Backfire

by Baritz, Loren

• ISBN13: 9780801859533
• ISBN10: 0801859530
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-06-03
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

"The first full-length and scholarly account of why we got into Vietnam in the first place, why we fought as barbarously as the Japanese in Manchuria or the Germans in Poland, and why we deserved to lose it -- indeed why we did have to lose it if we were to find any kind of ultimate peace." -- Henry Steele Commager, Amherst College "A provocative and informative book written in the easy style of a seasoned teacher. One must wonder what might have been had Backfire been written two decades earlier." -- Paul Bucha, Medal of Honor, Vietnam "This remarkable book provides a way of looking at the Vietnam War that is both intellectually complex and extremely moving." -- Susan Sontag In a probing look at the myths of American culture that led us into the Vietnam quagmire, Loren Baritz exposes our national illusions: the conviction of our moral supremacy, our assumption that Americans are more idealistic than other people, and our faith in a technology that supposedly makes us invincible. He also reveals how Vietnam changed American culture today, from the successes and failures of the Washington bureaucracy to the destruction of the traditional military code of honor. "Baritz reminds us of how confident we were in America's invincibility during those pre-Vietnam War days. He looks closely into 'the invention of South Vietnam' during the Kennedy years, and he examines the body counting war at home--the bureaucratic and psychological effort to convince ourselves that we were winning, and would surely win. Backfire reveals brilliantly why the lessons of Vietnam are so difficult to learn," -- Martin J. Sherwin, History Book Club

Author Biography

Loren Baritz has served as chairman of the Department of History at the University of Rochester, provost and acting chancellor at the State University of New York, and provost at the University of Massachusetts. He is the author of The Servants of Power, City on a Hill, and The Culture of the Twenties.

Table of Contents

PREFACE, 1998	6	(5)
PREFACE	11	(6)
PART I TINDER: THE MYTHS WE TAKE TO WAR	17	(38)
1 God's Country and American Know-How	19	(36)
PART II FIRE: DECISIONS THAT MADE THE WAR	55	(176)
2 The Chain to Vietnam	57	(45)
3 The Invention of South Vietnam	102	(42)
4 War by the Numbers	144	(44)
5 The Politics of Ego	188	(43)
PART III BACKFIRE: BUREAUCRACY AT WAR	231	(120)
6 Enabling Ignorance	233	(49)
7 The Warriors	282	(39)
8 The American Lullaby	321	(30)
NOTES	351	(30)
INDEX	381