Bernard B. Fall

The weaknesses and strengths of each zone of Viet-Nam deserve our most careful attention; for, at a time when American and other Western troops may be committed in one form or another to holding South Viet-Nam, what we don't know may most definitely hurt us (viii).

The "form" of what turned out to be the obsessive American commitment to holding South Viet-Nam was direct military involvement, including over half a million troops, and, in the end, over 50,000 American dead. Fall proved to be all too correct in his warning. What the United States did not know and refused to know hurt the U.S., dividing its people and government, but it hurt the Viet-Namese people, North and South, much more. It is impossible to read Fall's book and not consider the tragedy that could have been avoided if American leaders had read it, understood it, taken it to heart, and translated it into a policy of withdrawal at the very least, if not a program which would have helped the people rather than slaughtering them in the name of anti-communism. However, blinded by the Cold War, American leaders were

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ed in and to the country because they could get away with it. The defeat of the French should have been a warning to the Americans, but it was not. The Americans considered the failure of the French, both during and after World War II (50), precisely a failure of the French, rather than the success of the Viet-Namese and their determination to decide their own destiny. Fall wants to explain to the reader some of the complexities of the history, politics, government, leadership and economics of Viet-Nam. The fact that he includes in his Preface the aforementioned warning to the Americans that what they don't know may hurt them suggests that his book was aimed at American leaders, but, if so, his warning was not received or heeded. The complex and tragic portrait of the distant and modern history of the country, however, remains as a testament to Fall's objective scholarship and to the courage and determination of the Viet-Namese people. Obviously, Fall was justified in writing his book. At a time when most Americans gave Viet-Nam little concern, Fall had recognized that it could serve as the battleground for the Cold War, as it soon and tragically did. The book can be seen as a success in its detailed portrait of a complex and
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Approximate Word count = 1614
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)