Rating: 
Summary: The folly of Vietnam through the eyes of a tragic hero
Review: "A Bright Shining Lie" is a brilliant, if flawed, masterpiece. Journalist Neil Sheehan first made a name for himself as a reporter in part thanks to the enigmatic American Hero, John Paul Vann. Vann's story is both fascinating and tragic. His military career was seemingly derailed by his attempts to tell the truth about the war during the advisor period (1962-64), but in fact it was his personal indiscretions that did him in. The book was the work of a lifetime for Sheehan (taking him many years to complete) and it shows. The only problem is that Vann's later career in Vietnam as a civilian advisor (1967-1972) gets the short shrift. Sheehan uses Vann's combat death in 1972 as a metaphor for American involvement in Vietnam. But in fact, by 1972 Vann truly believed that the South Vietnamese were winning the war and had they not been abandoned by their American allies, they might have. Nevertheless, this is a vital book for anyone who wants to understand America's lost war.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book!
Review: A Bright Shining Lie is a true story about a man named John Paul Vann and America's involvement in Vietnam. The author, Neil Sheehan, was a war correspondent for the United States Press International and the New York Times. His book in 1989 was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. The book starts out at Lt. Col. John Paul Vann's funeral in 1972, ten years after he arrived in Saigon, after a helicopter crash back in Vietnam. His story shows America's failures and disillusionment in Southeast Asia. In 1954, the French were defeated, Vietnam then was divided by Ho Chi Minh's Communist North and the Southern regime of Ngo Dinh Diem. Vann had an opportunity to go to Vietnam and he took it right away because he wanted to fight his way up the ranks. When he arrived he was teamed up with South Vietnam's Colonel Cao. Right away Vann notices the corruption of the South Vietnamese regime and their incompetence in fighting the Communists. Sheehan shows this throughout the book with many examples of what the South Vietnamese did. Colonel Cao was shone taking pictures of his men pretending to be dead VC's (Viet Cong) to impress the higher officials and to show that we were winning the war. The South Vietnamese army did not know what they were doing and lost many battles. As Sheehan graphically describes the battles, the Viet Cong are winning them, but that is covered up by South Vietnam and America portraying them as being the supreme force. Vann secretly told reporters how the war was a waste and Neil Sheehan was one of these reporters. The peasants in Vietnam were caught in the middle between the North and the South. We gave the peasants guns then they were seen used by the Viet Cong in battle. Sheehan noted that the corrupt South Vietnamese did not care for the peasants and carpet-bombed their villages because of known Viet Cong inhabitants. This whole book is based on Vann's telling the self-deceiving illusions of the American military and civilian bureaucracy. Vann was sent back to the United States after the army found out about his meetings with reporters. America hid the truth throughout the whole war. He then resigned, but could not stand not be in on the action. Sheehan said, "The war satisfied him so completely that he could no longer look at it as something separate from himself" (745). Later Vann was able to get a position as a civilian aid and went back to Vietnam in 1965. This is when Sheehan depicts another corrupt South Vietnamese soldier. Colonel Dinh, he resisted America's help in the war. He killed his own soldiers, did not want to help the villagers in any way and destroyed their villages. Vann's main goal was to stop this and gain the villagers trust. He ran pacification programs, mobilized allies among South Vietnamese forces, coordinated America's support and had many theories on how to turn the war around. Sheehan also wrote detailed descriptions of John Vann's family and the struggle he had with it during the war. From this the reader is able figure out why Vann always cheats on his wife. His mother, Myrtle was like this and it was a hard subject for John to talk about. In Vietnam Sheehan tells about two secret lovers of Vann. He could not control his sexual compulsion. His military career was almost ruined years earlier because of his affair with a babysitter. Sheehan writes a lot about Vann's character flaw. His wife divorces him later because of this. He was able to get all of this information with interviews of many people while his time in Vietnam as a correspondent. Vann wanted things to be done his way, he wanted to win. Sheehan said, "He was not supposed to accept defeat" (269). Sheehan talks about Westmoreland, the Commanding General in Vietnam and how he believed that the Viet Cong would not attack Saigon during "Tet" the Chinese New Year in 1968. Vann believed that they would and they did. Vann helped lead the fight against the VC and they were successful. Vann took a position in the South Vietnamese army. He served as general in command of the Central Highland Regime. President Nixon had ordered U.S. combat troops out of Vietnam in June of 1972. The U.S. said it was the South Vietnamese war and they are giving them more control. Sheehan in the story points out that the South Vietnamese had little interest in the war in the first place. Vann in 1972 had his coordinates in Kontum carpet-bombed by B-52's to try to wipe out the second, the third and the fifth divisions of North Vietnam. This was a big risk Vann was willing to take, because of the corrupt Dinh who changed orders and they were forced to retreat into a mine field as VC's advanced forward. Sheehan points out that Vann had a different outlook on the war. He was concerned now about his fighting and not the peasant revolution. Earlier he was bothered that, "...the United States could generate an astonishing reaction from the peasantry once corruption was eliminated and the American millions were getting down to the poor instead of being siphoned into the feeding trough of the Saigon hogs" (539). John Paul Vann soon died in a helicopter crash during a rain storm, ten years after he first arrived in South Vietnam. The biography by Neil Sheehan was very detailed about the war the way John Paul Vann experienced it. First as an Army Colonel and later a civilian pacification leader. Sheehan's book clearly shows the corruption of the South Vietnamese regime, their incompetence to fight Ho Chi Minh's Communists and their brutal alienation of their own people. Vann was able to bring these secrets out to reporters like Neil Sheehan to inform the public of what was going on in South Asia. This brings up the question that what if the military and government leaders had listened to Vann's earlier assessments of the weakness of the South Vietnamese military and the Diem regime? What would have been different? This book was very well written and brings much of the war right out into the light. If the reader does not have much knowledge of the war in Vietnam, this is the book to read. Vann personified our good intentions, our courage, our arrogance and are folly in the war. There is one shortcoming of the book. The book ends after Vann's death in a helicopter crash. The reader is left there wanting to know more about the events in Vietnam after his death.
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Summary: "The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness"
Review: Award winning author Neil Sheehan chronicles America's involvement in Vietnam by reviewing the life of legendary soldier, John Paul Vann. How this man, who rose from humble beginnings to become the equivalent of a major general, railed helplessly against the system that constantly proclaimed victory was eminent when the Viet-Cong were making gains daily, indicts American military and political leaders for deluding themselves on what was happening. His gloom-and-doom prophesies made many enemies up and down the chain of command. Unfortunately, he was proven correct.The story of Vann's childhood shows how this illegitimate son of an alcoholic prostitute became determined to succeed against all odds. It also showed how the seeds of destruction that ultimately ended his military career and his marriage, were sewn. Readers interested only in Vietnam can skip this part. As a divisional advisor, Vann observed that the South Vietnamese usually avoided contact and always left the Viet Cong with an escape route. Their deficiencies were graphically displayed at the Battle of Ap Bac in 1963. The Army of the Republic of South Vietnam's (ARVN) defeat and America's whitewash of it established the pattern that was followed throughout our time there. Clearly, we were headed for trouble. Vann was later forced to leave the Army due to a private vice that would haunt him throughout his life. This section shows how child abuse can affect an individual. If you skipped the part on his early life, go back and read it. As a military and later civilian advisor through AID, Vann never ceased attempting to sell his plan to power-brokers who could change America's tactics and give us a realistic chance to win. His advice was ignored until it was too late. The reader is left to ponder the question, what if this "voice crying in the wilderness" had been heeded? Where would South Vietnam be today? John Vann's tragedy is America's tragedy as well. Confronted by a political/military establishment that was convinced of its own invincibility after World Wars I and II, he worked tirelessly to show his leaders we could and would lose if radical changes were not made. His futile efforts at preventing that loss is an indictment of the system that failed to heed the warnings of those on the ground who actually saw what was happening. Every student of the war and every military planner should read this incredibly interesting account because, it could happen again.
Rating:
Summary: "The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness"
Review: Award winning author Neil Sheehan chronicles America's involvement in Vietnam by reviewing the life of legendary soldier, John Paul Vann. How this man, who rose from humble beginnings to become the equivalent of a major general, railed helplessly against the system that constantly proclaimed victory was eminent when the Viet-Cong were making gains daily, indicts American military and political leaders for deluding themselves on what was happening. His gloom-and-doom prophesies made many enemies up and down the chain of command. Unfortunately, he was proven correct. The story of Vann's childhood shows how this illegitimate son of an alcoholic prostitute became determined to succeed against all odds. It also showed how the seeds of destruction that ultimately ended his military career and his marriage, were sewn. Readers interested only in Vietnam can skip this part. As a divisional advisor, Vann observed that the South Vietnamese usually avoided contact and always left the Viet Cong with an escape route. Their deficiencies were graphically displayed at the Battle of Ap Bac in 1963. The Army of the Republic of South Vietnam's (ARVN) defeat and America's whitewash of it established the pattern that was followed throughout our time there. Clearly, we were headed for trouble. Vann was later forced to leave the Army due to a private vice that would haunt him throughout his life. This section shows how child abuse can affect an individual. If you skipped the part on his early life, go back and read it. As a military and later civilian advisor through AID, Vann never ceased attempting to sell his plan to power-brokers who could change America's tactics and give us a realistic chance to win. His advice was ignored until it was too late. The reader is left to ponder the question, what if this "voice crying in the wilderness" had been heeded? Where would South Vietnam be today? John Vann's tragedy is America's tragedy as well. Confronted by a political/military establishment that was convinced of its own invincibility after World Wars I and II, he worked tirelessly to show his leaders we could and would lose if radical changes were not made. His futile efforts at preventing that loss is an indictment of the system that failed to heed the warnings of those on the ground who actually saw what was happening. Every student of the war and every military planner should read this incredibly interesting account because, it could happen again.
Rating:
Summary: a must read for all
Review: Being in my early thirties, as with most of my peers, I did not learn much about Viet Nam in school. This book sheds "a bright shining" light on the (mis)information and (un)intelligence that involved the United States in a "war" we had no business being a part of. This book provides a great deal of history about Viet Nam's struggles against "occupiers" from ancient China onward and a first-hand view of what was going on in there during the turmoil. There is a LOT of information in this over-700 page book, but it's worth the read and the attention one must pay to all the details.
It's also a good example of how out nation's leaders and military officials blindly engaged in war based on ego. It makes one hyper-aware to what's going on in the world now and how history could very well be repeating itself.
Om shanti.
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Summary: A Strange Career of the Vietnam War
Review: John Paul Vann was a highly complex individual with more than the usual weaknesses. I think that this book certainly deserved a Pulitzer, if not more. Vann was a man who did not need to lie, but did even when he did not need to. I found it very surprising how Vann's mother was just a prostitute. More than that, she was quite abusive to the men in her life. This is not just a footnote. Vann's sex problems were what led to his downfall. Vann was active in Vietnam while I was there, but at my level, that of a teenager, I had no idea who he was. Vann was quite a soldier in his own right, but I found it less odd than the author that Vann would embellish his war stories. Telling these stories has less to do with making yourself sound great than just telling an entertaining story. Sometimes it is also better to tell a fake story than one that you experienced. In my opinion, one reason we failed can be seen in the chapter regarding the battle of Ap Bac. Vann is flying overhead and trying to push the South Vietnamese into attacking the VC. They are refusing frontal assaults and casualties, which drives him nuts. Yes, I hated the ARVN too, but who says we had the "right" way to fight that war anyway, considering the casualties? Vann was a rather manipulative individual--again take a look at his mother. He was certainly brutally honest with some journalists (who in turn got sent out of Vietnam for "negative" reports), but also used them to his own end. Vann's death was long overdue, based on his taking chances. I was not surprised that his body was looted by the South Vietnamese soldiers. Welcome to my war. The North Vietnamese radio broadcasts not only took credit for downing Vann's helicopter, but condemned his "towering crimes." I only got a group condemnation. I thought it was great that Sheehan included the problems with who would meet with Nixon after he died. One of Vann's sons wanted to make an anti-war statement, but was very forcefully told not to even think of it. Vann left quite a wake in his life, with many people sorry he ever rocked their boats.
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Summary: Where Have All the Young Men Gone?
Review: Neil Sheehan does an amazing job with this book. In my experience (for what that is worth), books by journalists often tend to lack depth--both analytic and empathic. Sheehan does not have this deficiency. This volume certainly deserved the Pulitzer it won. I have no doubt that John Paul Vann is the perfect focal point for the story of America's involvement in Vietnam--he was young, idealistic, committed, unaware of his own shortsightedness, and, both knowingly and not, part of a great big lie. It is amazing that, after the passage of nearly thirty years, the existence of a myriad of analyses of the quagmire of Vietnam, and the silent witness of a black granite wall in Washington bearing over 58,000 names, we still refuse to learn the lesson that the world is not as simple as we might like it to be, and that it is not so easily remade in our image. This book is a must-read for anyone starting to engage the subject of the Vietnam War, and, more generally, for those interested in how good intentions can go bad (and bad intentions only get worse). In addition, I would recommend Barbara Tuchman's "March of Folly." On a final note, those with a taste for cinematic adaptations of non-fiction might be interested in the made-for-cable movie from the 1990's of the same title. I thought it left some things to be desired, but it was, all things considered, a fair treatment of the book
Rating: 
Summary: Bright Shining Bias
Review: Normally I give rabidly anti-Vietnam War books like this one star. In Mr. Sheehan's case, Ive ramped him up for two reasons. First, unlike most of his kind, he uses South Vietnamese sources and shows many of them at least a modicum of respect and sympathy. Also, he does an excellent job of critiquing the American War effort during the Westmoreland years.
In this novel, the author tries tell us of the folly of the American war effort in Vietnam by looking at it through the life of John Vann. Lieutenant Colonel Vann blew the whistle on the poorly thought out American war effort when he served as a military advisor in the early 60s. He advocated focusing on improving the lot of the average South Vietnamese over fighting Communists. He essentially believed that if rank and file Viets were happy with their lot in life, they would not help the Communist effort to take over the Republic of Vietnam. Sadly, the military bureaucracy ignored him. Vann retired from the military but returned to the war as a civilian advisor. He participated in the war from the mid 1960s until his death in 1972.
The best part of this book is the part that deals with Westmoreland and his predecesors' poorly thought out strategy. They thought that all they had to do was bring in a large American field army and kill Communists. As we all know, the plan was a disaster. Sure, they killed lots of Communists. But there was always more flowing down the Ho Chi Minh trail. Add to that, Westmoreland and company were sigularly uninterested in civil affairs. So besides not killing enough Communists, there were always sufficient recruits in the South who were disgruntled with things as they were. All an all a well crafted analysis.
Sadly, the rest of the book is worthless. Sheehan begins with the assumption that Ho and his murderers were the only legitmate leaders for Vietnam. Anything opposing them was futile (if not downright evil). If the subject matter didnt involve the deaths and enslavement of millions, Sheehan's inconsistancies would be hilarious. At one point he states the South Vietnamese Diem government was illegitimate because it took on the trappings of the old style Viet dynasties. Yet within a few pages of this conclusion, he states the Communists were the right people to lead Vietnam because they were descendants of and acted like the old style Mandarin leaders! Huh?!!?? Heres another one. Sheehan is harshly critical of the Republic of Vietnam Land Reform policies. Fair enough. There were problems. But he curiosly wraps up Ho's land reform program that led to the murder of thousands by claiming it was a mistake by Ho's underlings! Say what?? Mr. Sheehan, I hope youre reading this because I would like to educate you on something. North Vietnam was a police state. People didnt sneeze (let alone execute thousands) without permission from the leadership. Not only that, land reform based murders were commonplace in Communist revolutions.
Which brings us to another problem. Sheehan bends over backward to excuse Communist thuggery but cuts absolutely no slack for the South Vietnamese and their allies. A previous post notes Sheehan obsesses over My Lai but gives little analysis to the NVA atrocities in Hue. The systematic murder of thousands is described as a "stupid mistake" while the criminal actions of one American lieutenant violating numerous orders is characterized as shorthand for why the US war effort was illegitimate. Add to that, Sheehan tries to minimize the Hue murders as the actions of hot headed renegade Viet Cong. This is not true. The Hue massacre was done by North Vietnamese soldiers carrying lists of tagets likely drawn up in Hanoi. Heres another gem. Sheehan brushes off the Communist penchant for killing droves of innocent bystanders in shellings and terrorist bombings by noting they sent out warning messages. This in contrast to his harsh condemnation of US killing of civilians in Free Fire Zones (Gee Neil, the US gave warnings too you know). Oh and one more. Sheehan notes Ho and the Communists came into prominence after WW2 by murdering off all the non-Communist nationalists. He says this is okay because the non-Communists were trying to kill the Communists. Besides that, the non-Communists just werent patriotic enough. Isnt that special!
The book is also fatally flawed by its premise. Basically, it shows Vann to be a sell out. Sheehan does this by showing how Vann changed from his civil affairs focus in the early 60s to a "bomb them into the stone age" mindset by the late 60s and early 70s. Sheehan actually puts lots of evidence in the book showing this was a legitmate change but just cant seem to put two and two together. The fact is, by the end of the 60s the battle had switched from an insurgency battle to a traditional war against an invading army. Distributing high quality rice seed and giving land to peasants just doesnt stop North Vietnamese Army juggernauts very well.
Another problem is its behind the times. In particular it paints the North Vietnamese as free willed patriots and the South Vietnamese as illegitimate puppets unable to survive without the aid of foreigners. Its fairly common knowledge today that the Chinese had almost the same number of troopers in North Vietnam (conducting security and engineering work to free up NVA units for combat) as the US did in South Vietnam. Still, one would wonder if good old Neil ever wondered why all the equipment captured from the VC and NVA was stamped "Made in China" or "Made in the USSR".
A major disappointment. But then again what did you expect from a known pro-Hanoi reporter!
Rating:
Summary: A must read for anyone interested in the war in Vietnam!
Review: Sheehan tells the history of the war in Vietnam paralleled by a biography of one of its most colorful figures, the Army Lt. Col. and later civilian pacification leader John Paul Vann. Regardless of where you stand on this most controversial of all America's wars, this book is a must read to understand its background. Sheehan thoroughly researched the story with interviews of many key players. As a young correspondent he spent several years in country. The book raises many fascinating "counterfactual" history questions: what if military and government leaders had listened to Vann's early (1962-1963) assessment of the weaknesses of the South Vietnamese military and the Diem regime? The only weakness of the book is its abrupt ending. After Vann's death in a helicopter crash in 1972, the author fails to analyze later events including the withdrawal of U.S. troops by 1973 and the fall of South Vietnam in 1975. Writing in 1988, Sheehan should have reflected more on Vann's views and their relation to events that occurred after his death. Nonetheless, a must read for those who want to understand the most divisive war in American history.
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Summary: Great but written poorly
Review: The author does a wonderful job researching and analyzing the subject matter of this book. However, the organization and the writing quality could use more work. I found myself often re-reading large sections to understand fully the author's point. When I did, I realized the author had much to say. This was disappointing because the subject matter is very important. I expected more from a journalist.
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