The War Within: America's Battle over Vietnam

By Tom Wells and Tom Wells

Book Overview

The Vietnam war left a gash in the heart of America that can still be felt today. The War Within is the definitive history of America's internal battle over that war, and it chronicles, as no other book has done, the full story of how a powerful grassroots force--the antiwar movement--changed the course of American history.

Tom Wells spent over ten years painstakingly researching government and antiwar-movement documents and interviewing virtually every key player from the Vietnam era--from Dean Rusk, William Westmoreland, and John Ehrlichman to Dave Dellinger, Philip Berrigan, and Daniel Ellsberg. Wells moves from protests at the White House gates to antiwar meeting halls, recreating the activities of the student factions, religious organizations, political splinter groups, and other organizations that waged campaigns of mass protest, draft resistance, civil disobedience, and sometimes political violence. Here, too, are the behind-the-scenes planning sessions of Democratic and Republican administrations as they sought to discredit and subvert the antiwar movement's efforts.

Wells demonstrates that Washington took the antiwar movement seriously at every stage of the war and that the movement was instrumental in the eventual withdrawal of U.S. forces from Southeast Asia. He also reveals how the movement's growing influence prompted the Watergate fiasco. And he graphically conveys the internecine conflicts that plagued the antiwar movement and its leaders.

In these pages the human drama of the antiwar era unfolds through the words of its participants, both the famous and the forgotten. Wells not only captures the spirit of these tumultuous times but also shows how the events of twenty-five years ago shaped the America of today.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520083679
• ISBN13: 9780520083677
• Release Date: April 1994
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 706 Pages
• Weight: 2.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.8" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Solid historically, weak analytically

This is THE most thorough treatment of the Vietnam war's history from the perspective of the ruling class figures who waged the war (McNamara, Kissinger, etc) and individual opponents in the anti-war movement. Students of the Vietnam war, and history students in particular, will benefit greatly from reading this book. The main weakness of the book, in my opinion, is its analysis, which is weak at best and wrong at worst. After you finish the book, there is no clear explanation as to why the war ended and to what extent the movement was crucial in accomplishing its own goals. Also, in many areas of the book, one of the main radical anti-war organizations, the Socialist Workers Party, is depicted as a dogmatic Marxist sect that repeatedly undermined the movement's unity by fighting liberal or pacifist forces some of whom sought to channel the movement into the Democratic Party. While there is certainly room for criticism of the SWP's role at the time (and I have plenty), the fact of the matter is that without the SWP many, and maybe even most, of the national demonstrations against the war would not have happened at all, or if they did happen, would have been much smaller and less well organized. People who liked this book should look into getting a few more to round out their understanding of the Vietnam war: a People's History of the Vietnam War by Jonathan Neale is an excellent analysis of the class forces in the U.S. and Vietnam from the end of WWII to the present, it covers the nature of the National Liberation Front in Vietnam and the U.S. anti-war movement, and also talks about the war's impact on Laos, Cambodia, and the U.S. after the war; grab Christian Appy's Working-Class War, which is an analysis and oral history of the working-class kids who became Vietnam GIs; and last but not least, see the new movie Sir! No Sir! which is about GI resistance to the Vietnam war, which has been written out of history because it was THE key element that brought the war to an end.

An interpretative chronology of the antiwar movement

If you feel you missed out on the sixties pro or antiwar movements, this book is you chance to vicariously capture the sequence of events, year by year from 1965 to 1975. And if you were a participant, this book will set your experience in some broader context.Wells provides an almost encyclopedic chronological narrative replete with interviews. Its appearance a few years after the 1991 Gulf War also provides some perspective on how American attitudes have evolved. Wells contends that the American movement against the Vietnam war was perhaps the most successful antiwar movement in history. Nonethelss, America's surprisingly quick victory with minimal casualties in the 19912 Gulf may have reshaped the view of the military option which had haunted American foreign policy since the 1970s.Wells concludes QUOTE So, while the public remains opposed to the spilling of American blood overseas, it seems prepared to accept - even cheer - the swift, continued use of American force. The Vietnam syndrome continues to give Washington pause. But whether it will prevent other unnecessary conflicts is, sadly, open to doubt UNQUOTE

A balanced and insightful look at American society

I was glad to see that Wells took the time to present a balanced perspective that took into account the political backgrounds of all parties involved in the events surrounding the Vietnam War. There are some great interviews which allow some behind-the-scene looks at what both sides were thinking and planning during the war era.