2006-09-10 - 12:22 a.m. - The Tragedy of Vietnam, by Patrick J. Hearden
A nice, quick history of what Americans refer to as the Vietnam war, with the helpful approach of skimming past most of the usual American narratives about the war and focusing on what was happening in Vietnam. The period in the 60s and 70s that we tend to think of as the Vietnam war is only the last couple of chapters. Hearden is interested in the roots of the conflict, and so we start out with a concise history of Vietnam generally, then the communist/nationalist war for independence, and then several chapters detailing the specific steps by which the United States became more and more entrenched. Hearden manages to tell the story clearly without ever getting bogged down in the details of specific incidents; the overall course of events is what interests him. And although it would be nice to have specific footnotes instead of just a general per-chapter bibliography), the book's not breezy, half-baked, or terribly one-sided (as far as I can tell). The economicanalysis may tire some readers (was it really all about propping up the trade balance?) but that's a minor quibble, and I have to give this a full thumbs up for being a very short, very readable nonfiction book that I think considerably expanded my understanding of the entire situation.