(Photo: defenseimagery.mil)
It was a war fought in hamlets, jungles, and rice paddies. It left two million people dead.
Vietnam became the Western world’s most divisive modern conflict, first creating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954 and, two decades later, a vastly greater one for the United States. Drawing on his new book, Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975, journalist Max Hastings reveals a war that while devastating for America, was even more so for the Vietnamese people. He argues that blunders and atrocities committed by the communists have received far less attention than they deserve and the people of both former Vietnams paid a bitter price for the Northerners’ victory in privation and oppression.
Having conducted scores of interviews and researched many American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs, Hastings recounts extraordinary moments from the war, from Dienbienphu and the 1968 Tet offensive to Daido, where a U.S. Marine battalion was almost wiped out, together with extraordinary recollections of Ho Chi Minh’s warriors. His discussion of the war’s political and military narrative is made vivid through personal experiences, as well as testimony from warlords and peasants, statesmen and soldiers. Hastings also shares lessons for the 21st century about the misuse of military might to confront intractable political and cultural challenges.
Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy (Harper) is available for purchase and signing.