Free Vietnam Labyrinth: Allies, Enemies, And Why The U.S. Lost The War (Modern Southeast Asia Series) Ebooks To Download
One of the few Vietnamese Army officers who also saw substantial service in Ho Chi Minh’s National Liberation Army against the French, Tran Ngoc Chau made a momentous and difficult decision after five years with the Viet Minh: he changed sides. Although his brother Tran Ngoc Hien remained loyal to the North, Chau’s Buddhist training and his disillusionment with aspects of the communists’ philosophies led him to throw his support to the nationalists and assist the Americans. It was a decision that would cost him dearly when former military school colleague Nguyen Van Thieu, fearing a political rivalry, imprisoned Chau—by then a lieutenant colonel and the Secretary General of the National Assembly’s Lower House—despite popular sentiment and the support of Americans like John Paul Vann and Daniel Ellsberg. At every turn Chau stood on principle, however, opposing government corruption, refusing favoritism, and remaining steadfast in his dedication to democracy. His principles would cost him again when, after the fall of Saigon, he was imprisoned in a North Vietnamese re-education camp and even after release kept under continuous surveillance. His detailed memoir reveals an astute understanding of the Vietnamese political situation and national culture that failed to register with U.S. leaders—and offers valuable insights into how to cope with similar conflicts in the future. As Ellsberg has put it, “Vietnam Labyrinth is unmatched, both for its narrative and for lessons to be learned for our current interventions.
Series: Modern Southeast Asia Series
Hardcover: 480 pages
Publisher: Texas Tech University Press; 1 edition (2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0896727718
ISBN-13: 978-0896727717
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.8 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,402,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #789 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Military > Vietnam War #937 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > United States > American Revolution #2393 in Books > History > Military > United States > Vietnam War
This book offers a perspective on the Vietnam War that is somewhat different than the so-called conventional wisdom on the topic. However, that does not make it any more enlightened than what other authors, American or Vietnamese, have tried to convey in similar writings.It is an interesting read, especially when Tran Ngoc Chau recounts the few years starting in 1945 when he joined the ranks of the communist-led insurgency against the French. Chau left the communists to join the nationalist cause, rising as high as province chief in the Mekong delta and then becoming an elected representative in the National Assembly, before being arrested and accused of dealing with the enemy via his brother who was a high-ranking communist officer.Throughout the rest of the book, Chau likes to remind us of his few years fighting on the side of the communists against the French, while denigrating others of his generation who joined the nationalist side and fought against communism. To him, they were French trained NCOs or low-ranking officers who rose to become generals and leaders of South Vietnam through favoritism and corruption. He mentions a few that were capable and incorruptible, but dismisses them as inconsequential.All along, he likes to repeat that if only his own ideas of fighting communist insurgency had been more widely adopted, the Viet Cong would have long been subdued and brought over to the South's side. No mention is made of the fact that after the 1968 Tet offensive, the Viet Cong was practically eliminated from the battlefield and that all fighting was undertaken by North Vietnamese regiments and divisions.
Tran Ngoc Chau's Vietnam Labyrinth has to be ranked among the top three to four `must read' book on the Vietnam. The few works on Vietnam authored by persons with his background, experience and qualifications tend to be limited to bookstores catering to the Vietnamese diaspora press. Chau's is unique, first because it is written in English, and second because its author incarnates the opinions and outlook of a lifelong Vietnamese nationalist. Like the great majority of leaders from all sides, he was the educated son of a traditional mandarin family: The very class that colonialism and its attendant modernity rendered redundant, replaced by a newer class of middle managers seen by the nationalists as venal lackeys.A Buddhist from a distinguished Hue family, Chau's goal of entering the Buddhist monkhood was upended by the 1945 revolution. What followed were five years of valor and sacrifice fighting in the Viet Minh ranks, seeing the best and worst of the revolution. Though inclined to the Dai Viet Party, he was invited to join the Communists. His readings of what that Party stood, and was preparing, for opened his eyes. He defected to the newly created State of Vietnam, later serving under Ngo Dien Diem when the Republic was declared. To find the reasons why a former Viet Minh unit commander and political officer would defect is worth the read alone. But equally sharp are Chau's honestly expressed reservations of how the Americans were pursuing the war, and clear-eyed glimpses into the machinations of the various anti-Diem, anti-Ky, and anti-Thieu factions.
Vietnam Labyrinth: Allies, Enemies, and Why the U.S. Lost the War (Modern Southeast Asia Series) A.M. Best Special Report: Southeast Asia Life & Nonlife: Southeast Asia May Reward Shrewd Insurers, Punish the Careless Honor Bound: American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973 I Am Number Four: The Lost Files: Rebel Allies (Lorien Legacies: The Lost Files) Red Earth: A Vietnamese Memoir of Life on a Colonial Rubber Plantation (Ohio RIS Southeast Asia Series) Power Plays: Wayang Golek Puppet Theater of West Java (Ohio RIS Southeast Asia Series) Toms and Dees: Transgender Identity and Female Same-Sex Relationships in Thailand (Southeast Asia: Politics, Meaning, Memory) Chinese Houses of Southeast Asia: The Eclectic Architecture of Sojourners and Settlers Tropical Birds of Southeast Asia (Periplus Tropical Nature Guide) The Adventures of Mouse Deer: Favorite Folktales of Southeast Asia The Vietnam War: An Interactive Modern History Adventure (You Choose: Modern History) Staying Healthy in Asia, Africa, and Latin America (Moon Handbooks Staying Healthy in Asia, Africa & Latin America) A Photographic Guide to Mammals of South-East Asia: Including Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Java, Sumatra, Bali and Borneo The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies Lost in the Labyrinth (Secret in the Attic) Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas) Labyrinth Lost Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped The Myth of the Lost Cause: Why the South Fought the Civil War and Why the North Won Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth: Inside the Creation of a Modern Fairy Tale
