Viet Nam Remembered

“The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust [our own] government’s statements. I had no idea until then that you could not really rely on them.”
William Fulbright

35 years ago, America was just starting its “nice little war” in the unknown country of Vietnam. Having learned nothing from the French, our government proceeded to embroil the United States in what may be the most divisive episode of the 20th century.For those interested in taking a close look at those early years, check out Once Upon a Distant War, by William Prochnau. In the New York Times Book Review, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt says Prochnau has “brought the story of that involvement to vividly dramatic life as few previous books have done.” The book concentrates on the young foreign correspondents who brought the war home, especially David Halberstam, Malcolm Brown, Horst Faas, NeilSheehan, Charley Mohr, and Peter Arnett. In telling their story, Prochnau describes the unfolding of what would become both a publicity and policy disaster for the Kennedy administration and for the nation.

Lehmann-Haupt says “Prochnau manages to convey with fresh authority what it was like to be a reporter in Vietnam in those early years, the excitement the experience offered, the danger that it threatened and the ingenuity required to get the story out…Once Upon a Distant War is an important book, a good story that illustrates powerfully the interplay of strong individual characters and faceless historical forces.” We’ve read the book and it lives up to all expectations, not to mention filling in those early years when some us of were young enough to be excused from the nightly news.

There is also a new CD-ROM “The War in Vietnam” on the market, co-produced by The New York Times and CBS News. We haven’t seen it, but it’s apparently filled with hyperlinks featuring photos, video clips, new reports, and analyses. It also has a searchable database of the names and hometowns of veterans as recorded on the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington DC.