Vietnam: the Necessary War - Book Report/Review Example

Book Review; Vietnam: The Necessary War In his work on “Vietnam: The Necessary War” Michael Lind portrays a new perception in one of the very most contentious issues among the history of Americans through exploring the untold story relating to the war. Through his well-sought reinterpretation of the most disastrous war in the history of Americans, he demolishes the existing myths and consequently succeeds in putting the Vietnam War into its right context. He bases his argument for the engagement in the war from the global conflict between the U.S and Soviet Union during those years. He explores the deep cultural divisions among the Americans that rendered the war consensus so fragile and consequently focuses on the reasons for the decline of the Americans support for the Indochina war1. He further astonishes the audience with a revelation of the reason behind the failure of the U.S military as lack of adaptation to the demands that initially focused on guerilla tactics in the battlefield. From the book, it is noted clearly that the reasons for Americans to fight the Vietnam War resulted from geopolitics while at the same time forfeiting the war as a result of domestic politics. Therefore, the ultimate responsibility of the war that in reality occurred at the war zone lies squarely on the military establishment of the U.S that failed to adapt to the war demands that before 1968 relied heavily on guerilla tactics2. That perspective offloads the responsibility of the new American civilian elite as well as the American press. As a result of the high costs associated with the military commands, a misguided approach in the U.S leading to the lives of those in Vietnam losing the commitment and support of Indochina. Consequently, the cost of conflict resulted in undermining U.S public support from all fonts of the cold war. Lind, an editor of Harper’s Magazine a press Institute in Washington and a journalist present in Vietnam, consistently uses his book to reinterprets the most disastrous military conflict in the history of Americans. He, therefore, succeeds in his work through examining both the east and the west and consequently puts the war into its right place through portraying the existing conflict between the then two superpowers. To Lind, the third war of the 20th century arrived in the form of cold war with its major campaigns portrayed in Korea, Vietnam, as well as Afghanistan and the U.S, had no other opinion, but to engage in the war. Since the superpowers lacked the will to fight each other on the battlefields, the zone was set in the Asian font with the other world countries watching on the retreating side. Despite the period that had passed that amounts to over twenty years after the Vietnam War when Lind wrote his work, the war experience continues to haunt the consciousness of Americans. These experiences have led to divisions with some individuals mostly on the left arguing that the Indochina war failed to present any strategic value and present the war as unworthy. Others, mostly from the right, attribute the decline of the war effort to civilian leaders as well as the press indicating that their failure to support the war affected the whole affair. Lind argues that the lessons of Vietnam mostly, as presented from the two sides, have controlled the minds of Americans failing them in understanding the accurate details of the war. Lind points out on the exaggeration regarding the Vietnam War with the past generation viewing the war as not only a disastrous defeat, but a simple mistake that was easily avoidable before taking military men into the war zone. Lind portrays the irony of the matter in 1918 western font where it only took three months for more Americans to get killed as opposed to the numbers in the war in Vietnam that lasted for a decade3. Lind believes writing more passionate reasons behind the Vietnam War are essential in shaping the history of young leaders. The liberals stuck with the presidents who lost the war while the progressives hailed support upon all the leaders who at any time engaged in war and won. Lind exposes the fact that Trauma and Eisenhower who participated in the earlier cold war together with Reagan and Bush who entered the cold war in the latter stages were in better positions in the war as opposed those who engaged in the middle of Cold War. Kennedy and Johnson engaged in war with the Soviet Union that had healthy military and growing supremacy after recovering from world war II where resources to fund the military were efficient. Throughout his work, Lind succeeds in destroying a lot of myths and misconceptions that the Americans hold about the world war with closer attention to Vietnam War. Irrespective of the costs attributed to the cold war, Americans remained the eventual winners4. A significant point to note relates to the number of casualties that surpassed a little more than a hundred thousand in a war that took more than a decade. Lind consequently compares the number of casualties the Americans suffered within small durations of both World War I and World War II. Hence, he thus counter-attacks the canards that the liberal press planted upon the public and successfully dismisses those claims. The liberal press had presented the Vietnam War as immoral and as a result affected the American soldiers turning them into emotionally careless individuals5. The liberal media had announced that severe psychological difficulties were experienced by hundreds of thousands of the natives of Vietnam. These psychological difficulties relate to posttraumatic disorder with the earlier generation referring them as combat fatigue. In countering the accusations, Lind affirms to the existence of psychological difficulties but again refutes the high level claims in Vietnam through presenting Korea and World War II as battlefields that recorded higher psychological difficulties than Vietnam War. Lind hails the small record of psychological difficulties experienced in Vietnam War through considering that the military in Vietnam spent a significant amount of time in combat as opposed to World War II6. Consequently, Tom Wicker, the liberal press journalist had alleged that Vietnam veterans totaling to over five-hundred thousand had in one instance or more tried to commit suicide with Lind dismissing such information as tailor made7. In conclusion, Lind’s work is a success and remains a significant part of thoughtful work in the American history that portrays the best examination of the cold war and Vietnam War, in particular. He consistently presents a well-examined work that focuses on the basis of all occurrences during the Vietnam War and possible repercussions of any acts or failure to act. Through that approach, he manages to throw all the myths, misconceptions and lies revolving around the Vietnam War with a presentation of an intelligent perspective. Work Cited Lind, Michael. Vietnam, the Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict. New York: Free Press, 1999. Read More