Vietnam Blues
http://counterpunch.org/jacobs06212008.html
By RON JACOBS
June 21 / 22, 2008
There have been several histories of the US war in Vietnam by US
writers. Very few of them have stood the test of time. Marilyn
Young's Vietnam Wars 1945-1990 and Bernard Fall's Street Without Joy
stand out in my mind as two that have, even though their approach and
focus differ greatly. Other texts on the subject have their highs
and lows and certainly deserve to be read by those who have the
time. In addition, there are books that cover specific elements of
that historical period. Some cover the antiwar movement and others
cover the military aspects of the war from both sides. Others look
at what the war was like for soldiers in the US military and others
look at life as a member of the NLF or northern Vietnamese forces.
Into this heady and well populated milieu steps Joe Allen's recently
published Vietnam: The (Last) War the US Lost. This book is a
comprehensive history of the US movement against the war in Vietnam,
the revolutionary upsurge that sprang up in the wake of that
movement's growth and Washington's refusal to end the war, and the
eventual end of the war and the movement against it. Utilizing a
multitude of sources, Allen's history is unique in its methodology in
that it takes the war, its conduct by the US military, and the
antiwar movement as an interconnected whole. While definitely
written from a perspective that not only considered the war to be
wrong, but also as part of a foreign policy that can be described
only as imperialism, Allen's book is not a diatribe. Instead, it is
a reasoned and researched description of the US involvement in the
French attempts to maintain its empire, the eventual assumption of
the French role by Washington for its own reasons, and the
development of the largest and most effective movement against war in
US history.
With an ear attuned to the shifting nature of western empires in the
wake of World War Two and the important struggles of the period by
peoples seeking their independence from those empires, the reader
of Vietnam: The (Last) War the US Lost is taken from the battlefield
of Dien Bienphu to the streets of Washington, DC and provided a
narrative that saliently connects the resistance to US imperialism in
both venues. Many liberal histories of the period do their best to
obfuscate any connections between the antiwar and civil rights
movements in the United States. Allen does the opposite, not only
proving the clear links that existed between the two phenomenon, but
clearly explaining why the connection was historically impossible to avoid.
Besides addressing the interconnectedness of the US struggles against
the war and for civil rights and black liberation in the US, Allen
places the US antiwar movement within the international movement
against US imperialism and for revolutionary nationalism. In
addition, Allen takes a look at the prevailing myths about the US
working class and the war and argues persuasively that the popular
perception of the white working class's reactionary and prowar stance
is at best a half-truth. Citing various polling data and actions
undertaken by union locals and individuals, Allen makes a case that
by 1969 members of the white working class were more solidly against
the war than almost any other demographic in the US outside of blacks
and college students.
Although Allen does not mention the current US wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan until the book's last chapter, it is difficult to
read Vietnam: The (Last) War the US Lost without thinking about
those quagmires. Both countries have an occupation government
propped up by the US that have at times talked with opposition groups
and individuals in the hopes that their government will survive; both
are badgered by a US government intent on staying in the country
despite even the puppet government's opposition to the idea. To top
it off, both occupations have also featured US GIs refusing to go on
missions because in their understanding they have no real reason to
be doing what they are doing. Yet, Washington continues to prevail,
bankrupting the US national treasury and leaving death in its
wake. Furthermore, the once thriving US antiwar movement has become
a collection of groups waging occasionally noisy protests while too
much of its leadership kisses the Democratic Party's ass, futilely
hoping that its elected representatives will vote against
Washington's interests without being pushed against the wall. (A
note of hope does exist in the upcoming National Assembly to End the
War in IraqRon).
Writing history is a challenge. Given the aversion of so many people
to reading it, the historian begins their task with the question as
to how they can make their final work inviting enough to reach those
with an aversion to history texts. Joe Allen succeeds with Vietnam:
The (Last) War the US Lost. It is accessible where so many other
books on the subject have not been. Furthermore, its
comprehensiveness helps make sense of an often confusing historical
period. Friends of mine who teach history to high school and college
undergraduates often bemoan the lack of texts on this period that are
written so that their students will read them. With Allen's new
release, I think they have found their book. Of course, this
recommendation does not preclude those not in school from reading
this perceptive and unique history.
--
Ron Jacobs is author of The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the
Weather Underground, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs'
essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch's collection on
music, art and sex, Serpents in the Garden. His first novel, Short
Order Frame Up, is published by Mainstay Press. He can be reached at:
rjacobs3625@charter.net
.
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