At War With Asia : Essays on Indochina

Rating:
Summary: Standard Issue Chomsky
Review: If you are familiar with the ideas of Noam Chomsky, this book will come as no surprise to you. He puts forth essentially the same arguments that he did in his earlier offering, _American Power and the New Mandarins_. Chomsky writes about the war in Asia by talking about U.S. action in various southeast Asian countries and the resistence that springs up against it. The most interesting essays are the ones about Laos and North Vietnam because these writings have emerged from Chomsky's own trip to the region. He is essentially reporting on what he saw during his time on the ground. These chapters are the most convincing in the book because of this aspect, and they are the element that makes this book worth buying. I'm not sure under what circumstances Chomsky was able to travel to these war zones, but his record of the trip is filled with empathy and heartbreak. He is a polemicist at the top of his game, giving what appears to be a fairly honest account of what he saw. I found the book to be enlightening and powerful. Another good offering from one of the harshest critics of U.S. foreign policy.