Planning a Tragedy: The Americanization of the War in Vietnam

Planning a Tragedy: The Americanization of the War in Vietnam

Introduction

The opportunity to review any book provides an excellent chance to the reader to put forward all the thoughts and learning gained from reading the book. As far as this book is concerned, Planning a Tragedy: The Americanization of the War in Vietnam is an excellent piece of work written by Larry Berman and published by W.W. Norton and Company in the year 1982. This book provides a detailed insight into how the President of America contributed towards planning the Americanization of the Vietnam War.

Moreover, the book is majorly supported by evidences based on quotations from the memoranda which President Johnson exchanged with his advisers during that time. In order to better understand about the book, an in depth discussion regarding the different events and sections throughout the book is required.

Section A: Main Points of the Book

Central Idea of the Book and Sources Used

In his book, the author Larry Berman works to give a look into the environment of the time in which President Johnson made the difficult decision of Americanizing the Vietnam War. To support the different propositions made throughout the book, the author consistently quotes from President Johnson's and his personal advisers' memoranda.

Moreover, in order to give an opening thought space to the reader, Larry Berman provides no self-explanatory explanation or interpretation of the highlighted quotations. The reason behind this is that, the author demands from the readers to use their personal perceptions and think about the quotations from their personal frames of minds to make a decision about what happened at that time.

President Johnson and His Advisory Panel

Although, the author holds President Johnson responsible for the decision made, the book also provides a view of how the advisory process mechanics and situation politics resulted into foreclosure of the President's available options. The book flows in a rather smooth manner which clearly shows the hard efforts made by the author.

From the beginning to the ultimate decision made, every step is explained in a rather exemplary and extraordinary manner. Moreover, in the different memoranda quoted, Larry Berman adequately provides linkages which help the reader in easily following the ongoing events and process.

American Foreign Policy Making

Undoubtedly some light has been shed on the topic of American foreign policy making in this book; however, two drawbacks could be easily highlighted in the technique used by the author. The first drawback is related to the selection and usage of materials by the author.

The reason behind this is that, while reading the book, one could never be completely sure regarding the criteria based on which the different quotations have been included in the book; or how are many of these quotations related to the ongoing topic. There is always a thought provoking in mind that conflicting ideas might have risen if the other sources were used and included as well.

Sending Over Troops to Vietnam

This reasoned and appealing piece of work is directed towards the examination of ...