Jenny's response to The Tragedy of Vietnam

When I first started the book I was less than excited to read it, but the more I read the more interested I became. I had studied Vietnam before but never in that kind of depth. I was really interested about the role America played because my grandpa fought in Vietnam but never really talked about it. I had no idea just how complex it all was. I knew that Vietnam had been split because of beliefs and religions etc and they had been fighting for practically their entire existance but I never fully grasped the idea that this conflict involved so many countries. I was intrigued about the domino effect theory and it makes sense that America would be threatened. I thought of Vietnam as being another war that the U.S. entered in order to make life better for those who were living there; of course there is always a selfish reason as well. By reading the political issues I began to sympathize with the Presidents who were in office during the Vietnam war because it was such a fine line of what could and should be done and what couldn't. Hearden did an excellent job in getting all that history into 200 pages! He even organized it in a fashion so as not to be too confusing and that made it a fairly easy read. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book but in the end I actually did and I learned so much about Vietnam's history. I am really looking forward to going more in depth and discussing hard issues.