Second Edition of Second Indochina War
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dan Duffy <editor@vietnamlit.org>
Date: Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 11:38 AM
Subject: [Vsg] second edition of Second Indochina War
To: vsg@u.washington.edu
I was going to read it on the plane later this week, but I got greedy. I
have a few things to say.
First, it is a bona-fide new edition, rewritten and expanded. It is
priced for libraries, and any library or individual that bought the first
one will want the second as well.
Much of the expansion is drawn from the work of members of VSG, and George
Herring's students, and the Cold War History Project and the National
Security Archives: Ed Miller, Bob Brigham, Lien Hang Nguyen and their
colleagues who have advanced the understanding of the war in the last
fifteen years.
Turley pays some attention to historical debate about revisionism, but not
much, limited to the intelligent and reality-based authors like Marc
Gilbert.
It's not that kind of book, nor is it a work of Vietnamese history,
starting the war with the Trinh lords, or with Nguyen Anh's march north,
or with the crisis of the mandarins under colonialism, nor is it a history
of US diplomacy and the balance of power.
It's an encyclopedia article from that alternate universe where research
scholars write what civilians want to read. What happened? Turley
distinguishes the Second Indochina War from the First and the Third,
introduces the actors and their motives, and narrates their action.
Although he tells the war as Vietnamese political struggle, he doesn't
drill down into factions and personalities. The story is about those who
took action in the struggle for the country on the stage of the Cold War.
He intended the first edition for the French series, "Que sais-je?", whose
handy volumes fill shelves in shops near schools. The series title is
from Descartes, but the spirit is pure Comte: knowledge about things that
can be known, which are good for you.
Reading this book has to be good for you, if you're accustomed to the
endless grudge match of talking about that war here. Most of the issues
are non-issues, there never was a South or North Viet Nam, most of the
seeming controversies are simple disagreements between well-understood
strains in the discourse of the US state.
Turn it all off, read Turley, and find out what happened in the war. The
book concludes with a reasoned reflection on "lessons" and gives useful
bibliography.
The only thing I missed is history from the diasporic scholars, but that's
not much translated yet. My only real observation is that the book
doesn't convey the essential triviality of the war for the US, but you
can't do that and tell the story.
A preface gives the circumstances for the author's unique perspective,
working as a research academic in touch with security analysts and
visiting around the region at intervals over decades. I would add that
the author is a political scientist, one of Aristotle's men out visiting
the states and reading their constitutions, to see things as they are.
A deeply moving read if, say, you have been on VSG for the last ten years.
Buy, read, teach.
Dan
Dan Duffy
Editor, Viet Nam Literature Project
Chair, Books & Authors: Viet Nam, Inc.
5600 Buck Quarter Road
Hillsborough, NC 27278
USA