Vinh-The Lam, M.L.S.
Librarian Emeritus
University of Saskatchewan
CANADA
The
Vietnam War (1954-1975) has been the topic of an incredibly voluminous
literature for the past five decades. These
documents have touched on all political, military, economic and social aspects
of the war with the most important ones being the studies to reassess the cause,
merit, and conduct of the war. American
historians and researchers, including the political and military people who had
been involved in the war, were trying to understand why America has lost the
war in spite of its huge amount of efforts and money spent on it. For the first thirty years, a large majority
of researchers have reached the conclusion that the United States have lost the
war mainly because of the two following reasons:
·
The
U.S. involvement was a mistake for various reasons, one of them was the wrong
taking of side in the war: its ally, the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) did not
deserve to be supported; its army (The Army of the Republic of Vietnam, or
ARVN) was cowardly and totally lacked of fighting capability
· The Vietnam War was “an unwinnable war”
