Max Hastings has written many fabulous military histories like Catastrophe (WW1, 1914) and Nemesis (WW2 Pacific). Now he’s turned his pen to the Vietnam War – from the end of WW2, through the departure of the French and the division of the country into north and south, the U.S. involvement, until the north captured Saigon in 1975. We’re used to seeing the U.S. as the nasties in the Vietnam War, but Hastings presents an array of evidence of North Vietnamese atrocities and cruelty that tips the balance. In fact he argues that both the North and South Vietnamese governments were cruel and incompetent. There’s good, and very favourable, coverage of the Australian forces who served there. This is a massive book, over 650 pages, but Hastings writes so well that you’re captivated –it’s disturbing but gripping. I have to say I’m enthralled, and I feel that anyone interested in the Vietnam War will learn much from this book.
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