Like all Hastings' books, well research and easy to read. I didn't like it as much as his others though. Maybe because while he says he wanted to reclaim the story for the Vietnamese I didn't feel he did - I felt his heart was with the allies, particularly the Americans. The Aussies get a bit of a write up (complimentary) - the South Koreans and Thais don't get much of a look in.
Maybe my problem was that the story was so depressing. Hastings makes the convincing case that Vietnam was unwinnable because the South Vietnamese state was so artificial, and unable to exist other than being propped up by billions of American money. And from 1968 onwards America knew they wouldn't win they just didn't want to hurt their feelings.
So many thousands died, so many billions were spent so that people wouldn't have hurt feelings - first the French then the Americans but also the Vietnamese. People didn't have the courage to give up - LBJ and Nixon had excellent chances in 64 and 68 after their election. The communists never cared.
A theory I've heard which Hastings doesn't raise - could something have been salvaged if the Yanks moved back to the Mekong Delta in 1968 and just held that bit? They could have reconstructed the society - did it like South Korea. I like the theory and have never heard much about it.
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