Fire in the Lake The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam

by FitzGerald, Frances

• ISBN13: 9780316159197
• ISBN10: 0316159190
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-07-17
• Publisher: Back Bay Books

Summary

This landmark work, based on Frances FitzGeralds own research and travels, takes us inside Vietnaminto the traditional, ancestor-worshiping villages and the corrupt crowded cities, into the conflicts between Communists and anti-Communists, Catholics and Buddhists, generals and monks and reveals the country as seen through Vietnamese eyes. With a clarity and authority unrivaled by any book before it or since, Fire in the Lake shows how America utterly and tragically misinterpreted the realities of Vietnam. For Fire in the Lake, Frances FitzGerald received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, an Overseas Press Club award for best interpretation of foreign affairs, an American Academy of Arts and Letters award, a National Institute for Arts and Letters award, the Front Page Award, the Christopher Book Award, the Washington Monthly Political Book Award, the Sidney Hillman Award, and the Bancroft Prize. In the 30 years since its initial publication, Fire in the Lake has achieved the status of a classic. An essential text for students of Asian-American relations. FitzGeralds new writings on Vietnam appear, along with photographs by Mary Cross, in Vietnam: Spirits of the Earth, published by Bulfinch in November 2001.

Author Biography

Frances FitzGerald is the author of several bestselling books, and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
The Vietnamese
States of Mind	p. 3
Nations and Empires	p. 32
The Sovereign of Discord	p. 72
The National Liberation Front	p. 138
Introduction	p. 138
Politics of the Earth	p. 142
The Origins of the National Liberation Front	p. 145
A Natural Opposition	p. 150
The Approach: Children of the People	p. 157
Rebellion: Self-Control Is the Root of Exploitation	p. 165
Organization: The Liberated Village, the NLF Command Structure, and the PRP	p. 176
The Making of a Revolutionary	p. 197
Marxism-Leninism in the Vietnamese Landscape	p. 212
The Americans and the Saigon Government
Mise en scene	p. 231
Politicians and Generals	p. 236
The United States Enters the War	p. 264
The Buddhist Crisis	p. 276
Prospero, Caliban, and Ariel	p. 292
Bad Puppets	p. 303
Elections	p. 323
The Downward Spiral	p. 339
Prospero	p. 360
Guerrillas	p. 379
The Tet Offensive	p. 388
Conclusion
Nixon's War	p. 403
Fire in the Lake	p. 425
Afterword	p. 443
Notes	p. 454
Bibliography	p. 479
Index	p. 486
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