Word: shaplen
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This volume, although it is a collection of his dispatches for The New Yorker from 1965 to 1970, reads more like a continuous story than a set of unconnected columns. From before the great escalation in 1965, Shaplen traces the tragic and tortuous path this war has taken to the present. Early on, he realized how little the military aspects of the war really mean. His columns on the persecution of Buddhists by the Catholic Directory, the ruling junta of generals, informed America of the scandalous political repression within South Vietnam. He also seems to have realized from the beginning...
...perception of the blunders of the American policy, Shaplen is steadfast. To the very end, the book is a tale of "our side" against "the Communists," struggling "to win the hearts and minds of the people." If he disagrees with the American military commitment, it is in scale, not in philosophy. As he makes clear in his introduction...
...Shaplen the observer occasionally becomes Shaplen the prophet, and his track record here is mixed. In 1965 he foresees two or three more years of war, just when the government was foreseeing two or three more months of war. In October 1966, he predicts that the only way the Vietcong can win the war is to engage the United States in lengthy negotiations while reducing the level of fighting, this at a time when Washington was refusing to negotiate. But, if his capacity as a prophet is unstable, his capacity as a reporter is unchallenged. Through it all, he documents...
...CONCLUSIONS Shaplen reaches are the expected ones. The problem with Vietnam, he says, the real tragedy of American involvement, is that the United States government neglected to think out a game plan in advance Vietnam is a valuable lesson, for, when the new Vietnams arise, America will be able to handle them...
...seems strange, somehow, to hear Vietnam talked about as a political problem, to hear Shaplen like a sportscaster criticizing the quarterback for the plays he calls without ever questioning the rules of the game itself. This book asks no questions, raises no doubts, about the morality of the war, about the right of the Vietnamese to be left alone, about what business the United States has in Asia anyway. This is all taken as given, as natural for what Shaplen calls "the strongest nation in the world." Nixon uses that phrase, too. And Shaplen and Nixon share essentially the same...