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A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam, by Neil Sheehan
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From Publishers Weekly
Killed in a helicopter crash in Vietnam in 1972, controversial Lt. Col. John Paul Vann was perhaps the most outspoken army field adviser to criticize the way the war was being waged. Appalled by the South Vietnamese troops' unwillingness to fight and their random slaughter of civilians, he flouted his supervisors and leaked his sharply pessimistic (and, as it turned out, accurate) assessments to the U.S. press corps in Saigon. Among them was Sheehan, a reporter for UPI and later the New York Times (for whom he obtained the Pentagon Papers). Sixteen years in the making, writing and re search, this compelling 768-page biography is an extraordinary feat of reportage: an eloquent, disturbing portrait of a man who in many ways personified the U.S. war effort. Blunt, idealistic, patronizing to the Vietnamese, Vann firmly believed the U.S. could win; as Sheehan limns him, he was ultimately caught up in his own illusions. The author weaves into one unified chronicle an account of the Korean War (in which Vann also fought), the story of U.S. support for French colonialism, descriptions of military battles, a critique of our foreign policy and a history of this all-American boy's secret personal liehe was illegitimate, his mother a "white trash" prostitutethat led him to recklessly gamble away his career. 100,000 first printing; first serial to the New Yorker; BOMC main selection ; a uthor tour. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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From Library Journal
Vann was a figure of legends, first as a military advisor and later as a civilian official, renowned for his bravery and special insight into and openness about the developing failure in Vietnam. He appeared to sacrifice his military career in 1963, demonstrating uncommon integrity, and died in 1972 after leading the successful defense of Kontum. Sheehan, the New York Times reporter who obtained the Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg, reveals a flawed herocapable of deceit in furthering his reputation and his cause and of insatiable sexual exploits that had already ended hopes of promotionbut still a remarkable man. More importantly, Vann serves as the anchor of a detailed, well-researched, very respectable, and readable attempt to explain the Vietnam experience. Excerpted in The New Yorker. Highly recommended. BMOC main selection.Kenneth W. Berger, Duke Univ. Lib., Durham, N.C.Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Product details
Hardcover: 862 pages
Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (September 12, 1988)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0394484479
ISBN-13: 978-0394484471
Product Dimensions:
6.5 x 2 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.7 out of 5 stars
294 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#155,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
"A Bright Shining Lie" is a masterfully written history of America in Vietnam. Written by Neil Sheehan, a former Southeast Asian correspondent for United Press International (UPI) and later "The New York Times," this book combines a biography of John Paul Vann, considered by some to be ". . . the one irreplaceable American in Vietnam," with a spellbinding narrative of the miscalculations, blunders, and self-deceptions which marked America's decade-plus involvement in Vietnam.John Paul Vann's career in Vietnam spanned a decade, from its beginning in 1962 with Vann as U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel and advisor to the South Vietnamese, to its end in 1972 with his death in a helicopter crash, Vann having become the civilian equivalent of a two-star general. During his decade in Vietnam, Vann was consistently frustrated and angry with the pusillanimous and corrupt performance of South Vietnamese forces and the frequent incompetence of American senior political and military leaders. He repeatedly urged his superiors, through normal channels and in the press, that the U.S. government could not defeat the Communist forces in South Vietnam with its military might alone. The war could only be won by the South Vietnamese with American assistance. That help, Vann recommended, should take the form of facilitating social change and providing military equipment and advice. By the time of his death, however, Vann's views had changed. After the near destruction of the Vietcong during the 1968 Tet offensive, he came to believe that America could indeed achieve a military victory in Vietnam.Sheehan explores every aspect of Vann's life with the keen eye of the best biographers. Vann is seen at his best: possessed with a first-rate intellect and a singleness of purpose which led him to rise above a childhood filled with poverty and neglect; highly patriotic and courageous; and imbued with a strong sense of professional integrity that gave him tremendous credibility at the most senior levels of the U.S. government. Also seen is Vann's darker side: his ability to manipulate others to his ends; his dark sexual compulsions (which ultimately led him to ruin his marraige and endanger his career); his callousness toward his friends and family; and his all-consuming self-centeredness.Interwoven with Vann's biography is a brilliant survey of the Vietnam conflict from the time of the French defeat at Dienbienphu in 1954 to Vann's death in 1972. Three areas of this book were especially interesting to me: first, the author's account of the battle of Ap Bac in 1963, where American advisors were first seriously bloodied by the Vietcong, and Vann's attitudes about the overall conduct of the war took shape; second, Vann's efforts, after his retirement from the Army, to get the U.S. government to change its Vietnam policy - and the political machinations within the government at work against him; and third, Vann's last months in Vietnam as the "civilian general" in charge of the mountains of the highlands and the rice deltas of the central coast, and the critical role he played in several key battles as America's involvement in Southeast Asia approached its tragic coda."A Bright Shining Lie" is certainly one of the two best single-volume histories (along with "Vietnam: A History" by Stanley Karnow) of America's involvement in Vietnam that I've read. It's an essential book for anyone wanting to learn more about America's most regrettable war.
I'm still getting my head around the idea that the heaviest fighting in Vietnam -- the stuff I remember watching Walter Cronkite talking about on the evening news -- happened as long ago as it really did. Yet the conflict there has shaped our society as much as 9/11 and the ward in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have friends who were drafted and sent there, and it was and is a defining period in their lives. My own service was in the time after Vietnam, when all the services were trying to figure out how to fix the damage done organizationally, and professionally.Neil Sheehan's classic about the life and times of John Paul Vann is the perfect metaphor for the American experience of the Vietnam War. His detailed account of battles (with the NVA/Viet Cong, and within the Army) and of life between those battles yields both texture and substance for the reader. And unlike many (most from my reading) other books on Vietnam, it offers the breadth of years to the story, resulting in an emotional portrait of a country's decent into madness. I will leave it to you to decide which country I'm talking about.It also is an insightful commentary on how the services function as bureaucracies and what is apparently takes to climb to the top of those giant piles. I suspect that anyone who has been in the service either in peace or at war has a very good idea of what this is, so I won't belabor the point. Reading about Westmoreland's view and opinions always seems like scraping fingernails on a blackboard to me. Learning about an individual who figured out a way to prosper within this system is always delightful, even if the underlying purpose is doubtful. I think that "working" the system is the basis for many, many sea stories.The level of detail Sheehan gives is wonderful; his style of writing is accessible without being simplistic. Whether you are interested in the politics of the American effort in Vietnam or are looking for narrative about individuals in battle, this is *the* place to start. Sheehan also gives you pointers on where to go next with his thorough notes and bibliography. This book took him years to research and write, and the precision shines through. I am grateful for his persistence, and suspect that you will be too.Enjoy, and reflect.
Why I put off reading this for so long is still a mystery to me. All of the suspicions I had about the skullduggery and ineptness of our so called military leaders has been confirmed. The US military was hoodwinked at nearly every turn by the "bad" guys. Having spent 2 tours as a Marine in VN, when I was 19 & 20, I knew I didn't know squat about what was going on over there. This book brought back memories and answered an awful lot of the questions I had at that time. Even though my experience was in I Corps and not with the Army, the background in the political history and military thinking of the times opened a whole new perspective that translated in a similar fashion. As for John Paul Vann.....what a complicated man! On the one hand I found him despicable as a human being, on the other I found him to be an incredible man of action and insight. The other thing about him is that it appeared he was correct and prescient in so many ways. At the end for him to ultimately get it all wrong was sad. I recommend this book for anyone, veteran or not, that wants to know what the hell was going on over there and why. Just a brilliant book.
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