Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945-1975

by John Prados

Overview

The Vietnam war continues to be the focus of intense controversy. While most people—liberals, conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, historians, pundits, and citizens alike—agree that the United States did not win the war, a vocal minority argue the opposite or debate why victory never came, attributing the quagmire to everything from domestic politics to the press. The military never lost a battle, how then did it not win the war?

Stepping back from this overheated fray, bestselling author John Prados takes a fresh look at both the war and the debates about it to produce a much-needed and long-overdue reassessment of one of our nation's most tragic episodes. Drawing upon several decades of research-including recently declassified documents, newly available presidential tapes, and a wide range of Vietnamese and other international sources—Prados's magisterial account weaves together multiple perspectives across an epic-sized canvas where domestic politics, ideologies, nations, and militaries all collide.

Prados patiently pieces back together the events and moments, from the end of World War II until our dispiriting departure from Vietnam in 1975, that reveal a war that now appears to have been truly unwinnable—due to opportunities lost, missed, ignored, or refused. He shows how—from the Truman through the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations—American leaders consistently ignored or misunderstood the realities in Southeast Asia and passed up every opportunity to avoid war in the first place or avoid becoming ever more mired in it after it began. Highlighting especially Ike's seminal and long-lasting influence on our Vietnam policy, Prados demonstrates how and why our range of choices narrowed with each passing year, while our decision-making continued to be distorted by Cold War politics and fundamental misperceptions about the culture, psychology, goals, and abilities of both our enemies and our allies in Vietnam.

By turns engaging narrative history, compelling analytic treatise, and moving personal account, Prados's magnum opus challenges previous authors and should rightfully take its place as the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and accurate one-volume account of a war that—judging by the frequent analogies to the current war in Iraq—has not yet really ended for any of us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780700619405
Publisher:	University Press of Kansas
Publication date:	04/21/2009
Series:	Modern War Studies
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	696
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

John Prados is a senior fellow of the National Security Archive at George Washington University. His numerous books include William Colby and the CIA: The Secret Wars of a Controversial Spymaster, The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War, and The Hidden History of the Vietnam War.

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Note to the Reader

Acronyms

April 1971: Veterans at War

1. A Splendid Little War

March-July 1954: Dien Bien Phu, Geneva, and the Harnessing of American Power

2. Many Roads to Quagmire (1954-1960)

3. Loose the Fateful Lightning (1961-1964)

August 1965: The Last Mystery of the Tonkin Gulf

4. Burnished Rows of Steel (1964-1965)

5. A Hundred Circling Camps (1965-1967)

6. Trampling Out the Vintage (1967)

January-May 1968: Tet Mau Than

7. Terrible Swift Sword (1968-1969)

8. Crush the Serpent under Heel (1969)

9. Dim and Flaring Lamps (1969-1971)

10. Die to Make Men Free (1970)

A New ARVN?

11. Sound Forth the Trumpet (1971)

12. Evening Dews and Damps (1971-1972)

13. Sifting Out the Hearts of Men (1972)

14. The Truth Comes Marching Home

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

A grand and important work of synthesis by a diligent, engaged scholar with telling insights gained from years of reflection on a vast and complex subject.”—Journal of American History

“Prados directly engages, and in many cases, demolishes, a host of shibboleths about the war. But this is no mere polemic. Rather, Prados’s powerfully presented and meticulously argued account, buttressed by a staggering amount of documentary evidence, meets the most exacting standards of scholarship. His sweeping history forms the capstone of more than three decades of careful research and measured reflection on the Vietnam War. . . . It may be the single most important book yet written on the Vietnam conflict."—American Historical Review

“A remarkable achievement [and] one of the most significant books published on Vietnam in the last decade.”—Journal of Military History

“This is the book [on the Vietnam War] we’ve been waiting for. . . . It definitely establishes itself as the new standard.”—Vietnam

“This important and provocative work should be read by anyone studying the war, whether in academia or from personal interest.”—Library Journal

“If you only had to have one book on the Vietnam War, this is the one.”—The Veteran

“An awe-inspiring achievement in epic form.”—Lloyd Gardner, author of Pay Any Price: Lyndon Johnson and the Wars for Vietnam

“One of the country’s most distinguished historians has written a veritable international history of America’s long war in Vietnam. Utilizing a trove of declassified documents from archives in the U.S. as well as Vietnam, John Prados contributes to the historiography of the war by providing context for why the war was unwinnable. This book is a terrific read, full of revelations, astute interpretations, and historical documentation—the recipe for a classic because it advances our understanding of history.”—Larry Berman, author of Perfect Spy: The Extraordinary Life of Pham Xuan An, Time Magazine Reporter and Vietnamese Communist Agent and No Peace No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger and Betrayal in Vietnam

“Prados has given us a great gift—a fresh, original, and fascinating synthesis of a long and complicated war by one of the nation’s foremost experts.”—Christian G. Appy, author of Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides

“A monumental work of passionately engaged scholarship, written in an easy, conversational style. There is no other history of the war quite like it.”—Marilyn B. Young, author of The Vietnam Wars, 1945–1990

“Should be read by the lawmakers and opinion leaders who habitually babble on about the ‘lessons of the Vietnam War.’”—Ronald Spector, author of After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam

From the Publisher

Prados (senior fellow, National Security Archive, George Washington Univ.), who has written prolifically on the Vietnam War, here provides a copiously detailed general history of that conflict. He focuses on the period from 1954 to 1975, devoting almost half of the book to the Nixon years (unlike most histories, which tend to center on the period from 1961 to 1969). As the title indicates, Prados argues that the United States had no reasonable chance of attaining its primary goal—the continued existence of a non-Communist South Vietnam. He is to be congratulated for making known his personal position, acknowledging his reputation as "an engaged leftist intellectual" who strongly opposed the war. VERDICT Prados has done prodigious research in a mass of primary and secondary sources and makes a plausible case for his position, although he probably overestimates the role of the antiwar movement in shortening the war. This important and provocative work should be read by anyone studying the war, whether in academia or from personal interest—A.O. Edmonds, Ball State Univ., Muncie, IN

—A.O. Edmonds

Library Journal