Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War: Documents and Essays

by Robert Perrin and Robert J. McMahon

Book Overview

Designed to encourage critical thinking about history, the Major Problems in American History series introduces students to both primary sources and analytical essays on important topics in U.S. history. Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War incorporates a spate of new research and a number of recently declassified documents concerning the Vietnam War.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0669180130
• ISBN13: 9780669180138
• Release Date: October 1990
• Publisher: D.C. Heath
• Length: 635 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great savings on college textbook!!!

I received the textbook in approximately 10 days and was very happy with my purchase. It saved me alot of money compared to the college bookstore price!

A good, although sometimes boring look at the Vietnam War

This book has a lot of good information in it. Through the essays you gain a deep understanding of some of the events that influenced the course of the war that other books cover only slightly or omit all together. There are a couple HORRIBLE essays that seem to drag for a long long time. Each chapter concludes with 2 essays that either have differing points of view or cover different aspects of the chapter in more detail. The blessing of this book is that it has a lot of information that comes directly from the Vietnamese, including some translations of South Vietnamese army members as they consider their defeat and flee Saigon after the North takes it over. Over all, I like this book. At least one of the essays in the very beginning is bad enough that I almost put the book down and didn't pick it back up, but once you get past that, you are in for a good read!

Lessons learned

As the book title and "a reader" suggests this is a book with tons and tons of essays on the Vietnam War. These essays cover just about everything that was political or social or anything else about the war. It has topics on Kennedy, Johnson, Eisenhower, Nixon, My Lai, The Tet Offensive, discrimination, the domestic homefront, etc. This book provided a great wealth of sources for a research paper that I had to do. However, unless you are really into the Vietnam War, or that era, this book may be a little dry some times. It does provide a lot of good information, such as facts and figures, but it is just a bunch of peoples, the scholars who wrote the essays, opinions; as well as some Vietnam Vets accounts of the war itself, coming home, etc. I am giving it four out of five because of the dryness that sometimes occurs. Yet, it does remain a really good source for material, if one has to do research or just has general curiosity. Of course, by the end of the book, the reader will begin to see the lessons learned from Vietnam.

a look into the war that America lost

This book id a seris of documents that examines the war. It gives the reader alot of insight into how decisons were made and the consequnces of these decisons. it a well rounded look into the war and its aftermath. The book deals with America involvment with the French until the fall of Saigion and the aftermath of the war. The section that deal with the North Vietnamese and there thoughts and roles are particlar strong. a few weak essay hold the book back from a five star rating. Highly recomended