Vietnam: A History of the War

Gr 6–8—In his customary well-honed prose, Freedman presents a coherent overview of the Vietnam War. First he retraces Vietnam's 2,000 year struggle to become and stay independent and how the United States went from ally to aggressor (a result of shifting from fighting colonialism to opposing communism after World War II). He goes on to recount the major events in the war, the course of the antiwar movement in the United States, U.S. troop withdrawal, and the long process of reconciliation. Amid descriptions of larger events, the author offers favorable or sympathetic glimpses of frontline soldiers—including quotes from a North Vietnamese soldier's diary—and documents the war's escalating brutality on both sides in a matter-of-fact but not sensationalistic way. The many documentary photos include the screaming child Kim Phuc (with a caption that describes what became of her) but not some of the more well-known disturbing images. Though positively judicious next to Albert Marrin's rabidly opinionated America and Vietnam: The Elephant and the Tiger, Freedman's account leans toward the view that the carnage resulted from a perfect storm of missed opportunities for alliances or political solutions, misunderstood history and culture, wrongheaded strategic decisions, and mulish pride on the part of U.S. political and military leaders. The extensive back matter will be useful to serious students of the era.