| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.3

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 108.3 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Comparative/World

Marc Jason Gilbert, editor. Why the North Won the Vietnam War. New York: Palgrave. 2002. Pp. xiv, 254. Cloth $69.95, paper $22.95.

This volume, derived from a conference held in 2000 at Gettysburg College, will not resolve the debate over its subject but makes a contribution to it. Marc Jason Gilbert, the editor, has written both along introduction and a long essay; combined these comprise well over one-third of the volume. There are much shorter essays by seven other authors and, at the end, a brief summary by Lloyd C. Gardner. 1

Gilbert's introduction begins by discussing what he calls the "orthodox school" in the historiography of the war, which traced the outcome to fundamental strengths of the Communist side and weaknesses of the United States and the Republic of Vietnam. Gilbert is respectful here; indeed it is often difficult to tell when he is summarizing the views of the "orthodox school" and when he is presenting his own. Next comes a much briefer discussion of the "revisionists" who believe the United States could and should have won the war but lost it through gratuitous policy mistakes. Gilbert is scathingly dismissive of those revisionists who place the blame entirely on civilians who "tied the hands" of the military; he is only slightly more respectful of Colonel Harry Summers, who split the blame for bad policies between civilians and military. . . .

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