The Road From War: Vietnam 1965-1970 (1970) By Robert Shaplen
 
Serial coverage of the Vietnam conflict over the past five years, by expert-on-the-spot Robert Shaplen (writing for The New Yorker, where these twenty-two articles first appeared). Shaplen handled the Vietnam problem in The Lost Revolution (1965) and its regional implications in Time Out of Hand: Revolution and Reaction in Southeast Asia (1969), and he's still taking the same tack here: The United States' prime mistake has been to "inhibit rather than encourage the natural development of the Vietnamese revolution in the South" as a viable alternative to Northern communism. Salvation can come to Saigon only in the form of a strong, nationalist, popular government committed to overhauling the social and economic systems. But over these five years, governments and strongmen have come and gone, political and religious enmities and power struggles have split the anti-communist South Vietnamese population, and serious reforms have yet to be undertaken despite mild American promptings and half-hearted responses by President Thieu. By his final report of January 31, 1970, Shaplen is predicting somberly that even mere Vietnamization may prove unworkable because of the weakness of the South Vietnamese body politic, and although the U.S. will probably get most of its men out in due time, the war is likely to go on indefinitely between the Vietnamese themselves. Shaplen's record is most valuable for what it reveals of the internal squabbles that have plagued the shaky Saigon regime, the discord and dissension among the different elements opposed to Thieu, and the ways in which American policy has accentuated these difficulties. He also conveys from the field the nature of the military conflict and the situation in the hamlets and stops off twice in Paris to assess the progress and prospects of the peace talks. Though his appraisals from the past are dated and many of the details no longer of much interest, the essays reveal the evolving attitudes of an astute observer of liberal proclivities, confronted with the complex, frustrating realities of Vietnam.
 
Hard Cover with Dust Jacket
368 Pages
In Good Condition