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Road to Disaster: A New History of America's Descent Into Vietnam, by Brian VanDeMark
Free Ebook Road to Disaster: A New History of America's Descent Into Vietnam, by Brian VanDeMark
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Review
“Engrossing…. Absolutely first-rate.” (USA Today (four stars))“Why do smart people do stupid things? That is the tragic question at the heart of this brilliant exploration of American leaders and the Vietnam War.” (Evan Thomas, author of Ike’s Bluff, Robert Kennedy, and Being Nixon)“Monumental…a landmark… This is the book I’ve been waiting for — a thorough and thoughtful history of what led to the war that shaped my life.” (Washington Independent Review of Books)“The most thoughtful and judicious one-volume history of the war and the American political leaders who presided over the difficult and painful decisions that shaped this history. The book will stand for the foreseeable future as the best study of the tragic mistakes that led to so much suffering.” (Robert Dallek, New York Times bestselling author of An Unfinished Life and Franklin D. Roosevelt)“An immensely readable and richly informative book, the best study to date of those fateful years when the Kennedy and Johnson administrations Americanized the war in Vietnam.” (George C. Herring, University of Kentucky, author of America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975)“A monumental achievement….Brian VanDeMark shows that we still have much to learn about America’s war in Vietnam. Road to Disaster is an excellent and accessible history of decision making in the Kennedy and Johnson years.” (Robert K. Brigham, Vassar College, author of Reckless: Henry Kissinger and the Tragedy of Vietnam )“A hard look at the flawed decision-making that figured in America’s misadventures in Southeast Asia...VanDeMark turns in some surprising observations...A fresh but sobering approach to the disastrous war in Vietnam.” (Kirkus Reviews)“This book is sure to appeal to those still searching for Vietnam War answers that even McNamara, Johnson, and their best and brightest advisers never found.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review))“[An] exceptional work.…VanDeMark offers a valuable corrective to the Good Guys/Bad Guys theory of war making, and there’s no doubt he knows his research. Will interest military history buffs and anyone still trying to understand America’s most outstanding military fiasco.” (Library Journal (starred review))“Brian VanDeMark’s Road to Disaster: A New History of America’s Descent into Vietnam is a startling read, a book that puts America’s leaders on the couch and analyzes the psychology behind the decisions that led us into an unwinnable war in Southeast Asia.” (Military.com)
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From the Back Cover
Many books have been written on the tragic decisions regarding Vietnam made by the young stars of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Yet despite millions of words of analysis and reflection, no historian has been able to fully explain why such decent, brilliant, and previously successful men failed so badly. With this book—more than twenty years in the making—that changes.In Road to Disaster, acclaimed historian Brian VanDeMark draws upon decades of archival research, his own exclusive interviews with many of the officials involved with the war, and a wealth of previously unheard recordings by Robert McNamara and Clark Clifford, who served as defense secretaries for presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. Beyond that, Road to Disaster is the first account of the war to look at the cataclysmic decisions of those in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations through the prism of recent research in cognitive science, psychology, and organizational theory to explain why “the best and the brightest” became trapped in situations that suffocated creative thinking and willingness to dissent; why they found change so hard; and why they were so blind to their own errors.A comprehensive history of America’s descent into Vietnam during the 1960s that posits a striking new way of understanding that catastrophe, Road to Disaster is a landmark in scholarship and a work of paramount importance, both in comprehending what happened and why, and—just as importantly—preventing fiascoes in the future.
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Product details
Hardcover: 656 pages
Publisher: Custom House; 1st Edition edition (September 18, 2018)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0062449745
ISBN-13: 978-0062449740
Product Dimensions:
6 x 1.6 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.3 out of 5 stars
16 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#101,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Having just finished Max Hasting’s ‘Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy 1945-1975’ I did not think that there could have been another book on Vietnam – not in the same year – that might be worth reading, until I read BV’s book, ‘Road to Disaster’. Both books are lengthy; Hastings’ is more than 600 pages and BV’s is more than 500 pages. Hasting’s has been a joy to read (see my review in Amazon), but notwithstanding reading on the same subject within a month, I found BV’s book absolutely enthralling. B’s approach is closer to the classic ‘The Best and the Brightest’ by David Halberstam in 1972 (there is a 20th anniversary edition in 1992). BV examined the psychological explanations as to why smart people (in the American administration) made such grave errors. He referred to the studies of the psychologist Daniel Kahneman on the limitations of rationalization in decision-making. Part (a large part) of the problem was the poor assessment by men sent to Vietnam. That led to some poor reporting and the escalation by President Johnson. Johnson did get some clear and accurate reporting with wise warnings from the Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, but that didn’t stop Johnson falling for poorer advice from the men in the military. President Kennedy, before Johnson, was a little tougher, but he probably only delayed the step into the quagmire. BV tells how the marine corps general, Victor ‘Brute’ Krulak and the State Department’s Mendenhall were sent to Vietnam for a personal report. Krulak told Kennedy that the war was going ‘ahead at an impressive pace’, and that the war will be won if American military and sociological programmes are pursued, in spite of the weak and hated South Vietnamese leadership. Mendenhall reported that there was a virtual breakdown in civilian rule in South Vietnam, such that as far as the South Vietnamese are concerned, the war against the Vietcong had become secondary. They were more concerned with a war against their own leaders. After listening to the two contradictory reports, Kennedy asked, ‘You both went to the same country?’As to the war, it eventually ground the Americans into hopeless frustration. General John McConnell, BV wrote, ‘expressed considerable frustration at Hanoi’s recuperative ability. “You knock a bridge out and in a week those characters have the bridge back in shape, so you have to knock it out again, and the same thing applies to their airfields, to their water shipping and everything else.â€â€™BV’s ending was thoughtful, getting us to see the effect of the war on Robert McNamara, from 1968 to 1997, when he visited a post-war unified Vietnam, on ‘a lonely journey into a regretful past’. BV has a melancholic ending, whereas Hastings refused to let you pause to catch your breath.
In Road to Disaster the author, Brian VanDeMark, explains why political and administrative leaders such as Kennedy, LBJ, and McNamara, Rusk, and Bundy – he examines many others -- made such poor decisions. Examination is necessary to prevent such errors in the future; although, he admits, it may not be possible. The book exposes the limitations of the rational actor theory of decision making because of overwhelming evidence that decision making is irrational and illogical. The inability to acknowledge the extent of our ignorance and the uncertainty present in our world were also important factors, and the unconscious use of heuristics to shortcut the collection or recognition of the mass of facts presented to the decision makers played its part. The author covers many other cognitive problems that tend to bias decisions in favor of what is desired rather than what is realistic.Brian VanDeMark starts with Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs fiasco which demonstrated how decisions can go wrong. He contends Kennedy learned from those errors, as did his staff. The key staff members were Rusk, McNamara, and Bundy which were an “extraordinary assemblage of genius and talent†according to the author. Next is the Cuban Missile Crisis and how good the decisions were during that challenge. Unfortunately, the author uses 110 pages on these events.Kennedy’s decision to send advisors was based on an idea that he could withdraw without harming US interests. According to Mr. VanDeMark, Kennedy had decided to withdraw after the election in 1964; although, he did increase the number of advisors from 2,000 to 16,000 plus prior to his assassination.Unfortunately, Kennedy had given the go ahead to assassinate Diem, the President of South Vietnam’s government, because Diem would not change his corrupt form of governance, which was necessary to win the war in South Vietnam. The Kennedy administration decided to rid of Diem but had no one in mind to take his place. In the following years, nearly everyone involved with said it was one of the worst decisions ever made. The resulting government was worse than before and was a foundational reason the US could not turn the tide in South Vietnam.Then came LBJ who made the key decision to start bombing North Vietnam and sent troops to protect the airbase at Danang. Westmoreland, our controlling general in South Vietnam, immediately requested an increase in troop levels. After those troops were given, he requested more in a never-ending cycle until the US had committed over 500,000 troops. Johnson never denied these requests even though he complained. Westmoreland’s strategy – search and destroy -- which was not changed during LBJ’s time in office, guaranteed increased losses, but was not changed until Westmoreland’s era ended long after Nixon entered office. Abram’s new strategy was yielding better results as we were pulling out.The author details the personal loss various US leaders suffered during and after the war. He speaks very sympathetically about all the democratic leaders including McNamara and LBJ, but rather harshly when it comes to Nixon and several military leaders. Nixon’s decision making in Vietnam isn’t analyzed, but the author manages many harsh words about him.The key problem with the book is psychoanalysis from afar. How can we know LBJ was insecure and that drove many of the decisions he made? Did overconfidence really lead Kennedy into the decisions resulting in the Bay of Pigs? Over and over the author does a shallow psychological dig into the brains and emotions of the leaders which cannot be done with any certainty.The book often alludes to things that happen “off camera†and then are assumed to be factual. For example, the book mentions that near the end of LBJ’s presidency the talks in Paris had achieved a “breakthrough†and then Nixon sabotaged the deal through South Vietnam’s president. We are never told what the big breakthrough was, but the reader is expected to believe that it happened. I don’t believe anything of the sort happened and I don’t think the resistance of the South Vietnamese president would be unexpected.The personal anguish experienced by the men, especially McNamara and LBJ, seems off somehow. During the war it is understandable to be concerned about decisions that kill people, but even a first lieutenant makes life taking decisions in war, and the results are laid out right in front of him after the battle. Those that lived to see the victory of the North cannot realistically hold regret for the decision to fight. After the North took over, they slaughtered thousands upon thousands of South Vietnamese who were deemed capitalist, or landowners, or intellectuals and so on, without mercy. They did the same thing after they took the North, so these executions were predictable. The fact is, a victory by South Vietnam would avoid such slaughters.Finally, there is the misconception that the USA lost the war in South Vietnam. In fact, South Vietnam lost the war, not the USA. If the South Vietnamese would have fought as well as the North they could not have been conquered. South Vietnam failed, not the USA. The South disappeared after the North won, but the US went on with its history. After everyone who fought there is dead it will become another sad story, like most wars. How many of us remember the Boer War that Britain fought for so long? It will be the same for Vietnam.AD2
Full disclosure: I’ve only read the prologue and part of chapter 1. What follows is more a product review than a book review. (I may update it when I finish reading the book.) I like the clarity and elegance of VanDeMark’s prose. I question the author’s decision to stop the narrative at the end of Johnson’s administration rather than at the fall of Saigon (i.e., during the Nixon administration). My gripes about the book as product are (1) It lacks a list of illustrations/photographs (the book’s 33 photos are distributed throughout the text—not gathered into a single glossy insert making them hard to find; the images are unique and well-chosen, but captions are disappointingly minimalist); (2) Throughout the text the running heads display the author’s name (on left-hand pages) and book title (on right-hand pages); it would have been more helpful to the reader if the publisher had put the chapter number on left-hand pages and chapter titles on right-hand pages (since the citations/notes are all gathered at the back of the book without reference to page numbers—very frustrating). The book does have a select (but substantial) bibliography and a good index. My petty gripes aside, I’m very much looking forward to finish reading this new history of a devastating war that remains controversial.
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