Telltale Hearts: The Origins and Impact of the Vietnam Anti-War Movement

by Adam Garfinkle

Book Overview

Adam Garfinkle convincingly demonstrates that the antiwar movement, even at its radical height, was of marginal value and at times actually proved counterproductive to stopping the Vietnam War.

"Garfinkle (Israel and Jordan in the Shadow of War), director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Middle East Council, convincingly challenges the commonly held view that the Vietnam antiwar movement played a major role in winding...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312163630
• ISBN13: 9780312163631
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 382 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Book was clearly written and loaded with evidence.

Garfinkle debunks one of the great myths of the Vietnam era, that the antiwar movement in any way hastened the end of our involvement there. As the author notes, much of the reason for the almost universal acceptance of this view is because we are so used to hearing it, and because on a certain level we want to believe that outraged Americans can and did change the course of history. Garfinkle points to a number of Harris and Gallup polls from the 1960s which clearly demonstrate that if there was anything more hated than the war itself, it was the antiwar movement. He also details how this rage on the part of the "silent majority" put Richard Nixon into office, which gave America four more years of war and another 25,000 dead American soldiers. A wonderful book, rich with detail and original insight.