This book by Neal Thompson should be on the required reading list of anyone who is interested in the truth about the Vietnam War. Marines who fought in that war and Marines who have fought in more recent wars will find his analysis, well-reasoned and informative. Some may even find it inflammatory since it makes a very powerful case against the civilian leadership of our nation during the period of the Cold War.
He puts the Vietnam War into the context of the political and geo-strategic imperatives of the Cold War, providing clarity and honesty about the decisions made by our "leaders" from the close of WWII to the Fall of the Soviet Empire. As a Vietnam War veteran and distinguished lawyer who has studied the war for decades, Thompson brings his highly trained legal mind and logical approach to analyze the motivations of American political leaders during the Cold War and how those motivations resulted in disaster in South Vietnam. In addition, he exposes how the same motivations that produced the Vietnam War could be found in every military action our nation has embarked on since the end of the Cold War.
His book is well-researched, richly footnoted, and compelling, and his lucid prose style makes for a highly readable and informative presentation. It is broad in scope, yet he provides ample detail to support his arguments.
I was especially impressed with his analysis in Chapter 13, The "Unwinnable War," where he utterly destroys the orthodox mantra that there was no way to win the Vietnam War. He lays out in exquisite detail how there was a clear plan for winning the war by cutting the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Southern Laos and how the pernicious and foolish adherence to the 1962 Geneva Accords on the Neutrality of Laos and Cambodia by President Johnson’s administration made this option impossible until it was too late to implement. His argument on this topic is strengthened by the words of the North Vietnamese.
Equally impressive is Thompson’s take down of what he labels the “war crimes industry,” the endless cascade of war crimes allegations by the antiwar left that served to demonize an entire generation of veterans. With a detailed analysis of various books and media presentations, he demonstrates clearly that the veterans identified therein are not who they claim to be and that the war crimes alleged are demonstrably false. In fact, when the facts and figures regarding day-to-day operations in Vietnam are compared to that of the operations in Korea and World War II, it becomes clear that the men who fought in Vietnam were as honorable and decent as any generation of American veterans.
Thompson also poses a rather unique argument and one that I have never seen before in print: that had the Democratic Party won the 1968 presidential election, the war might not have been lost. He is critical of both political parties, providing evidence that both parties were more influenced by domestic political concerns than the geo-strategic realities they were confronted with. Many readers will be surprised by his comparison of the actions taken to trigger President Trump’s impeachment with those taken by other former presidents, making the case that they often did things that were far more egregious than the actions taken by President Trump. He cites several actions taken by Presidents Truman, Kennedy and Johnson that, given the controlling standards and law, should have triggered impeachment proceedings. In Thompson’s final chapter he sums up his basic argument, which is the military disasters our nation has suffered during the Cold War and since were highly predictable and the natural result of domestic political considerations. In this sense, his argument is rather unique, and some readers will find it unsettling or even inflammatory. However, Thompson’s book is not a polemic, it is a rich and detailed history of the Vietnam War in the context of Cold War political decisions. It is a cautionary tale of which political and military readers should take note.