A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam

Rating:
Summary: THE book to read to understand our stumble into Vietnam
Review: This book is part biography and part history. All of it is fascinating. John Paul Vann is a compelling and contradictory personality. He possessed an honesty and clearness of vision missing from so many of his compatriots in the early years of the war. Initially, his story serves as a shining exception to the collective delusions that were shared in the U.S. and Southeast Asia. Eventually though, Vann succumbs to the wishful thinking that pervaded policy throughout the war. The author, Neil Sheehan, excels when exposing that institutionalized "we can win this thing" attitude that sprung from calcified WWII thinking. The chapter "Antecedents to Confrontation" is THE primer on pre-sixties Vietnam history. Somehow, like America's enthusiasm for the war waned, the last chapters of the book kind of peter out as well. I am not sure if this is my sympathetic reaction to the de-Americanization of the war or if Sheehan lost interest, too. But this does not diminish the overall effect of the book. After reading this wonderful history, I will never see foreign policy, war, or the American soldier the same way.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome.
Review: This is a great book. Sheehan uses the story of an exceptional individual as the basis for writing a history of a good chunk of the Vietnam War. It is extremely insightful and authoritative, since the author was there and knew Vann. I would highly recommend reading Secrets, by Daniel Ellsberg, and seeing the film version of this book, starring Bill Paxton, for further depth on the topic. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Rating:
Summary: History of the War and Vann: Both Inseperable, Unique Story
Review: This is a tremendous and unique book in perspective, detail and size. The book is both an in-depth insight of Vietnam from the pre-WWII period and a bio on the Civilian General Vann who dies in 1972 in a helicopter crash. The author tells the story of Vietnam from Vann's critical bench seat. The author was one of many famous reporters who spent a lot of time in Vietnam such as David Halberstam and Morley Safer. The book starts with Vann's funeral in Washington that includes the highest level of Nixon's defense team along with friends of Vann disillusioned with the war such as the "Pentagon Papers" leak Daniel Ellsberg. Vann is a career Lt. Colonel who retires after serving in Vietnam on a tour as a battlefield advisor in the early 60's. He loved to command combat dangerously from the sky in helicopters to observe the fighting personally and command units directly from the front. Notable for his Korean War exploits, he suddenly resigns seemingly in protest as the military brass creates an illusionary picture of how the South Vietnamese are winning the war. In reality, the South's political generals are for the main part political hacks and corrupt with the regime fearful of going far from their bases giving the initiative to the VC. The title of the book reflects what Vann refers to as the COs in Vietnam's "Bright and Shinning Lies". But Vann's true reason for resignation is not just to protest as assumed by many in the media but it is also a bright and shinning lie as reporters find out years later that Vann resigned due to significant personal issues that may have affected his career. The in depth bio of his youth is told in detail as Vann came from a broken in home in Norfolk, VA. where his mother made herself the priority to the determent of her children. Vann literally is a heroic American story of a man who comes from nothing to a most respected leader in Vietnam. He returns to Vietnam as a District leader in a Civilian capacity as part of a pacification program. By the last two years of his life he is actually a civilian general equal to two stars commanding both American and South Vietnam forces. He emerges from Westmoreland's failed battle attrition strategy to the more successful community based programs of the population intermingled with a reasonable military presence that recruits the community and stops indiscriminate bombing. Toward the end he is virtually the victim of his own success by taking too many risks and his untimely death in 1972 appears to be the final loss and noted faiure of the ARVN units that determines America's abrupt exit from the war. Vann is a unique character that knows and touches every major character in Vietnam from General Harker in 1962 to serving with the disillusioned Daniel Ellsberg. Vann's total dedication to Vietnam was a determent to his American family with an already struggling marriage with numerous personal relations in Vietnam that equal his unique energy' and personal high risk in the field. This is a big book of 800 readable pages. The only thing lacking is more maps and a quick reference page for all the acronyms and character names particularly the Vietnamese that are so prominent in the book. My neighbor that served two tours in Vietnam in the 1st Air Cavalry highly recommended this book.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent view of both sides of this man - Good, Bad & Ugly
Review: This is without doubt one of my favorite books - particularly the way it shows both sides of the same man. In one half I was highly impressed and somewhat in awe (not something I do easily or often). But in the second half, the author portrays a man who I found I truly disliked. We all have a Good, Bad and an Ugly side to our personalities. In this book we get to see all facets of John Paul Vann, an American hero and villan.

Rating:
Summary: Vietnam War as Seen Through the Prism of John P. Vann
Review: Vietnam was a complex and divisive war, one which has had longlasting effects on American culture. Our longest conflict, it was an epic struggle in which the US tried to prevent the southern half of the country from being unified with the Communist north after the departure of the French in 1954. In doing so we ended up propping up a corrupt south that was badly fractured by ethnic, political and religious rivalries. Through the character of John Paul Vann, who came to Vietnam as an Army advisor in 1962 and was finally shipped home in a coffin after he repulsed a large North Vietnamese force in 1972, Sheehan reveals the tainted struggle over Vietnam that he witnessed as a journalist and as a close friend of the brilliant, brave and fatally compulsive Vann.