America and Vietnam

A powerfully written, emotion-packed, highly biased account of America's involvement in Vietnam. Marrin mentions a variety of views on the war, but his sympathies are clearly with the Americans who fought there. While he details the grunts confusion, frustration, and suffering and apologizes for the atrocities they committed as aberrations, he depicts the communists as ruthless and power-hungry, the South Vietnamese as corrupt, the US government as blind and indecisive, the news media as sensation-seeking, and the antiwar activists as spoiled brats. He also emphasizes the suffering of American POWs (and, to a lesser degree, some of the Vietnamese). Though he quotes a number of Vietnamese sources and presents some background on the country, the Vietnamese are the villains in virtually every comparison with Americans; Marrin's presumption of motives is good for American soldiers, bad for everyone else. To his credit, he attributes quotes and offers a reasonably complete bibliography. Useful as a digest of some of the adult oral histories, but not as an objective summary. Index and b&w photos not seen.