Argument without end : in search of answers to the Vietnam tragedy / Robert S. McNamara, James G. Blight, and Robert K. Brigham ; with Thomas J. Biersteker and Herbert Y. Schandler.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McNamara, Robert S., 1916-2009.

Contributor:

Blight, James G.

Brigham, Robert K. (Robert Kendall), 1960-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--United States.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975.

Vietnam--History--1945-1975.

Vietnam.

History.

United States--History--1945-.

United States.

United States--Foreign relations--Vietnam.

International relations.

Vietnam--Foreign relations--United States.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 479 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Public Affairs, [1999]

Summary:

More than three million people were killed in the Vietnam War, and millions of others remain deeply haunted by what happened. There have been countless books written about that war, but none could truly explain why the war occurred or why it could not be ended before millions died. No book could fully explain these things for a simple reason: never before had the Vietnamese given their side of the story. Their own war histories were little more than propaganda. But, as Vietnam's former Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach admitted once, "It takes two to tango." What happened in Vietnam was the result not just of American actions and decisions, but Vietnamese actions and decisions. Yet ever since the war, the Vietnamese have never honestly confronted their own role, nor had there been any opportunity to bring together the men who led their countries into war so that they could face each other and try to figure out how they dragged their nations into calamity. Until now.

Over the past four years, in six unprecedented meetings held in Hanoi and a seventh meeting in Italy, Robert McNamara, his colleagues in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and America's top Vietnam and military scholars finally met with their Vietnamese counterparts. In frank, revealing and sometimes astonishing dialogues the two groups walked step-by-step through the war, analyzing each decision and action from both sides. As they began to trust each other these former enemies reconstructed the history of the war, filling in blanks, rewriting conventional wisdom, and often adding chapters previously unwritten. Why and how did America and North Vietnam end up on a collision course? Why did so many diplomatic efforts to end the war fail so miserably? Where did we miss opportunities to avoid the conflict altogether? For the first time ever, answers could be given to these and other questions.

Argument Without End contains that rarest quality in a work of history: something completely new on that most studied and anguished of topics, the Vietnam War. We move beyond blaming just one side-us or them-and instead see for the first time the complex interplay between both sides that led to unspeakable tragedy. We see exactly why the two countries misread each other's intentions. McNamara and his colleagues describe precisely where the Americans and North Vietnamese made crucial mistakes that led to prolonging the war. We see irrefutably why the war could not have been won militarily by the United States without resorting to genocide or triggering a devastating war with China or the Soviet Union. And McNamara and his colleagues also reveal crucial lessons from Vietnam that are applicable today, in the Balkans, the Middle East, and elsewhere.

Contents:

1 The Theme and Structure of the Book 1

2 Enemies: Washington's and Hanoi's Mindsets by January 1961 21

3 The Evolution of Washington's and Hanoi's Mindsets, 1945-1960 61

4 A Neutral Solution: Was it Possible? 99

5 Escalation: 1961-1965 151

6 Negotiating Initiatives, 1965-1967: Why Did They Fail? 219

7 U.S. Military Victory in Vietnam: A Dangerous Illusion? 313

8 Learning from Tragedy: Lessons of Vietnam for the Twenty-First Century 373

Appendix A Additions to History: Corrections to the Historical Record, 1945-1968 399

Appendix B Three Alternative U.S. Strategies in Vietnam: A Reexamination Based on New Chinese and Vietnamese Sources 409

Appendix C Participants in "The Vietnam War Reexamined: Its History and Lessons," a Conference in Bellagio, Italy, July 27-31, 1998 421.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [423]-454) and index.

ISBN:

1891620223

OCLC:

40714166