Review by Choice Review
Both the quantity and quality of research and scholarship on the US war in Vietnam continue at a remarkably high level. With a newly resurgent "revisionist" defense of the war challenging the dominant critical and antiwar approaches of the majority of historians, the Vietnam War has emerged as one of the major topics of contemporary historical analysis. Aside from a shared interest in historiographical trends and developments, however, Vietnam and Making Sense of the Vietnam Wars have substantially different foci. Hess examines the mainstream arguments and issues, opening with a broad overview of the main contending positions--the predominant "mistake" or "quagmire" view and the revisionist "necessary" or "noble" war counter-argument. He follows with a discussion of six crucial areas of disagreement (e.g., the initial decision to go to war, the Tet Offensive, the Nixon/Kissinger peace agreement). Brief conclusions for each chapter mostly find that antirevisionist historians have the stronger evidence and arguments. While covering some of the same ground, many of the 11 articles in Making Sense present wide-ranging examples of new and less conventional approaches to examining the war, with a particular focus on Vietnamese and international perspectives. Highlights include the French war, the contrast in US policy toward Laos and Vietnam, recent research on the Vietnamese communist opposition movement, the social history of South Vietnam's villages and villagers during the war, and recently opened international archival material. These are both important books. Hess offers what is arguably the best sampling of new research and analysis on the Vietnam War now available in a single volume, providing an impressive, almost indispensable introduction to the big-picture debates and controversies. It should be on a very short list of the most useful books in helping making sense of an enormously complex and controversial conflict. Summing Up: Vietnam, essential; Making Sense, highly recommended. Both books, all levels/libraries. K. Blaser Wayne State College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
