AN ASIAN TRAGEDY

Though not entirely bias-free, this account is fair in balancing perspectives of the major parties in the American- Vietnamese conflict. Presenting important points of interpretation in some depth, Detzer shows why they are important—e.g., the disagreement among historians on the origin of the revolt against the Diem regime: if it had been organized from Hanoi, it could have been considered an invasion rather than a civil war. He also provides an objective description of the American political outlook in the late 40's and early 50's, when Washington chose to side with the French-created South Vietnamese government, effectively showing how this outlook created a situation that could be changed only with great difficulty. Unfortunately, however, he always calls the enemy by their American names, never by their own, and the ``Pentagon Papers,'' which spurred much of the off-campus antiwar effort, are not mentioned. Too, he quotes cynics who blame antiwar mobilizing on the drafting of young men, but fails to pose a counter argument: the large numbers of veterans and women active against the war. Documentation is skimpy—only 12 endnotes for the entire book— but the bibliography/filmography is broad-based, and the photos are well keyed to the text. A worthy effort at balanced treatment of a still highly emotion-fraught subject. Chronology; index. (Nonfiction. 12+)