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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 959.70430922
EAN: 9780142004494
ISBN: 0142004499
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 608
Publication Date: September 28, 2004
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Release Date: September 28, 2004
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com Review:
Christian Appys Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides is an oral history that serves as a "final public record" from many who have struggled publicly with the war for 20 or 30 years. The book is also a monumental effort to capture voices long unheard and ensure that the words are not lost to a new generation.
He includes statements from significant political and military figures from both sides of the conflict, including William Westmoreland, Alexander Haig, Nikita Kruschev's son Sergei, and Vice President Nguyen Thi Bihn. But he tempers these with the voices of a World Airways stewardess who accompanied troops out of the war zone, of the widow of the immolated Norman Morrison, and of numerous Vietnamese and American non-combatants whose lives were torn by the conflagration. These tales, and the contributions from poets, writers, and activists transform the book into a epic dialogue. Indeed, Appy says that he chose the title Patriots not out of a presumed understanding of how that word should be defined, but rather because it served as a locus for so many of the inner struggles of his interviewees: "In what ways might patriotism be a force for good or inspire noble sacrifice, and when does it become a club for stifling dissent and a rallying cry for unjustifiable destruction."
Patriots is a book that will reawaken memories--horrific and jubilant--for those who lived through the troubled 1960s and 1970s; and for those just coming to understand the war, it will make vivid the trials of a different time and place. This is a lasting, powerful book that's essential reading for students of the Vietnam conflict. --Patrick OKelley
Product Description:
Christian G. Appys monumental oral history of the Vietnam War is the first work to probe the wars path through both the United States and Vietnam. These vivid testimonies of 135 men and women span the entire history of the Vietnam conflict, from its murky origins in the 1940s to the chaotic fall of Saigon in 1975. Sometimes detached and reflective, often raw and emotional, they allow us to see and feel what this war meant to people literally on all sidesAmericans and Vietnamese, generals and grunts, policymakers and protesters, guerrillas and CIA operatives, pilots and doctors, artists and journalists, and a variety of ordinary citizens whose lives were swept up in a cataclysm that killed three million people. By turns harrowing, inspiring, and revelatory, Patriots is not a chronicle of facts and figures but a vivid human history of the war.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
An outstanding oral history collection from the Vietnam War! This book reminded me a lot of "Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam." The difference is that in this book both American and Vietnamese stories are told. The author conducted extensive interviews to write this book. Included are people like Oliver Stone, Gen. Westmoreland, and Tim O'Brien ("The Things They Carried" author). Each story is placed in a category so it's easy to find. There are interviews from fighter pilots to politicians, ... Read More
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If you want to learn about the history of the Vietnam War and you don't want to read more than one book about it, this is the only one you'll need. It's a compilation of experiences from the people who were there---from both sides of the conflict. Well organized and well written. It should open your eyes, and if it does, then you'll notice that history is repeating itself once more in Iraq and Afghanistan. If only the U.S. were wise enough to learn from its mistakes.
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A number of things jumped out at me reading this book. Westmoreland and Rostow still don't get it. Maybe it's too painful to reevaluate and admit your mistakes caused so much death. Several pilots, who never seem to have gotten to know Vietnam, also don't get it. How could they with all the time they put in drinking? The closer you were to the real world of Vietnam the more likely you were to see what was happening, and the reality changed a number of hawks into doves. I was most impressed by the analyses ... Read More
Rating:  -
The scope and richness of this book's personal accounts are breathtaking and unparalleled in prior Vietnam histories. It's based on 350 interviews from around the world over a period of years, 2/3 of which had to be cut to keep the book manageable - on effort alone, Mr. Appy could be applauded. Whatever your viewpoint going in, you'll find yourself reconsidering at least some of it - the book is full of contradictory viewpoints and nuances which defeat the human tendency to try to simplify complex subjects. And ... Read More
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This wonderful book portrays a truth we don't often hear about. In the words of the people who lived it, Appy gives us the 360 degree portrait of the Vietnam War (or the "American War" if you are Vietnamese). It is the first book you should read as an entry point to the war, and perhaps the only one you will ever need if not an academic. (Next should be Dispatches which hits you on an equally viceral level)
This book literally changed my life, and turned a persistent interest in the war into a passion.
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