Viet Nam: History, Documents, And Opinions On A Major World Crisis

by Marvin E. Gettleman (Editor & Contributor)

Vietnam. A nice vintage collector's item. Number # m912. Original price 95 cents.

Genres: History

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had always wanted to know more about Vietnam. Now that I do I do not like what I know. A tragedy of egos and colonialism.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published 1966 -- so I don't even know how it ends! Will there be a sequel?

Well, this does a great job at telling in detail the story of French colonial involvement up until American awkwardly coming in replacing the French as the dominant Western power. This goes far to explain the Vietminh, the French Union, Indochina federation, and other pre-Conflict realities leading to the tensions and Republic of Vietnam.

Some things I didn't know what how the Diem regime was Catholic giving the media depiction a lens of anti-Christian terrorism as a bugbear and this makes more clear to me the dominant Buddhists' problems with the regime. Overall it is a complicated stew and also more plain as the US-supported dictatorial regime had to deal with Southern Vietnamese soldiery relocated north after French withdrawal and national division but then also very easy to use by Hanoi for infiltration. This also makes more understandable to me the Cardinal Spellman involvement early on for direct intervention and how US citizens at the time would have received Thomas A. Dooley's DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

Sometimes this detail can be excruciating with extracts from legal codes, etc. It is interesting to read Ho Chi Minh's biographical details and history of intellectual development which goes back to resisting French imperialism under the pseudonym Nguyễn Ái Quốc:

The Communist Party of Indochina is founded. It is the party of the working class. It will help the proletarian class lead the revolution in order to struggle for all the oppressed and exploited people. From now on we must join the Party, help it and follow it in order to implement the following slogans:

1-To overthrow French imperialism, feudalism, and the reactionary Vietnamese capitalist class.
2-To make Indochina completely independent.
3-To establish a worker-peasant and soldier government.
4-To confiscate the banks and other enterprises belonging to the imperialists and put them under the control of the worker-peasant and soldier government.
5-To confiscate all of the plantations and property be longing to the imperialists and the Vietnamese reactionary capitalist class and distribute them to poor peasants.
6-To implement the eight hour working day.
7-To abolish public loans and poll tax. ...
8-To bring back all freedoms to the masses.
9-To carry out universal education.
10-To implement equality between man and woman.

NGUYEN AI QUOC

(More details on alphahistory.com.)

After WW II, the International Commission for Supervision and Control had a tough job reporting on the degrading situation, not helped by airfields and U. S. Arms, part of violations of the agreements by South Vietnam. Reports are here, somewhat abridged. Some of the reports are very person, such as mini-biographies of captured infiltrators from North Vietnam.

B. MILITARY PERSONNEL

The following are individual case histories of North Vietnamese soldiers sent by the Hanoi regime into South Vietnam. They are only an illustrative group. They show that the leadership and specialized personnel for the guerrilla war in South Vietnam consists in large part of members of the North Vietnam armed forces, trained in the North and subject to the command and discipline of Hanoi.

1. Tran Quoc Dan

Dan was a VC major, commander of the 60th Battalion (sometimes known as the 34th Group of the Thon-Kim Bat-talion). Disillusioned with fighting his own countrymen and with Communism and the lies of the Hanoi regime, he sur-rendered to the authorities in South Vietnam on February 11, 1963.

At the age of fifteen he joined the revolutionary army (Vietminh) and fought against the French forces until 1954 when the Geneva Accords ended the Indochina War. As a regular in the Vietminh forces, he was moved to North Vietnam. He became an officer in the so-called People's Army.

In March 1962 Major Dan received orders to prepare to move to South Vietnam. He had been exposed to massive propaganda in the North which told of the destitution of the peasants in the South and said that the Americans had taken over the French role of colonialists. He said later that an important reason for his decision to surrender was that he discovered these propaganda themes were lies. He found

the peasants more prosperous than the people in the North. And he recognized quickly that he was not fighting the Americans but his own people.

With the 600 men of his unit, Major Dan left Hanoi on March 23, 1962. They traveled through the Laos corridor. His group joined up with the Vietcong First Regiment...

[Jim Linstead · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love penguin journalism books, broad and factual with lots of evidence but also show many sides to the story. The focus on objective journalism is perfect. Very good introduction, only problem is written in 1966 so i’m missing the conclusion of the war!

[Lysergius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although a little dated now this compact volume provide a superb introduction to the causes and early development of the Vietnam War. Packed with original source material it a must for the serious historian of these troubled times.