Background
Published in 1983, Vietnam A History is a comprehensive history of Vietnam of the events leading up and through the war through the eyes of a WWII vet turned correspondent for several news outlets:
- Paris correspondent for Time magazine.
- Asian correspondent for Time-Life from 1959 to 1962,
- The London Observer from 1961 to 1965,
- The Saturday Evening Post from 1963 to 1965
- The Washington Post from 1965 to 1971.
- Diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post in 1971 and 1972
- Special correspondent for NBC and an associate editor of The New Republic from 1973 to 1975.
- Columnist for King Features from 1975 to 1988
- French newsweekly Le Point from 1976 to 1983 and for Newsweek International from 1977 to 1981.
My Thoughts
This book was a slog to get through. I found the writing to be plain and dry and the subject matter to be depressing and demoralizing. It seems like a good way to sum up the war in Vietnam.
I don’t know that I would have continued were it not good for my professional life to have more depth and understanding of the war.
I learned a great deal but feel I have to take a grain of salt with the content. I have respect for the author but it some of his comments made me feel like he was looking through a particular ideology. I intend to pick up another history to compare and contrast.