Review by New York Times Review
ABOUT 70 PAGES into his gripping new history for young readers, "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War," Steve Sheinkin seems to switch genres, describing a scene that could have been taken from "The Walking Dead": a trailer full of corpses, its floor "streaked with blood and brains." Arms and legs were falling off the rotting trunks, which made it difficult to count how many bodies were in the trailer. The stench was unbearable. So the bodies were hosed down and the trailer tipped to its side, letting, as one witness put it, a "rivulet of blood-colored water" flow outside. A delegation of American military officers passed by, stepping over the blood "to avoid ruining the shine on their boots." "Most Dangerous," a finalist for a 2015 National Book Award, isn't, of course, science fiction, but it's a good reminder that today's obsession with zombies dates back to America's war in Southeast Asia. "The zombie carnage," wrote one critic about the 1968 horror classic "Night of the Living Dead," "seemed a grotesque echo of the conflict then raging in Vietnam." The gruesome scene above took place in Da Nang in 1965; the bodies were being warehoused to show a visiting general that Marines were achieving their assigned "kill ratio." Unable to hold hostile territory, the Pentagon had decided to measure progress by counting the dead: If American or South Vietnamese troops could kill 2.5 North Vietnamese or Vietcong enemies for every fatality they suffered, the United States might win. But then Sheinkin reveals that it was impossible to know whether the Vietnamese dead were allies or adversaries, so the rule was to always count them as Vietcong. No figure associated with the Vietnam War better captures the tension between the precision of numbers and the messiness of battlefield gore than Daniel Ellsberg. Ellsberg had a doctorate in economics from Harvard and helped pioneer game theory, which sought to reduce the diversity of social experience to a simple mathematical formula, then use that to set public policy, including military strategy. At first Ellsberg was as certain about the justness of America's actions in Southeast Asia as he was about a proved theorem. But after being sent as a State Department staff member to Vietnam, where he accompanied infantrymen into combat, that certainty vanished. Ellsberg witnessed the flesh of children seared by napalm and other chemicals the Americans used as weapons, and quietly came to rethink America's involvement. Having returned to the United States to work for a defense industry think tank, Ellsberg became best known for leaking the Pentagon Papers - a 47-volume secret history of the war commissioned by the Department of Defense - to the news media in 1971. Henry Kissinger called him "the most dangerous man in America" who "must be stopped at all costs." President Richard M. Nixon tried, ordering a series of illegal actions that led to the Watergate scandal and his downfall. Sheinkin's book is a remarkably effective synthesis not just of Ellsberg's life but of America's long history in Vietnam. The author has a perfect ear for what might hold the attention of young readers, while at the same time gently educating them about war and governance. "Most Dangerous" balances drama, human interest (including Ellsberg's romance with the radio journalist Patricia Marx) and analysis; it's fast-paced, starting with a prologue in which Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy break into Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in search of discrediting information. Sheinkin reveals how officials lied to justify military intervention, and how intervention turned into a juggernaut leading to more war and illegal efforts to silence dissent, including a plan by Nixon's men to assault Ellsberg as he made an antiwar speech. "Most Dangerous" is also a civics lesson, showing the debates within newsrooms about whether editors had the right to publish Ellsberg's leaked information (they did), and concluding with an epilogue on how the Ellsberg case relates to the more recent leaks by Edward Snowden. Young people in the United States are growing up in a vastly changed world, one where endless war and all-pervasive surveillance is a matter of course. "Most Dangerous" will help them understand how it has become so. GREG GRANDIN'S most recent book is "Kissinger's Shadow."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 11, 2015]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Sheinkin Newbery Honor winner for Bomb: The Race to Build and Steal the World's Most Dangerous Weapon (2012) tackles the tangled narrative of the Vietnam War in his latest book. Focusing on the life of Daniel Ellsberg, Sheinkin offers a fascinating portrait of a brilliant, idealistic man and his decision to leak the Pentagon Papers, revealing unsavory government secrets about America's involvement in Vietnam. A product of the Cold War, Ellsberg was intrigued by questions of risk and crisis decision making, leading to his career as a think-tank analyst and eventual role as government whistle-blower. To create a broader backdrop for the narrative, Sheinkin includes stories of prisoners of war and White House machinations, though the POWs fall away by the end of the book as the secrets spiral beyond everyone's control, even Ellsberg's. Readers will not have much empathy for the government leaders as portrayed in this book, although Sheinkin does reveal a softer side to the otherwise ruthless Richard Nixon. Ellsberg's time spent with patrols in Vietnam is particularly well written, relaying the palpable atmosphere of hopeless ambiguity that strongly influenced Ellsberg's decisions. Sheinkin's extensive research includes black-and-white period photographs and author interviews with Ellsberg and his wife. Most Dangerous is thorough and challenging, and readers are left to determine whether Ellsberg and whistle-blowers in general is a hero or a traitor. Powerful and thought-provoking.--Dean, Kara Copyright 2015 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Sheinkin (The Port Chicago 50) has done again what he does so well: condense mountains of research into a concise, accessible, and riveting account of history. This time he focuses on the turbulent Vietnam War era, using as his lens Daniel Ellsberg, the leaker of the Pentagon Papers. Divided into three sections, the book's short chapters detail Ellsberg's transformation from U.S. Marine, government analyst, and "cold warrior" to antiwar activist and whistle-blower. Initial pages list nearly 100 characters central to the Ellsberg-Vietnam story, including politicians, reporters, military personnel, and Vietnamese officials. Each appears chronologically in the expansive narrative, which also traces how several U.S. presidents and their often-secretive policies led to the prolonged conflict in Southeast Asia. Chapters dealing with Ellsberg's clandestine leak of a top-secret government study of the war, as well as the Nixon White House's response, read like the stuff of spy novels and will keep readers racing forward. On the 40th anniversary of the evacuation of Saigon, the book's themes still resonate, as the epilogue about whistle-blower Edward Snowden points out. Ages 10-14. Agent: Susan Cohen, Writers House. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-Here Sheinkin tells the story of activist and military analyst Daniel Ellsberg and the famous Pentagon Papers, which were written while the United States was still fighting the war in Vietnam. The top-secret study revealed the many subterfuges used over the course of four presidencies to prolong the war solely for political gain. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon were particularly complicit and made it known that they did not want to lose a war on "their watch." To that end, they went to great lengths to mislead the American people when we were losing almost from day one. Ellsberg decided that the document should be made public and the lies exposed in an effort to end the war. Ray Porter does a marvelous job reading this book. The subject matter requires a certain amount of gravitas, and his voice provides it. His pacing is just right, and the modulation of his voice for emphasis is spot-on. Dialects come into play as well. In particular, Johnson had a well-known Texas drawl that Porter captures perfectly. This is a must-listen for students interested in history and government and for those listeners who like intrigue. Ethical dilemmas make for great discussion topics, and this is the ideal option to seed such conversations. VERDICT This is a great book made greater still in audio. Highly recommended. ["A timely and extraordinary addition to every library": SLJ 9/15 starred review of the Roaring Brook book.]-Joan Kindig, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Using Daniel Ellsberg as a focal point, Sheinkin tells the story of the Vietnam War, making it accessible for young readers without losing any of the complexity. Sheinkin also achieves a striking balance between a journalistic point of view and the dramatic tension of narrative nonfiction; Porter mirrors this same balance in his reading. A composed tone, measured cadence, and slightly varied character voices make the audio version of the book, if possible, an even more absorbing way to access this powerful story. jonathan hunt (c) Copyright 2016. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Following his award-winning World War II-era volumes Bomb (2012) and The Port Chicago 50 (2014), Sheinkin tells the sweeping saga of the Vietnam War and the man who blew the whistle on the government's "secret war."From 1964 to 1971, Daniel Ellsberg went from nerdy analyst for the Rand Corp. to "the most dangerous man in America." Initially a supporter of Cold War politics and the Vietnam War, he became disenchanted with the war and the lies presidents told to cover up the United States' deepening involvement in the war. He helped to amass the Pentagon Papers"seven thousand pages of documentary evidence of lying, by four presidents and their administrations over twenty-three years"and then leaked them to the press, fueling public dissatisfaction with American foreign policy. Sheinkin ably juggles the complex war narrative with Ellsberg's personal story, pointing out the deceits of presidents and tracing Ellsberg's rise to action. It's a challenging read but necessarily so given the scope of the study. As always, Sheinkin knows how to put the "story" in history with lively, detailed prose rooted in a tremendous amount of research, fully documented. An epilogue demonstrates how history repeats itself in the form of Edward Snowden.Easily the best study of the Vietnam War available for teen readers. (bibliography, source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
