
Very good for the lead up to the war and the history of Vietnam, sets the context of the war nicely. However in a 600 page book less than 200 pages are on the period after 1965. It is solid when it comes to political and diplomatic efforts, but next to nothing on the actual fighting. The author
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does a good job of looking at the North Vietnamese, the South Vietnamese (too often ignored) and the Americans and their viewpoints. Show Less
Subjects
Original publication date
1983
Physical description
768 p.; 9 inches
ISBN
0140073248 / 9780140073249