Book Review: The Vietnam War

Book Review: 'The Vietnam War' edited by Ray Bonds

5 / 5 Stars

'The Vietnam War' first was published by Salamander Books in the UK in 1979; in the U.S., this version (248 pp) was published by Crown, also in 1979.

In 1988 an updated edition (264 pp) was released by Crown under the 'Military Press' imprint.

A revised, third edition was published in 1997 under the Salamander Books imprint.

I still remember going into Oakdale Mall Waldenbooks on a cool evening in May 1979 (in my hometown in upstate New York, May was a 'sketchy' month, weather-wise: you could get light snow at the beginning of the month, and at its end, sweltering temps) and seeing this book on a table in the back part of the store. 

I was astounded. Up till this time, books on the Vietnam War had been limited to novels and biographies, like A Rumor of War and Born on the Forth of July.  

Leave it to the Brits to do what they do so well: these heavily illustrated, tiny-font, multi-author military histories, exemplified by the Purnell's History of the Second World War, a series of 128 magazines first issued in 1966.

[ Indeed, it would be another two years before the U.S. publishing industry caught up, in the form of Setting the Stage, the first volume in Time Life Books' 25-volume juggernaut, The Vietnam Experience. ]

Needless to say, I grabbed a copy of The Vietnam War and avidly read it. At the time it was the best single-volume military history of the war.

And, I would argue, it retains that status even today.

For one thing, it features a full-color section, titled 'Weapons and warfare techniques used in Vietnam', that excels in presenting those aspects of the war. The diagrams and illustrations are top-notch.

Being mindful that the contents of first edition of The Vietnam War were written 40 years ago, all in all, they remain reasonably valid as historical accounts. Not surprisingly, for a multi-author compilation they vary a bit in quality. However, reflecting the fact that most of the contributors are professional historians, for the most part they avoid overindulgence in editorial judgments and political rhetoric, and stay focused on narratives at the strategic and tactical levels.

One understandable gap in the book's coverage is the experience of the war on the part of the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese forces; there is a chapter titled 'The development of the Communist armies', by Lt. Col. David Miller, that is informative on the topic despite the paucity of sources available from the Communist side back in the late 70s.

It is unfair to compare The Vietnam War with Max Hastings' recent (2018) book Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945 - 1975, for at 896 pp in length Hastings' book has the advantage of length and access to the bounty of sourcing that has accumulated since 1979. 

But Hastings' book has its own flaws alongside its merits, and for those unwilling to tackle such a hefty volume, The Vietnam War remains a very affordable alternative. I certainly believe that The Vietnam War is as good as, if not better than, the other one-volume histories of the war that were published in the early 80s, such as Stanley Karnow's Vietnam: A History (1983) and Michael MacLear's The Ten Thousand Day War (1981).

Summing, despite its age, The Vietnam War still serves as a very accessible history of the military aspects of the conflict. The fact that copies in good condition still can be had for very reasonable prices makes it worth picking up should you see it on the shelf of your favorite used bookstore.