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Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama
The United States had never lost a war—that is, until 1975, when it was forced to flee Saigon in humiliation after losing to what Lyndon Johnson called a "raggedy-ass little fourth-rate country." The legacy of this first defeat has haunted every president since, especially on the decision of whether to put "boots on the ground" and commit troops to war. In Haunting Legacy , the father-daughter journalist team of Marvin Kalb and Deborah Kalb presents a compelling, accessible, and hugely important history of presidential decisionmaking on one crucial in light of the Vietnam debacle, under what circumstances should the United States go to war? The sobering lesson of Vietnam is that the United States is not invincible—it can lose a war—and thus it must be more discriminating about the use of American power. Every president has faced the ghosts of Vietnam in his own way, though each has been wary of being sucked into another unpopular war. Ford (during the Mayaguez crisis) and both Bushes (Persian Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan) deployed massive force, as if to say, "Vietnam, be damned." On the other hand, Carter, Clinton, and Reagan (to the surprise of many) acted with extreme caution, mindful of the Vietnam experience. Obama has also wrestled with the Vietnam legacy, using doses of American firepower in Libya while still engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. The authors spent five years interviewing hundreds of officials from every post war administration and conducting extensive research in presidential libraries and archives, and they've produced insight and information never before published. Equal parts taut history, revealing biography, and cautionary tale, Haunting Legacy is must reading for anyone trying to understand the power of the past to influence war-and-peace decisions of the present, and of the future.
364 pages, Hardcover
First published May 25, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 4, 2018
Kalb is a favorite, thoughtful commentator on our times.
This summary is important in that we learn that Vietnam and its painful lessons will really never go away. Better to understand and deal with it.
US Presidents tried with varying degrees of success. Most seemed to fall into the same traps.
This summary is important in that we learn that Vietnam and its painful lessons will really never go away. Better to understand and deal with it.
US Presidents tried with varying degrees of success. Most seemed to fall into the same traps.
Read
August 22, 2021Vietnam quagmire. Foreign policy. Presidents. Even-handed. Still relevant.
March 2, 2013
Vietnam has been a little more than a peripheral interest for me. I got to spend a year(late 1968 to late 1969) at US Army expense in what was at that time a war-torn country. Like many Vietnam veterans I have mixed feelings about it. I have read some books about it and, for my job before I retired, I got to read some papers drawing analogies from it. This book by the Kalbs discusses how the war affected decisions of Presidents and touches on possible affect on decisions of other groups and governments.
After America withdrew from Vietnam many terrorist organizations and dictators thought America was a 'paper tiger.' But the Kalbs posit an interesting theory with; "Ironically, the American defeat in Vietnam encouraged a procession of Kremlin leaders to make decisions that led ultimately to the collapse of the communist system and the end of the cold war." They too, drew the wrong lessons from Vietnam and entered Afghanistan to help their puppet.
Using semi-biographical passages the authors provide an idea of how the war affected the people playing a part in the decision making process. In 1971, a young veteran, John Kerry recounted the Winter Soldier Investigation in front of a Senate Committee. The Detroit investigation had told of atrocities committed by US personnel in Vietnam. One statement of his: "The country doesn't know it yet, but it has created a monster, a monster in the form of millions of men who have been taught to deal and to trade in violence." is also applicable for today.
Kerry's statements about the war came back to haunt in during his 2004 Presidential bid. A group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT) questioned his actions in Vietnam. Navy records and other witnesses have since shown their claims to be lies and fabrications, it was enough to derail his bid for President. The group also succeeded in adding a new word to the political lexicon, swift boat - "To smear somebody with lies," and a preponderance of swift boat veterans are angry with SBVT for smearing their good name.
Among the points the authors bring out is while Vietnam might not be the only reason the US might or might not act in a crisis,each President has been forced to consider its lessons in considering war. That is to say it has always been there when the use of military power is being considered.
This book is an interesting study of the effect Vietnam has had on Presidential decisions and the American political process.
After America withdrew from Vietnam many terrorist organizations and dictators thought America was a 'paper tiger.' But the Kalbs posit an interesting theory with; "Ironically, the American defeat in Vietnam encouraged a procession of Kremlin leaders to make decisions that led ultimately to the collapse of the communist system and the end of the cold war." They too, drew the wrong lessons from Vietnam and entered Afghanistan to help their puppet.
Using semi-biographical passages the authors provide an idea of how the war affected the people playing a part in the decision making process. In 1971, a young veteran, John Kerry recounted the Winter Soldier Investigation in front of a Senate Committee. The Detroit investigation had told of atrocities committed by US personnel in Vietnam. One statement of his: "The country doesn't know it yet, but it has created a monster, a monster in the form of millions of men who have been taught to deal and to trade in violence." is also applicable for today.
Kerry's statements about the war came back to haunt in during his 2004 Presidential bid. A group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT) questioned his actions in Vietnam. Navy records and other witnesses have since shown their claims to be lies and fabrications, it was enough to derail his bid for President. The group also succeeded in adding a new word to the political lexicon, swift boat - "To smear somebody with lies," and a preponderance of swift boat veterans are angry with SBVT for smearing their good name.
Among the points the authors bring out is while Vietnam might not be the only reason the US might or might not act in a crisis,each President has been forced to consider its lessons in considering war. That is to say it has always been there when the use of military power is being considered.
This book is an interesting study of the effect Vietnam has had on Presidential decisions and the American political process.
May 26, 2013
The Kalbs' meticulously researched and well-argued treatise on how the specter of Vietnam still stalks the halls of the White House, as it has since 1975, influencing presidential policy and action. Focusing largely on the application of the Powell doctrine, and the different ways each president confronted the use of force post-Vietnam, whether by going after small easy targets, avoiding boots on the ground at all costs, or using overwhelming force to try to win in as short a time as possible, the book's argument - that Vietnam is still an omnipresent issue influencing decisions about even the latest strategies in AfPak and Iraq - is convincingly presented. The attention paid to public perception of conflicts and engagements, and how that influences politicians, is fascinating as well.
March 6, 2012
See my review at http://www.BillDahl.net or http://www.ThePorpoiseDivingLife.com
June 15, 2012
Still better than anything else coming out today.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews