Product Description

As the United States now faces a major defeat in its occupation of Iraq, the history of the Vietnam War, as a historic blunder for US military forces abroad, and the true story of how it was stopped, take on a fresh importance. Unlike most books on the topic, constructed as specialized academic studies, The (Last) War the United States Lost examines the lessons of the Vietnam era with Joe Allen’s eye of both a dedicated historian and an engaged participant in today’s antiwar movement.

Many damaging myths about the Vietnam era persist, including the accusations that antiwar activists routinely jeered and spat at returning soldiers or that the war finally ended because Congress cut off its funding. Writing in a clear and accessible style, Allen reclaims the stories of the courageous GI revolt; its dynamic relationship with the civil rights movement and the peace movement; the development of coffee houses where these groups came to speak out, debate, and organize; and the struggles waged throughout barracks, bases, and military prisons to challenge the rule of military command.

Allen’s analysis of the US failure in Vietnam is also the story of the hubris of US imperial overreach, a new chapter of which is unfolding in the Middle East today.

Joe Allen is a regular contributor to the International Socialist Review and a longstanding social justice fighter, involved in the ongoing struggles for labor, the abolition of the death penalty, and to free the political prisoner Gary Tyler.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #823646 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 230 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781931859493
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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About the Author
Joe Allen is a regular contributor to the International Socialist Review and Counterpunch. He lives in Chicago.

Customer Reviews

The lasting harm America did in Vietnam is all too easily forgotten... at least stateside
Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost is an unflinching history of the United States involvement in the Vietnam war - America's motives, its cruelties, and why America ultimately failed to win the war, along with comparisons to the modern-day situation in Iraq. Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost takes especial pains to attack common American myths about the Vietnam War, particularly the idea that Americans were caught in the middle of a conflict between stable Vietnamese governments. In fact, America was propping up a horrendously incompetent, inefficient, and repressive puppet government that represented only a tiny part of the Vietnamese population - mostly its landholding elite. The South Vietnamese government further stirred up resentment among the majority of the population by overturning land reform, in effect demanding that peasants give up land and pay heavy back taxes to their former landlords. As a result, Ho Chi Minh and his North Vietnamese government had overwhelming popular support, which was only further intensified by American brutalities against Vietnamese civilians. A section of the American population recognized the injustices being perpetrated in the Vietnamese war, and actively worked to oppose it; and among the armed forces, resentment against the war expressed itself in ways ranging from absences without leave to incidents of "fragging" (maiming or murdering, often by means of a fragmentation grenade) unpopular officers. This trifecta is what ultimately brought victory to one of the world's poorest nations over one of the world's richest - but it was a victory with a high cost, as the effects of American poisons, defoliants, and the memory of American massacres linger to this day. "Now the big question: 'Is Iraq the next Vietnam?' The answer is that it could be. That will be determined by two forces: the Iraqi people and the American working class." Though not a politically neutral account, Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost is carefully researched and deserves a thorough examination especially in today's era when the lasting harm America did in Vietnam is all too easily forgotten... at least stateside.

Excellent lessons to build on
Joe presents a history never discussed in mainstream accounts. Aside from demonstrating the major factors which combined to end the war, the book shows the importance of movements influencing and overlapping each other. This is clearly laid out in discussing the impact the civil rights and black power movements had on the nascent anti-war movement. Another important thread in the book is the often ignored account of how brutal the intervention was. The revelations on the staggering amount of ordinance dropped on the Vietnamese people underscores the degree of violence the U.S. ruling class resorts to when imperial interests are on the line.

In the struggle against the empire's current horrific occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, the lessons laid out in "Vietnam: The (Last) War the US Lost" couldn't be more valuable. From fighting the endemic imperialist racism leading to My Lai and its modern counterpart Haditha, to linking social justice struggles to the enormous costs of the war, to supporting GI resistance in practice as well as principle. If there is any overarching lesson from the book, it is that an anti-war movement diminishes in the absence of an understanding of imperialism.

Essential summary of Viet Nam War
I have 14 books in my library about the Vietnam war. I believe Joe Allen's book is the most accurate summary of the etiology of the war,"in country" events and what was happening stateside. I was not in the military, but I lived through and participated in much of what Joe so aptly describes. If this book had been published and was read by High School students circa 2000 perhaps there would have been a more substantial resistance to the Iraq debacle. I believe Iraq is the [next] war the U.S.lost.