Lyndon Johnson's War: America's Cold War Crusade in Vietnam, 1945-1968 (Critical Issue)

Rating:
Summary: The Losing Battle
Review: Michael Hunt has written a compact yet thorough history of the U. S. involvement in Vietnam. Hunt's premise, in effect, is that due to ignorance, arrogance, and ethnocentrism, U.S. leaders are prevented from a real understanding of Vietnam before embarking on a series of ultimately tragic decisions.

The title of the work suggests two themes. One, Lyndon Johnson made the crucial decisions and thus made the war his own and is therefore to blame for the resulting quagmire. Two, while it is LBJ's war, it is actually part of a larger struggle, the Cold War, an effort in which the United States ultimately prevailed. This is, perhaps, the proper prism through which Vietnam should be viewed.

This work is particularly strengthened and distinguished by Professor Hunt's exploration of the major criticisms of Lyndon Johnson's prosecution of the Vietnam War. He concludes that Johnson was not candid with the American public, and that he proceeded knowing full well the risks involved. Additionally, while Johnson did go to war with clear goals, utilizing power decisively, he was ultimately strait-jacketed by the times in which he lived.

Rating:
Summary: Not just LBJ'S war...
Review: This book ... runs just over a hundred pages, but Hunt spends the first half of the book showing how it was Truman, Ike's and Kennedy's War, then writes one chapter on Johnson then a brief conclusion. I agree with his thesis that it was Johnson's war; after all Johnson is responsible for the biggest escalations in the war. There's just not much new or illuminating here.

I found the most useful part of the book to be his description of Kennedy's whiz kids and the energy and enthusiasm they bring to the scenario. But that supports an argument that this was JFK's war even if he didn't live to see it to the end. Ultimately it was a war typical of America's tendency throughout the Cold War to see everything in black and white, freedom vs. totalitarianism. Any President, faced with the same choices and domestic political context, would have made the same decisions.

Rating:
Summary: worth taking a look at
Review: This is an interesting and very personal reflection on Vietnam by Michael Hunt. Not a straight history of the war, so it's neither comprehensive nor without bias. Worth reading for its perspective though.