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After Vietnam

Legacies of a Lost War

edited by Charles E. Neu

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Efforts to understand the impact of the Vietnam War on America began soon after it ended, and they continue to the present day. In After Vietnam four distinguished scholars focus on different elements of the war's legacy, while one of the major architects of the conflict, former defense secretary Robert S. McNamara, contributes a final chapter pondering foreign policy issues of the twenty-first century.

In the book's opening chapter, Charles E. Neu explains how the Vietnam War changed Americans' sense of themselves: challenging widely-held national myths, the war brought frustration...

Efforts to understand the impact of the Vietnam War on America began soon after it ended, and they continue to the present day. In After Vietnam four distinguished scholars focus on different elements of the war's legacy, while one of the major architects of the conflict, former defense secretary Robert S. McNamara, contributes a final chapter pondering foreign policy issues of the twenty-first century.

In the book's opening chapter, Charles E. Neu explains how the Vietnam War changed Americans' sense of themselves: challenging widely-held national myths, the war brought frustration, disillusionment, and a weakening of Americans' sense of their past and vision for the future. Brian Balogh argues that Vietnam became such a powerful metaphor for turmoil and decline that it obscured other forces that brought about fundamental changes in government and society. George C. Herring examines the postwar American military, which became nearly obsessed with preventing "another Vietnam." Robert K. Brigham explores the effects of the war on the Vietnamese, as aging revolutionary leaders relied on appeals to "revolutionary heroism" to justify the communist party's monopoly on political power. Finally, Robert S. McNamara, aware of the magnitude of his errors and burdened by the war's destructiveness, draws lessons from his experience with the aim of preventing wars in the future.

Reviews

Reviews

At the best, After Vietnam succeeds in its efforts to transform and deepen scholarly analysis of the war's legacies in both Vietnam and the United States.

It is possible the new war to which President Bush has committed the country will obscure the continuing importance of the legacies addressed in the five essays collected in After Vietnam. Yet it is already clear that the shape of the 'war against terrorism' and the popular response to it owe much to the way the Vietnam War is remembered and forgotten.

Thought-provoking.

Together, the essays form a compact look at the fallout from the Vietnam War, one that is suggestive enough, moreover, to lead readers to pursue the questions amply referenced in the notes. One could hardly ask for more.

The book provides intelligent and insightful analysis of the Vietnam War's connection to the present and future. The contributors draw together and interpret some of the best of the huge outpouring of scholarship on the war and add interpretations from their own research.

About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
5.25
x
8
Pages
192
ISBN
9780801863325
Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Vietnam War and the Transformation of America
Chapter 2. From Metaphor to Quagmire: The Domestic Legacy of the Vietnam War
Chapter 3. Preparing Not to Refight the Last

Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1. The Vietnam War and the Transformation of America
Chapter 2. From Metaphor to Quagmire: The Domestic Legacy of the Vietnam War
Chapter 3. Preparing Not to Refight the Last War: TheImpact of the Vietnam War on the U.S. Military
Chapter 4. Revolutionary Heroism and Politics in Postwar Vietnam
Chapter 5. Reflections on War in the Twenty-first Century
Notes
Contributors
Index

Author Bio
Charles E. Neu
Featured Contributor

Charles E. Neu, Ph.D.

Charles E. Neu (MIAMI, FL) is Emeritus Professor of History at Brown University and an adjunct professor of history at the University of Miami. He is the author of many books, including Colonel House: A Biography of Woodrow Wilson's Silent Partner.