History of Vietnam: A Captivating Guide to Vietnamese History

I heard about half of this while stationed in Vietnam in 1969. While shallow, this book makes clear all of the key historical pressures that I was aware of while there. Vietnamese hatred for the French was rammed home by an error I made as a general's aide de camp at dinner with a province chief and his staff. I asked for someone to pass me the potatoes in first English and then Vietnamese and got ignored, possibly because I was the most junior officer there. Then I asked again in French because I remembered my high school French teacher said we could use French in Indochina since it was their language of commerce... This time the Vietnamese major sitting next to me stood and drew his sidearm placing it against my temple while I stuttered my apologies. The province chief ordered him to stand down and everyone had a good laugh at my expense. As he gave me the potatoes the major explained that the French were the cruel slave masters the Vietnamese threw out. It is embarrassing to them that they allowed the French to colonize them.

As a Vietnam veteran I found this book to be interesting and full of information about the ancient history of Viet Man. From ancient times of the BC eras up to current days it is a great survey of Vietnamese history. As a veteran of the American war there it gave me a fuller understanding of the people, the culture and the development of the political systems operating in that nation when I was involved in Viet Man.Thank you.

I love these books as they are always informative, educational and interesting! Provides the right amount of facts/tidbits - not too little, not too much.

The details of the history of this country were surprising to me. The conflicts with China do not surprise me. Having exact dates, names and victories for the Vietnamese did surprise me along with many names of those that were involved. It was not possible to know if this was written Vietnamese history or written Chinese history. It appears to me that many of us do not have an acceptable knowledge level or appreciation for Vietnamese history.The information re the war with the US does not surprise me, now "normal" this was based on the relationship with China did surprise me. In many ways they simply replaced China with the US and had the backing of both China and the USSR.

Interesting for a first approach to the History of Việt Nam but it contains some errors and sometimes countersens : Nguyen Ngoc Chau showed clearly than the French didn't raise the access to the education for Vietnameses children, (quite the opposite), they didn't enhance agricultural techniques (they had to bring Vietnameses farmers in Camargue, south of France, to learn how to grow rice properly, and the description of the 2nd Gulf of Tonkin incident is a joke (declassified documents from the CIA proves that it was a set up ..).However it's interesting as brief introduction to the History of Việt Nam.

As in your other books on history of Southeast Asia, your writings are compelling.Here again having traveled through both North and South Viet Nam from Ha Long Bay, Hanoi, Ho chi Minh City( Saigon). I found the Vietnamese, also warm snd compelling. This culture truly speaks thru it’s many continued advancement as you travel thru their Beautiful Country.

I was wounded on my second tour of duty in Viet Nam. My wounds were such that I was evacuated back to the States and I ended up having to have my MOS changed from Infantry to Administration. While no longer having to crawl thru the mud (shucks!), I did give classes on those deploying to Viet Nam. While not as detailed as this book, we did let them know what to expect and a little about the country. After reading this book I now know why most of the locals I talked to had a great dislike for the Chinese. I know why they disliked the French. In fact, when we landed on my first tour in 1965, they thought we were the French returning to their country. It didn't help when we did not have any Vietnamese interpreters so used one of guys who spoke French. I did spot some areas that I have been noted by other reviewers, but for he most part, this book is very informative for anyone who wants a crash course on the history of Viet Nam and they give some references for further study if you so desire. It doesn't cover the American involvement during the Viet Name was but there are a number of other works out there if that is what you are looking for.

I am going to Vietnam and wanted to understand its history. The book is concise yet detailed enough., moves at a good pace.