Black April

January 9, 2012
In the first of a projected two volumes, Veith (Code-Name Bright Light: The Untold Story of U.S. POW Rescue Efforts During the Vietnam War) provides “a comprehensive analysis of the finale of America’s first lost war.” That analysis mainly consists of a thorough recounting of the military action that took place after the United States withdrew its last combat troops in March 1973. He combed through official American sources as well as North Vietnamese material, including unit histories, battle studies, and memoirs that he translated into English for the first time. He also mined primary source material from South Vietnam, and conducted dozens of interviews. The result is a detailed account, heavy on descriptions of battlefield tactics of both sides. As for his political analysis, Veith contends—contrary to the prevailing wisdom—that the South Vietnamese in general fought well, and that the U.S. was primarily responsible for their defeat: due to “congressional restraints on aid” to South Vietnam, American “anti-war crusaders,” and “major media institutions,” as well as North Vietnamese perfidy and South Vietnamese Premier Nguyen Van Thieu’s “military blunders.” This will appeal to readers who want military details of the conclusion of the Vietnam War, as well as those who share Veith’s anticommunism.