<p>In November of 1964, as Lyndon Johnson celebrated his landslide victory over Barry Goldwater, the government of South Vietnam lay in a shambles. Ambassador Maxwell Taylor described it as a country beset by "chronic factionalism, civilian-military suspicion and distrust, absence of national<br />
spirit and motivation, lack of cohesion in the social structure, lack of experience in the conduct of government." Virtually no one in the Johnson Administration believed that Saigon could defeat the communist insurgency--and yet by July of 1965, a mere nine months later, they would lock the United<br />
States on a path toward massive military intervention which would ultimately destroy Johnson's presidency and polarize the American people.<br />
Into the Quagmire presents a closely rendered, almost day-by-day account of America's deepening involvement in Vietnam during those crucial nine months. Mining a wealth of recently opened material at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and elsewhere, Brian VanDeMark vividly depicts the painful<br />
unfolding of a national tragedy. We meet an LBJ forever fearful of a conservative backlash, which he felt would doom his Great Society, an unsure and troubled leader grappling with the unwanted burden of Vietnam; George Ball, a maverick on Vietnam, whose carefully reasoned (and, in retrospect,<br />
strikingly prescient) stand against escalation was discounted by Rusk, McNamara, and Bundy; and Clark Clifford, whose last-minute effort at a pivotal meeting at Camp David failed to dissuade Johnson from doubling the number of ground troops in Vietnam. What comes across strongly throughout the book<br />
is the deep pessimism of all the major participants as things grew worse--neither LBJ, nor Bundy, nor McNamara, nor Rusk felt confident that things would improve in South Vietnam, that there was any reasonable chance for victory, or that the South had the will or the ability to prevail against the<br />
North. And yet deeper into the quagmire they went.<br />
Whether describing a tense confrontation between George Ball and Dean Acheson ("You goddamned old bastards," Ball said to Acheson, "you remind me of nothing so much as a bunch of buzzards sitting on a fence and letting the young men die") or corrupt politicians in Saigon, VanDeMark provides<br />
readers with the full flavor of national policy in the making. More important, he sheds greater light on why America became entangled in the morass of Vietnam.</p>
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这本书最让我印象深刻的是其对“公共话语”与“秘密决策”之间鸿沟的描绘。作者似乎花了大量精力去挖掘那些鲜为人知的小型智库报告、未公开的备忘录,并将它们与当时报纸上铺天盖地的乐观论调进行对比。这种并置产生了强烈的讽刺效果。你会清楚地看到,在公众视野之外,精英层内部对于战局的悲观预估其实早已存在,但这些声音是如何被系统性地边缘化,以维持政治上的连续性与面子工程。这种对信息不对称和认知失调的深入探讨,是本书超越一般历史著作的关键所在。它不是在写“发生了什么”,而是在剖析“为什么人们相信他们相信的”,以及这种相信在权力走廊中是如何被武器化的。阅读过程像是在剥洋葱,每一层剥开后,都会发现更深一层的复杂和矛盾。
评分我必须承认,这本书的阅读体验是沉重且令人不安的。它毫不留情地揭示了理想主义是如何被现实的泥潭所吞噬的。作者并没有给我们提供任何廉价的安慰或简单的答案。相反,他不断地抛出令人深思的问题:当一个政治家试图以最小的代价实现最大的目标时,他究竟是在展示智慧,还是在进行一种危险的自我欺骗?书中那些关于情报误判和信息过滤的章节,读起来尤其令人心寒。仿佛能听到那些被政治正确和既有战略框架所扭曲的声音,如何层层向上汇聚成一个完全偏离现实的“决策泡沫”。对于任何想要理解“历史惯性”和“路径依赖”的读者来说,这本书都是一份极佳的教材。它不提供轻松的娱乐,它要求你付出思考的努力,而这种努力最终会带来对人类集体行为的深刻反思。
评分从装帧设计和排版来看,这本书本身也透露出一种严肃的历史研究气息,厚重的纸张和密集的注释,预示着这不是一部轻松的睡前读物。然而,正是这种严谨的态度,构建了一个坚不可摧的论证体系。它成功地将复杂的军事部署、复杂的国内政治博弈以及深刻的意识形态冲突,编织成一个连贯且富有张力的叙事。作者对外交辞令和军事术语的运用驾轻就熟,使得即便是非专业人士也能领会到其中微妙的含义。它更像是一个宏大的交响乐,所有的声部——从国会山的辩论到湄公河三角洲的迷雾——都精确地对应着历史的时间轴,最终汇聚成一曲关于人类局限性的悲歌。看完之后,我感觉我对理解现代冲突的演变有了一种新的方法论。
评分这本书的叙事节奏堪称教科书级别的慢火炖煮,读起来仿佛身临其境地跟着历史的洪流缓慢前行,那种压迫感和无力感层层递进,让人喘不过气。作者对于细节的把握简直是到了吹毛求疵的地步,每一个微小的决策、每一次秘密的外交接触,都被梳理得井井有条,形成了一张庞大而错综复杂的网。你读的不是宏大的历史叙事,而是活生生的人在巨大历史惯性下的挣扎与抉择。特别是在描绘白宫内部那些冗长而徒劳的会议时,那种“知道结局却无力回天”的宿命感被渲染得淋漓尽致。我尤其欣赏作者没有简单地将所有责任都推给某一个人,而是精妙地展现了系统性的失误是如何一步步将所有参与者拖入泥潭的。读完之后,你对“渐进式升级”这个词汇会有全新的、更为深刻的理解,它不再是一个抽象的政治术语,而是一条布满荆棘、无法回头的窄路。这种深入骨髓的细节展示,使得即便是对这段历史已经有所了解的读者,也会被其新的视角和丰富的佐证材料所震撼。
评分这本书的文笔冷峻而富有洞察力,它避免了传统传记文学中常见的英雄化或妖魔化倾向,而是用一种近乎冰冷的、解剖学的笔触来剖析权力运作的机制。作者的语言选择极为精准,时常使用一些结构复杂但逻辑严密的复合句,读起来需要集中精神,但一旦跟上节奏,那种智力上的满足感是无与伦比的。它更像是一篇篇精密的案例研究集合,而非一气呵成的故事。书中对美国国内政治生态,尤其是国会与行政部门之间的微妙张力,分析得入木三分。你能够清晰地看到,外部的军事压力是如何被内部的政治需求反哺和利用的。这种多层次的透视,极大地拓宽了我们对冷战时期大国决策环境的认知边界。那些看似不经意的国会议员发言、地方选区的压力,都被作者巧妙地嵌入到国家战略的讨论中,展示了一个全方位的权力景观。
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