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Summary: The Hobo Philosopher
Comment: I enjoyed this book. The writing is straight forward and I would say "blue collar." I intend that to be a compliment. This man has been there and done it and now he tells it like it was or how he saw it.
But once again, I have a problem. This book does not make Vietnam a good or glorious war. The war was a bad one obviously. Nearly every historical account I have read comes to the same conclusion or implies such. So then why are there so many out there today trying to make this disastrous war into a political victory of some sort? Why are those who criticised this war not looked at favorably? Is it more patriotic to support an immoral, unjust war than it is to fight to stop such a war? I'm confused.
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Summary: Once Upon A Distant War
Comment: Author William Prochnau provides his readers with a well written account of the journalistic integrity of the reporters who wrote about the early commitment of U.S. advisors and the consequent introduction of American combat forces in the Vietnam War.
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Summary: Novel History
Comment: There are two books that I heartily recommend on the Vietnam War. One is "Vietnam: A Complete History" by Stanley Karnow, and the other is this book. William Prochnau tells the story of the early days of American involvement in South Vietnam in a way that makes the reader feel like he is reading a novel. Perhaps the only drawback to the book is that Prochnau is too thorough in covering the backgrounds of all concerned. The reader at times may feel that Prochnau goes off on a tangent in explaining the background of a new character to the story. But all in all this is an excellent book that tells the story of how America first started its fateful journey into a larger and deeper escalation into war in Vietnam.
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Summary: Good history of an overlooked past
Comment: To many, Vietnam is a time seen through living color images of American boys in rice paddies, jungles and hanging out the side of UH-1 Huey helicopters. Many don't remember that there was a time before large scale troop deployments brought hundreds of thousands of Americans to Vietnam.
This book captures that era pretty well. The drama clearly has to do with several young reporters trying to get at the story of how American military influence in Vietnam was working: mostly it wasn't -- working.
The battle of Ap Bac was pretty well described and the affect this had on the young reporters. Until Ap Bac, people here didn't pay much attention to Vietnam. Then when the American trained South Vietnamese forces lost the battle of Ap Bac due to numerous failings on the part of many commanders, people started to think South Vietnam was taking a turn for the worse.
It was interesting to see that the Viet Cong controlled most of South Vietnam at the time, and mostly the South Vietnamese forces, or American allies, were generally used as coup protection for the ruling Diem brothers.
I found Prochnau's work pretty revealing when it came to the subterfuge of the American command in Vietnam at the time, the Kennedy Administrations waffling in that area and the plots hatched to get rid of the rulling Diem brothers. Mostly, Kennedy skates by criticism of Vietnam these days and Lyndon Johnson is blamed for the big war build up. It was Kennedy's Sec. of State Dean Rusk and Sec. of Defense Robert McNamarra who guided us down the Vietnam trail.
The book potrays the American commanders, namely Gen. Paul Harkins, as being an inept yes man sending back to Washington only a rosey picture when the truth was far more murky. I don't know if he was or wasn't inept, but somebody passed back faulty information about how well the South Vietnamese forces were fighting in the jungle when mostly they were hanging out in Saigon as palace guards.
The book also does a good job showing the complex relationship between the various ruling bodies in South Vietnam -- the Budhists, Catholics, the South Vietnamese government and the American command.
In the end, though, this book is not a history, but a realy readable work on those who shaped American policy in Southeast Asia -- military commanders, young journalists, diplomats and the White House -- during the 1960s.
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Summary: Entertaining, Accessible Read
Comment: "Once Upon a Distant War," is a highly readable history of the various journalists covering America's involvement in the early years (1961-63) of Vietnam. Prochnau has produced an intriguing popular history that has some flaws, but on the whole is quite a good book.The strength of the book is the fact that the material itself is so fascinating. Saigon, circa 1963, was an extremely exciting place for a foreign journalist. America had begun a huge build-up of forces in South Vietnam, the Diem regime was at its most oppressive, and the Vietcong were making huge gains in the rural countryside. Into this mix were thrown men like David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan, Peter Arnett, and Malcolm Brown: relatively young, idealistic reporters who were determined to get the real story. But the US officials in South Vietnam were less than willing to assist the "green" correspondents, who they claimed were not "on the team." Lied to and rebuffed by the official channels, the reporters sought out contacts in the middle of the action: South Vietnamese officers and American field advisors like John Paul Vann who were willing to tell the ugly truth. The result was a constant battle between the Saigon correspondents and the Kennedy administration, other journalists, and even their own publishers. The only people who hated the journalists more were President Diem, his brother Nhu, and most vociferously, South Vietnam's First Lady, Madame Nhu. For two years the correspondents fought for every story and risked everything, including their lives, to get what they believed was the truth about Vietnam out to the American public.
Prochnau is clearly in awe of his protagonists, but I think he still manages to give a fair account. The correspondents are not perfect: Sheehan goofs big time in his early account of My Tho, inflating the body count from 15 to 200. Halberstam was hugely influential, but as Prochnau makes clear, he was also incorrigible, uncompromising, and had a mean temper. One of the most important points that Prochnau stresses is that these men were not anti-war (certainly not at this early stage). Men like Halberstam were ardently anti-communist, and were only angry because the government was lying about a cause that mattered so much. But even the reporters' ostensible adversaries, such as Ambassador Nolting, are given full and fair treatment. (General Harkins is the one exception, but I've never read anything that suggested he was other than incompetent, blind optimist.) In addition to these detailed characterizations, Prochnau adds a wealth of anecdotes that give the book both humor and authenticity. Particularly interesting were the stories of Marguerite Higgins and her Machiavellian ways ("innocent as a cobra"), Sheehan's obsessive 16 year struggle to write "A Bright Shining Lie," and Halberstam mouthing off to high government officials ("Bull..., General! Why are you standing here telling our friend Clurman this bull...?").
My complaints are few. The first is about Prochnau's style: he is eminently readable and well suited for the material, but sometimes his tone becomes so informal it borders on cheesy ("Vietnam was not simply exotic. It was erotic. And narcotic.") My second complaint is that Prochnau glosses over many aspects of the war and does not give a very complete picture of the complex military situation. But his story is about the journalists, so maybe this is an unfair criticism. Then let me leave it as a caveat: do not read this book to gain an in-depth understanding of the political-military situation in South Vietnam, read it to learn about the tribulations of the journalists. In some ways, this book is better suited for people who already understand the history of the era and will not be confused by Prochnau's overly-simplistic (albeit justifiably so) account of the war. That said, this is still quite an entertaining look at some very interesting characters at a crucial juncture in modern American history.
