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Originally Posted by Shaun @ Tru6
First episode: Déjà Vu (1858-1961) | The Vietnam War | Explicit Language Version | PBS
Years ago on recommendation from Danimal16, I read H.R. McMaster's (current National Security Advisor) Dereliction of Duty which was an excellent, powerful retelling of how we got involved in Vietnam. And the seed of our friendship so it's a great book.
Just finished the first episode, definitely something worth watching. Going to reread the book again along with the documentary.
In addition to McMaster's book, a fantastic companion read is McNamara's In Retrospect.
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In addition to McMaster's book, a fantastic companion read is McNamara's In Retrospect.
McMaster's book was written after McNamara's. McNamara wrote from his experiences and memory. McMaster wrote based upon declassified documents, that were not available during McNamara's work. The correlation of the two books is fascinating and very eye opening. Sad that a string of poor decisions had such a huge impact on the American people, understandable, but tragic.
IMHO, Vietnam was the equivalent to the Peloponnesian Wars, and we, the United States live in the equivalent of Post Classic Greek, (Hellenistic) period. Like the Classic Greeks, our post WWII idealism was shattered by the reality of a long, brutal war. Similar to the Greeks, this cultural shift is reflected in art, literature and our general world outlook.