Reading history is meant to be instructive: to pull back the curtain on past events and to expose the causes of those same events. Most often, it takes a long time for the exposure to occur. Principals involved die; records are lost and destroyed; and revisionists work to obscure the facts.
Fredrik Logevall, a professor of history at Cornell U. and author of a prior work, Choosing War(1999), has written another impressive work about the French conflict in Vietnam and the beginning of the American version of the conflict. This book was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2013, among many others. The work has been lavishly praised for its scholarship, its depth, and its readability. Historians of the period sight the book's length and breadth, and the logic of the author's conclusions. Francis Fitzgerald, Neil Sheehan, George C. Herring, Mark Lawrence all considered the work a magnificent addition to the understanding of America's role.
For the post war generation of baby boomer men, the single word, vietnam, can resurrect a host of emotions without equal. The draft was in place and military service was required by law. It was only after the 1968 elections was the law changed, as Congress moved to an all-volunteer Army, removing the specter of the draft for 18-26 year old males.
But this book is not wholly focused on America: author Logevall looks more closely at France and Vietnam itself, with its various leaders during the post WW II years. The revelations of facts pile up, page after page, exposing the decisions that affected so many lives, so many families, the future of so many soldiers and Marines.
read part II
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