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The Irony of Vietnam
The System Worked
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Publisher:
2016
Summary
"If a historian were allowed but one book on the American involvement in Vietnam, this would be it." Foreign Affairs When first published in 1979, four years after the end of one of the most divisive conflicts in the United States, The Irony of Vietnam raised eyebrows. Most students of the war argued that the United States had "stumbled into a quagmire in Vietnam through hubris and miscalculation," as the New York Times's Fox Butterfield put it. But the perspective of time and the opening of documentary sources, including the Pentagon Papers, had allowed Gelb and Betts to probe deep into the decisionmaking leading to escalation of military action in Vietnam. The failure of Vietnam could be laid at the door of American foreign policy, they said, but the decisions that led to the failure were made by presidents aware of the risks, clear about their aims, knowledgeable about the weaknesses of their allies, and under no illusion about the outcome.
The book offers a picture of a steely resolve in government circles that, while useful in creating consensus, did not allow for alternative perspectives. In the years since its publication, The Irony of Vietnam has come to be considered the seminal work on the Vietnam War.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2016
ISBN-Print
978-0-8157-2678-4
ISBN-Online
978-0-8157-2679-1
Publisher
Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
1
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Table of Contents No access
Foreword No access
Preface to the Classic Edition No access
Abbreviations No access
Introduction No access Pages 1 - 6
Patterns, Dilemmas, and Explanations No access
Recurrent Patterns and Dilemmas from Roosevelt to Eisenhower No access
Picking Up the Torch: The Kennedy Administration No access
Intervention in Force: The Johnson Administration, I No access
Coming Home to Roost: The Johnson Administration, II No access
National Security Goals and Stakes No access
Domestic Political Stakes No access
The Bureaucracy and the Inner Circle No access
Constraints No access
Pressures and the President No access
Part Four: Perceptions: Realism, Hope, and Compromise No access
