AMERICA AND VIETNAM

A powerfully written, emotion-packed, highly biased account of America's involvement in Vietnam. Marrin mentions a variety of views on the war, but his sympathies are clearly with the Americans who fought there. While he details the ``grunts' '' confusion, frustration, and suffering and apologizes for the atrocities they committed as aberrations, he depicts the communists as ruthless and power-hungry, the South Vietnamese as corrupt, the US government as blind and indecisive, the news media as sensation-seeking, and the antiwar activists as ``spoiled brats.'' He also emphasizes the suffering of American POWs (and, to a lesser degree, some of the Vietnamese). Though he quotes a number of Vietnamese sources and presents some background on the country, the Vietnamese are the villains in virtually every comparison with Americans; Marrin's presumption of motives is good for American soldiers, bad for everyone else. To his credit, he attributes quotes and offers a reasonably complete bibliography. Useful as a digest of some of the adult oral histories, but not as an objective summary. Index and b&w photos not seen. (Nonfiction. 12+)