Legacy of Discord: Voices of the Vietnam Book Review

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Legacy of Discord: Voices of the Vietnam War by Gil Dorland, published by Brassey's Inc., Washington.

The book was written in 2001, twenty-five years after the end of the Vietnam War, by a former military man, Gil Dorland. Dorland graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, served in two Vietnam tours, and received the Distinguished Service Cross for his service to his country. He now works as a screenwriter and an independent film producer in Hollywood (Biographical information from (www.brasseys.com).

The book was intended to present some sort of understanding of the causes and motivations behind the Vietnam War through interviews with eighteen people representing a variety of - often contradictory - viewpoints: interviews were conducted (by Gil Dorland) with Peter Arnett, Le Ly Hayslip, John McCain, Tom Polgar, Norman Swarzkopf, and William C. Westmoreland, amongst others (www.brasseys.com) i.e., with people who were responsible for planning the war, people who fought in the war, people who fought against the war, and also people who reported the war (www.brasseys.com).

The publishers have described the book as of great historic importance, for those veterans, students and others who seek to understand the complex causes, and interpretations of the war (www.brasseys.com).

The book takes the form of a series of interviews with key figures in the Vietnam War, some of whom were mentioned above. The interviews were conducted by Gil Dorland, who also provided an objective, concise, very informative, introduction to each interviewee, setting them in context within the framework of the book, which is to assemble a diverse array of opinions about the Vietnam War, from a variety of conflicting sources, in one collection, in order that readers can draw their own conclusions from what is presented within.

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General themes arise during the book, including: incrementalism, McNamara, micromanagement of the action, and relationships with the Vietnamese army, and Dorland did not pull any punches with his questioning, with questions including: 'What lessons should we, as Americans, have learnt from Vietnam?', 'Should members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have resigned in protest?', 'Did the U.S. consider using tactical nuclear weapons?'. Dorland's determination to 'get to the bottom of' what happened in Vietnam, and also his objectivity throughout the book are both impressive, considering his background, which includes military training and combat for his country.

On the whole, Dorland's style throughout is very much to inform his readers, with as little bias as possible, and he brings a refreshing new approach to the study of this sensitive area of American history. The quality of his writing, though, is questionable, although this minor criticism does pale into insignificance, due to the quality of the material that is presented here. The material is mostly presented in a narrative form, divided into sections according to interviewee: a more serious criticism is that I found that Dorland tried to include autobiographical details within the text rather too often, which often distracted from the purpose of the book, which is to present an unbiased set of interviews with….....

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