Another Vietnam: Pictures of the War from the Other Side

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Summary: Another Vietnam: Pictures of the War from the Other Side
Review: This collection of previously unpublished images by North Vietnamese photographers exposes the humanity of a long faceless enemy. Through interviews with these photographers, and through their images, a fresh perspective on the war emerges.


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Summary: quite interesting and enlightening
Review: This is a tough book to sum up in a few words, since many people will use their background to judge it. If you felt we should have won the war, you will hate it. I was forced to serve in VietNam and I found the pictures very interesting. More than just the US era in VietNam, the photos go back to WWII. There are pictures of the Ho Chi Mih trail which vividly show the difficulty in shutting off that supply line. There are pictures of what the US now calls 'collateral damage' from the bombing in the North. There are some propaganga photos, but they are so stated. But far and away there are photos showing the everyday life of those involved in combat, and for that it is a very valuable book. It is a documentation from the other side. Considering how our drill instructors were wont to describe the other side as a bunch of pj'ed peasants, the quality of the photos is first rate. I can not begin to imagine the conditions under which many of the photos were taken, let alone survived to be developed. If you have an open mind about the war, you will enjoy the book. If you already have decided about the war and felt we were suppsoed to have won 'if only....', then I am sure there are lots of gung ho war movies and books for sale on Amazon.com that will better suit your mindset.

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Summary: Very good book, but...
Review: Tim Page's Nam is one of my most cherished books about military history because the spectacular photographs succeed in conveying not just a visual depiction of the war but also the emotions of its participants (in the case of that book , focusing primarily on U.S. forces). I was therefore very excited to see this new volume compiled by Page and his team, which is full of photographs of the war from the perspective of the North Vietnamese. However, I gave this book four stars rather than five because of one disappointment I have with it: Nearly all the photos depicting battles or battlefields or in any way involve "the enemy" focus on ARVN forces. There were hardly any photos that had anything to do with U.S. forces or any of the other foreign armies defending the South. This struck me as quite odd. I realize the book's authors are limited by the photographs available to them (i.e. ones taken by photographers travelling with Viet Cong and NVA forces), but surely it can't be that these photographers never took pictures of subjects that involve forces other than the ARVN. In this sense I felt like the book fell short of telling the entire story of the other side. However, this book is still very much worth owning, so don't let my one complaint scare you away.

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Summary: very interesting
Review: With all due respect to Peter Caldwell, I think this book has a lot of value for all Americans, including Vietnam veterans. There are some photos which are propaganda, but they are labelled as such and as the author explains they are part of a larger story. All wars come with propaganda, even our own present war in Afghanistan (remember the US Special Forces soldiers riding horses with the Northern Alliance guys?) The other photos in this handsome book are stunning, especially a very wide panorama of a terribly defoliated Ho Chi Minh Trail. Very touching portraits elsewhere as well as dramatic battle scenes, in addition to the brief histories of the Vietnamese war photographers (in their own words) make this a very valuable and important book. There is something inside for everyone, just dig a little deeper past your first reaction...