#Non-fiction The Betrayal
- Scathing exposé of the ‘bungled actions’
- of USA….during the Vietnam War.
- The Powers that Be threatened W. Corson with court martial
- if he proceeded to publish this book in 1968.
- This book brought back many memories.
- I was just as stunned as many in USA in 1960s with the
- daily reports from Vietnam and the body count
- while watching Walter Cronkite CBS evening news.
- ….I am speechless…truly speechless.
- Ch 1-4 back round information about struggles in Indochina 1950-60s.
- Generals Thieu, Ky, Loan.
- Remember Gen Loan in the iconic execution photo by Eddie Adams?
- Gen. Loan was head of the National Police and made Himmler’s Gestapo look
- like the board of overseeres in a Quaker church!
- Ch 5 great explanation about the Vietcong
- …organization, recruitment, reasons for its success and what to do about it.
- The book looses its punch in chapters 6-10
- …too many stats that did not interest me.
- Corson closes the book with 2 great chapters….
- Ch 11- Birdwatching in Vietnam
- Visitors such as …congressmen, managers, LBJ’s cronies,
- scientists, defense undersecretary…
- the author compares them with birds
- …vultures, magpies, parrots, dodo, owls, woodpeckers etc.
- They all turn war into a spectator sport.
- Ch 12 – To Stay, or Not to Stay?
- Corson highlights problems and possible remedies.
- #MustRead …..
- for anyone who still wants to
- make sense of the Alice in Wonderland politics of Vietnam.
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