Haleberstam’s “The Best and the Brightest” gives a very compelling story about how the US blundered into Vietnam. I think he’s too easy on JFK, and also I think he ignores the context of the system of US hegemony in Central America, but otherwise he’s tremendously knowledgeable and of course he’s a good writer. One central point is that everyone in the US government was deluding everyone else, and sometimes they were deluding themselves. And of course they were deluding the public from start to finish.
Ellen J. Hammer’s “The Struggle for Indo-China” covers the French effort to re-impose their imperial system in Vietnam. This is essential background, because the US seemed merely to be taking up where the French had left off (and of course the US had bankrolled the French war anyway).
Haleberstam’s “The Best and the Brightest” gives a very compelling story about how the US blundered into Vietnam. I think he’s too easy on JFK, and also I think he ignores the context of the system of US hegemony in Central America, but otherwise he’s tremendously knowledgeable and of course he’s a good writer. One central point is that everyone in the US government was deluding everyone else, and sometimes they were deluding themselves. And of course they were deluding the public from start to finish.
Ellen J. Hammer’s “The Struggle for Indo-China” covers the French effort to re-impose their imperial system in Vietnam. This is essential background, because the US seemed merely to be taking up where the French had left off (and of course the US had bankrolled the French war anyway).