Rating: 
Summary: Another Perspective on Our Mistakes...
Review: Should we have dropped the bomb and saved 58000 lives? Or should we have pulled out in the early sixties? Whatever the answer is, we can find some clues with Appy's title. Appy gives us some views from all sides of the past and current issues. And, as I always argue-we should read all that we can about this conflict. 58,000 of our fellow citizens died for us. Some of those who didn't came home to criticize their fellow soldiers and national politicians. Some remained behind in dingy makeshift prisons. Only when this is done can we determine who our heroes were. John McCain as a prisoner or John Kerry who came home to testify before Congress of his tales of mass murder and other atrocities.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Discussion Of Vietnam From All Sides!
Review: The use of oral histories as a specific historical device has been popularized over the last decade by such notable authors as Stephen Ambrose and Studs Terkel. Here we have the concept applied assiduously and quite comprehensively by scholar Christian Appy. Thus, "Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides" follows the track of previous tomes such as Myra MacPherson's memorable "Long Time Passing" and even David Marannis' recent "They Marched Into Sunlight", both of which in somewhat different manner broach the same panoply of issues as are discussed herein. This book represents an almost Herculean attempt to catch once more the dissipating and evaporating tenor of a vanishing time. His coverage is indeed comprehensive, reaching all the way from the vapors of the late 1940s almost into the present. We find conversations and comments from people from all walks of life, from presiding generals like William Westmoreland to obscure stewardesses (even that term is dated, as they now are universally referred to as flight attendants), from politicians like blowhard Alexander Haig (remember "I am in control here"?) to the very grunts who dragged themselves and their buddies who hacked their way past the rotting jungle and raging rivers through the South Asian mud. There are voices from every side, from the son of former Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev to former South Vietnamese Vice President Thu Bihn to former war resisters and anti-war activists. Indeed, the book attempts quite admirably to cover all the colors and hues of a multifaceted phenomenon that was the war in Vietnam. As such, the work is a valuable resource for those who honestly want to understand what all the tumult over the war I Vietnam was in the 1960s. Certainly it is difficult for the later generations to understand the significance of the draft, given the fact that they have been raised in a country that now uses an all-volunteer force, one in which such conflicts pose no personal risk to them or their families. As such, the book does indeed serve as a formalized source for reference and discussion over what the war in Vietnam was all about, what the turmoil in this country over our involvement sprang from, and how it was finally resolved, albeit to no one's satisfaction. In using the emotionally freighted term of "patriots" he also calls attention to the current tendency to believe any dissent is anti-American as a patent falsehood, that indeed, such active voices of dissent are critical to the survival of the republic. To quote the author himself, he was interested in discovering and discussing "in what ways might patriotism be a force for good or inspire noble sacrifice, and when does it become a club for stifling dissent and a rallying cry for unjustifiable destruction?" This is a pertinent question for our troubled times. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: too much of the same thing...
Review: This is a great book that presents the various viewpoints of the conflict, whether it's a VC soldier, a US Marine, a politician or a Playboy Playmate. I enjoyed the tales, but, despite the variety, I still felt like there was too much repetition. Fortunately, the accounts were transcribed well and could hold your interest. I guess the only downfall is that I kept hoping to hear more about real-life experiences in battles and less about individual responses to the politics, etc. Still, all that makes it a well-rounded book; it's just not one I can read from cover to cover without getting bored.
rdnewman.com
Rating:
Summary: Impressive work.
Review: This is a truly impressive work from the part of the author who has apparently interviewed more than 350 people from all sides, although only half of the stories have appeared in the book. I have the few following comments: First, I hope he would make the rest of the stories available to all of us. Second, 'the Vietnam war remembered from all sides' seems to be a misnomer since the proportion of interviewees was slanted in favor of the Americans (71%) and North Vietnamese (22%). South Vietnamese and others shared the remaining 7%. This uneven distribution no doubt would distort the views about the war, unless one would characterize it as an American-North Vietnamese war. Third, the author has warned us the book is about recollections of the war and as such, 'everyone's memory is partial, selective and faulty.' He has also indicated that since 'Vietnam remains a one-party state that does not allow full freedom of speech,' we should expect North Vietnamese interviewees to tow party line rather than expressing their true beliefs. I am, therefore, not totally surprised when a North Vietnamese talked about the corrupt South Vietnamese regime (1954-1975), but failed to mention anything about the badly corrupt present communist regime. Fourth, the chapter about the South Vietnamese commando who was dropped into North Vietnam in the 60's and ended up becoming a captive for the next 22 years turned out to be was one of the most interesting stories of the book. He is a true patriot. However, there was no mention about the two million South Vietnamese who left their country following the fall of Saigon and the millions who were interned in reeducation camps throughout South Vietnam. Fifth, the fact that the ARVN suffered 224,000 deaths and more than one million wounded contradicted the assumption that the U.S. did all the fighting (58,000 deaths) while the South Vietnamese did everything to avoid it. Hanoi had to bear the consequences of sending 1.1 million youths to their deaths. In addition, 2 million civilians (one each from North and South) died during the war. The total casualty was estimated at 3.34 million people (9%) of a combined population of 37 millions (1975). General Giap was appropriate to call it 'the most atrocious conflict in human history,' although he should remember he was one of the instigators of the war. Despite all these drawbacks, this is by far one of the best books I have ever read about the war. It deals with almost everyone involved in the conflict from grunts to generals, war resisters, civilians, Vietnamese and Americans, and those who, within the U.S. government, argued for and against the war. I hope the reading of this excellent book would open our eyes to the different points of view that circulated around the world and make us wiser.
Rating:
Summary: The Only Book on Vietnam You'll Ever Need to Buy
Review: This is the definitive Last Word on what I call the Second Civil War. I have read all sorts of political histories on the war but Appy had produced an outstanding compendium of all the significant perspectives. By doing so he had made the horror, stupidity, immorality and sheer futility more alive than a thousand dry academic tomes could possibly aspire to do. Appy has even resisted the temptation to get into the We Coulda Won the War if Only... debate in a direct way but this was nicely and succintly summed up when one "patriot" in 1970 insisted we only needed to invade the North to win. In response, he was asked with what the US would invade with, as American troops by that time were either deserting in larger and larger numbers or refusing to expose themselves to the danger of being "the last man to die in Vietnam."
What is most noteworthy about this book is that it offers us an opportunity to compare the stupidity of the past US government, convinced it had a mandate to defeat an alien ideology bent on destroying us, with the current one, similarly inclined to view its overseas struggle as a crusade against anti-Western ideologues. Just as LBJ's perspective was fatally flawed, we are seeing and will continue to see how the current blindness to geopolitical realities is doomed to fail in the sands of Iraq.
Doubtless Appy or a relative of his will be writing Patriots II 30 years from now, about our failed adventure in the Middle East. (And please, don't give me any of that bunk about Iraq being about terrorism or WMDs or anything like that. We all know that's poppycock. It was all about protecting Saudi oil.)
Rating: 
Summary: More like: Patriots(?)
Review: Yup. The title of this book should be followed with a giant question mark, in parentheses. The earlier reviewers are correct: the interviews selected by the author are heavily skewed towards war protestors, non-combatants (i.e., journalists), and the North Vietnamese, in a way that says "their sacrifices are equal, their cause just as noble." The American combatants he includes are mostly filled with regret. There is, of course, no way of knowing if the million or so Americans who served in this war all feel this way, or if it is even representative of the combat veterans he interviewed. Most of the combat veterans I know are not so filled with guilt. (Much of that guilt exists because the VC fought a guerilla war that deliberately put non-combatants at risk, rather than coming out and fighting on open ground.) 58,000 American servicemen died in this war; 153,000 were wounded in action; and over a million Americans gave the best part of their lives to go off to a land on the other side of the planet to fight and risk their lives. To compare - actually, to equate - the actions of those who stayed at home and protested, burned their draft cards, or moved to Canada is gallingly distasteful, in the worst sort of way. Their "sacrifices" are in no way comparable to the sacrifices of those who served. Any respectable oral history gives greater credibility to first hand experience. How many war protestors died? Four? The author is not, of course, himself a veteran. At many points in this book I felt prompted to write down a particular quote for the inevitable review. There were lots that underscore my reasons for a one star rating. One of the best is a footnote - and, therefore, straight from the author - in which he describes the Weather Underground as a 'small faction of the SDS which planned, and occasionally engaged in, violence.' Well. Generally speaking, if a person or group "engages in violence" (i.e., murdered people, which the Weathermen did, at least thrice) that which was simply "planned" is irrelevant. A few earlier reviewers are disappointed with the glaring absence of any South Vietnamese accounts in the book. That, dear readers, is the most telling fact of all: you see, there are no South Vietnamese accounts because there no longer is a "South Vietnam," other than in the geographical or cultural sense (southern Vietnam today is by far the most vibrant part of the country, though - also telling). Vietnam for a long time was a totalitarian nation, and today freedom of speech is still suppressed, which is why so many Americans in this book criticize their country without thought (literally), but why you will not find any veterans of the ARVN who can speak honestly about their service to the cause of freedom. No, this is not the place to retread the arguments over Vietnam. But one interesting fact of note is that Lee Kuan Yew, the longtime president of Singapore, has praised American sacrifice in Vietnam as an act that, for fifteen years, stalled the spread of Communism into Southeast Asia, during which time the vulnerable economies of that region modernized into thriving capitalist, free market societies - a development that innoculated them against an ideological virus that claimed over 60 million lives in the 20th Century. Even though many of the alleged geniuses behind the war, such as Robert McNamara, later regretted U.S. involvement, that does not change the fact that many soldiers still see their sacrifice, however often wasted, as a noble one, in a noble cause.
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