.
.
by Margaret Colbert Brown.
Hardback (6.5×9.5 inches). 293 pages. 2025.
This interesting retrospective on US involvement in the Vietnam War encompasses elements from WWII on, but with a focus on the 1960s. Along the way, you’ll learn facets of Vietnamese culture, geography, and response to Viet Cong (VC) guerilla and regular North Vietnamese Army (NVA) coercion, plus various US programs and efforts to enhance rural security, improve the economy, and create political stability. Personal reminiscences populate the pages, highlighting various aspects.
A nice touch is the use of 70 poems as part of the emotional commentary.
A couple typos: “1971to” (p191) needs a space, and, “earned over 30 medal” (p219) needs an “s” after medal.
The book contains 121 black and white photos, four black and white maps, and four black and white illustrations.
I must say that this book contains the most incompetent photo graphics I’ve ever seen. Never mind the blurriness, which seems the result of a too low dpi image being over enlarged, it’s the skewing of the images that is most bothersome. It’s like the graphics grunt didn’t understand proportional enlargement. Not all of them, of course, but so many as to be quite noticeable. How these ever got through quality control is beyond belief.
While you certainly get a sense of military impact, the cultural and political impact remains at the forefront. You won’t find much to put in a tabletop scenario unless you’re doing a political game. Still, it’s important to understand reasoned examination of all sides of the war. You may or may not agree with what’s inside the book, but given that South Vietnam surrendered on April 30, 1975, the 50th anniversary is a good time for an analytical examination. This presents one piece of a complex puzzle.
Enjoyed it.
— Reviewed by Russ Lockwood
