The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam During the Kennedy Era

Halberstam was in South Vietnam from the early sixties through the fall of Diem's Government in 1963 and into 1964. He returned in 1967 and adds an epilogue. His story is told from the none partisan eye of a reporter. Vietnam is an enigma to the Western eye. We can't get into the minds of the Vietnamese no matter how hard we try. The country is majority peasant farmers with strong ties to their ancestry and, their common focus, is feeding their families and tilling the same land their ancestors did.Halberstam explains with great clarity the tumultuous early 60's in Saigon where ruled an almost hermit like reluctant mandarin president Diem. Diem, quiet, secluded and isolated was, in essence, a puppet of his narcissistic, sociopath brother Nhu and his wife Madame Nhu.Having given himself almost total power over the Government, Nhu, and his outspoken wife, ran roughshod over the populace in order to feed their voracious appetite for personal wealth and prestige. Also, despite receiving millions in U.S. aid, the Nhu's and Diem denounced and blamed America at any opportunity for their own failings knowing that America was too entrenched in Vietnam to cut aid and withdraw. Quagmire is the perfect word to describe the situation.Halberstam went out on patrol with the ARVN mainly in the Mekong Delta. Realistic Vietnamese Generals reported to Halberstam that conservatively, the Southern Government maybe held 10 - 20% of the region and, the remainder were under Vietcong rule. The Saigon government wouldn't hear any of this and constantly reported to Washington that their policies were working and the South was winning the war. One infamous policy of Nhu's was the strategic hamlet program whereby, the farmers and their families were moved from their ancestral lands to fortified villages. This again proves the disconnect between the Saigon Government and its people. The program was supposedly for the betterment and safety of the people as opposed to the the real reasons, power of and control.Halberstam's writing style is very objective and he explains, with just the right amount of detail, the run up to the most defining events of the early 60's Vietnam that eventually toppled the Diem Government. Each of the chapters is broken into clearly marked sections enabling you to put the book down and pick it up again without having to read back a few lines.There is a forward by Daniel J. Singal that somewhat summarizes the book and adds insight, though not too much, from a hindsight perspective. This version has also been edited and condensed to appeal to the more contemporary reader.It seems Halberstam was somewhat prophetic in his writings insomuch as, we (The USA), were there in conflict not only with the communist North but also with the majority of the people we were fighting for. Ours was a cold war logic which mattered very little to the population we were supposedly protecting.This is fascinating stuff for me and feeds my thirst for Vietnam material post 1957 through 1965.Well worth the money and well worth the time.

For quite a few years now the history of the Vietnam War has given us much to dissect and investigate as to American involvement in a highly controversial war. The longer one continues further into the future the more has been written and discovered as to the polemic mistakes as well as the government cover up as to what was really transpiring in Vietnam. What was indeed the true intelligence? In reality during the whole reporting of the Vietnam War we had young Turks seeking the truth and discovered that our government and the South Vietnamese government were in fact drowning in lies. They were perpetrating a hoax to the American public. This book, The Making Of A Quagmire is an edited version of the original publication. As explained in the forward many chapters were dropped because in retrospect they are irrelevant. What remains is truly viable analyses of what was happening prior to American combat troops were activated into the maelstrom. Halberstam was a man who went directly into the field with the South Vietnamese troops and American advisors. He saw first-hand the military conundrum that was the ARVN not doing the job in the delta area. Along the way Halberstam made friends with Neil Sheehan who collaborated in developing the key stories about what truly was happening in Diem's South Vietnam. In fact both Halberstam and Sheehan made the establishment of the South Vietnamese government and the military and governmental personnel of the United States very uncomfortable. Halberstam and Sheehan were under covering lies and corruption and a war that they saw with their own eyes as a lost cause. Keep in mind they didn't want it to be a lost cause. But there it was, their eyes saw the truth and they were indeed shocked and dismayed at what they saw. What was compelling to this reader is what Halberstam brings forth in straight no nonsense writing that things transpiring in South Vietnam are not what they seem to be. His writing would eventually bring him a Pulitzer Prize. It is well deserved as he was not shy in relating the truth to his readers. In this book we see the seeds of mistrust from the fourth estate and in retrospect it is a healthy mistrust. Too bad the powers to be did not listen to the truth, maybe the ensuing debacle may never have happened. This book is an eye-opener because it shows to one and all that these young Turks were dead on in their analysis of what was transpiring before our combat troops were committed. In fact once reading this in the context that it was written in 1962-63, I sit here stunned. The young Turks had it right! Nobody in authority believed what they said. Over 58,000 KIA later and we found out that the whole framework was based on nothing but mistrust and lies!!

I purchased this book because I was curious about the Kennedy administration during the Vietnam war. I didn't think anyone could tell it better than David Halberstam. I've read several books by him and he is one if not my favorite author. I cannot describe his writing, I just know it captivates me.

Valuable first-hand account from a man on the ground- assisted greatly by footnotes and editorial input correcting and explain certain factual matters that were not know to the author at the time. Essential reading for any student to of post-war History.It is not intended to be a comprehensive history or policy analysis- nor could it be given that I was written before the Vietnam "war" really took off- but for the most pat it is eerily prescient.Fuller histories can be found elsewhere- but Halberstam had direct access to most of the players as the situation developed, and remains pre-eminent among correspondent/historians in injecting the narrative with a sense of life, tensions anxiety and drama. Halberstam lived among it and even though we now know how it all turned out, his increasing sense of apprehension and foreboding brings great narrative tension to what otherwise might be a dry recitation of acts, names and figures.

Lúcido e profético. Uma guerra que os americanos não tinham a mínima chance de ganhar. Halberstam explica porque (em 1963!).