From Publishers Weekly
Opening with an account of the rise of Vietnamese communism and ending with the fall of Saigon, this encompassing study reveals how "one side's human, ideological, and organizational resources led it to victory under conditions of vast material inferiority." Kolko, a historian who now teaches in Canada, examines in depth issues such as land reform, the social system in South Vietnam, the ideological foundations of the Vietnamese Communist Party and the economic impact of the war on the United States. He contends that our policymakers ("with certain reservations and lapses") never considered an outright military victory possible, and he pointedly draws a connection between the Washington-Saigon alliance and the "current dilemma of the U.S.'s relationship to all of its Third World clients, on which it has become fatally dependent as instruments for applying its foreign policy." A notable aspect of the book is the author's admiration for the flexibility and inventiveness of the North Vietnamese, contrasted with his disdain for the doggedly unrealistic countermeasures of the Americans and South Vietnamese. January 20
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
In this detailed and provocative study, Kolko analyzes the U.S.-Vietnamese war on two levels: first, as a protracted collision between two dynamic and changing social systems; and second, as a crisis in the U.S. attempt to extend its social and political order. Viewing the war as a violent social and political process, Kolko examines the several structural forces that shaped the behavior of the Vietnamese Communist revolutionaries, U.S. policymakers, and America's Saigon clients. He sees their conflict as a three-sided struggle, played out within a highly complex international arena and against the unexpected volatility of U.S. domestic politics. Essentially unconcerned with individuals, Kolko concentrates on the inherent dilemmas and contradictions that faced different collective actors, and his approach makes for stiff and stilted reading. Yet it is worth the effort, for this work should stand as the most sophisticated Marxist explication of the war and its significance for some time to come. Charles DeBenedetti, History Dept., Univ. of Toledo, Ohio
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful: a compelling and chilling account, June 22, 2000 Reviewer: egalitarian ethos - See all my reviews In "Anatomy of a War" author Gabriel Kolko has done an impeccable job of revealing the truth behind America's involvement in Indochina. Kolko lucidly illustrates how by 1948 the US has recognized that the Viet Minh, the anti-French resistance led by Ho Chi Minh, was not only the national movement of Vietnam, but that the Viet Minh favored independent development and ignored the interests of foreign investors and was therefor deemed "the enemy" by US policy planners. Kolko adroitly elucidates how the US blocked all attempts at political settlement of the conflict, installed a Latin American-style terror state in South Vietnam, and blocked free, democratic elections in Vietnam because it was obvious the Viet Minh was going to win. "Anatomy of a War" illustrates how American war planners escalated the attack against South Vietnam from massive state terror to outright aggression and expanded the war to all of Indochina. A compelling and chilling account of one America's more depraved acts this century. Was this review helpful to you?  (Report this)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful: Best history of VIetnam War, April 16, 2002 Reviewer: andy barenberg (KC, MO USA) - See all my reviews Another brillant work of Scholorship by Kolko. His material on N. Vietnam motivation is particulary interesting Was this review helpful to you?  (Report this)

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful: the other side, April 15, 2000 Reviewer: John Miller "kjmaui" (Kihei, Hi USA) - See all my reviews Kolko writes from the point of view of the Vietnamese, the real victims and the real heroes of the Indochina anticolonial wars. This is a perspective unavailable in any other volume. It is an excellent antidote for the rampant revisionism now afoot regarding this disgraceful episode in our history. Was this review helpful to you?  (Report this)

3 of 24 people found the following review helpful: One-sided leftist claptrap, July 4, 1999 Reviewer: Troy Dawson (Santa Cruz, CA United States) - See all my reviews Found the book in the used section, was quite surprised at the unremitting whitewash of anti-RVN forces, but at least the dated Marxist terminology was quite entertaining to parse. Uncountable amount of opinion stated as fact, with very thin references. If you're looking for a black & white account of the conflict, this one's pretty good. Was this review helpful to you?  (Report this)

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful: A first-rate work that should be updated to the year 1998., August 25, 1998 Reviewer: A reader In my previous review I erred in thinking there were no notes for the Postscript. A minute after sending off that review, I found out that the notes for the Postscript were actually placed in front of the notes for all the chapters preceding the Postscript. What a confusing setup! On another thread, is there any way to obtain the author's assessment of the situation in Viet Nam up to the present time, i.e. August 1998? Was this review helpful to you?  (Report this)

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