Three Faces of Vietnam

Wormser, Richard L.

ISBN 10: 0531111423 ISBN 13: 9780531111420

Publisher: Franklin Watts, 1993

Synopsis

Examines the Vietnam War from the perspectives of antiwar protesters, th Vietnamese people, and the American soldiers who fought in the war.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

With mixed success, Wormser attempts to put a personal face on the war, supporting a general overview with frequent, short extracts from the writings of American and Vietnamese participants, here and abroad. Setting the stage with sweeping views of Vietnam's tumultuous history, international politics after WW II, and the rise of the American youth culture in the 50's and 60's, the author considers the war's escalation and the concurrent rise of the protest movement in a reasonably balanced way, alluding to atrocities on both sides and pointing out that the great majority of young Americans never joined the ``counterculture.'' Wormser draws on the letters, reminiscences, and public statements of a few American soldiers and campus radicals for quotes; on the Vietnamese side, he relies most heavily on the autobiography of Le Ly, a village child trained by the Viet Cong. Some of the paragraph- length passages are scary, poignant, and revealing, but many (especially Tom Hayden's generalizations about his generation) give neither real information nor a sense of being close to events. Though most of the text is Wormser's, this may have some use as a documentary resource; still, several other books, led by the Hooblers' Vietnam, Why We Fought (1990), cover the same territory with more insight. Sparse, poorly reproduced b&w photos; bibliography; notes; index. (Nonfiction. 12-15) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Booklist:

Gr. 9-12. Wormser looks at the Vietnam War from a human perspective, narrating the stories of those who fought, those who protested, and those Vietnamese civilians who lived through the conflict. He briefly relates the circumstances that led up to to war, then turns to personal history, respectfully and compassionately letting those who lived through this period tell their own tales. There are idealistic Americans who go to serve their country in Vietnam--some of whom are quickly disillusioned by the carnage, drug use, or confusion about their mission, others who maintain their commitment but are embittered by a lack of direction from their leaders and a lack of support from the American people. And there are the Vietnamese civilians who, alternately used and abused by the Vietcong, the Republicans, and the Americans, find that cooperation with one group often means punishment by another, sometimes including torture and death. Wormser, who was active in the civil rights and antiwar movements, is least effective in making a case for the SDS, Weathermen, and other student protest groups. Their members come across as kids who see protest as an antidote to boredom and enjoy tweaking the tiger's tail. But this book does effectively show the tragic marks the war left on both Vietnamese and Americans. Neutrality was impossible and so, perhaps, was humanity. Sources and a bibliography appended. Sheilamae O'Hara

About this edition

• Publisher: Franklin Watts
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0531111423
• ISBN 13: 9780531111420
• Binding: Library Binding
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 157