I just finished it. The detail is incredible. Anyone who feels they really don't know enough about what happened in southeast Asia needs to read this excellent book. ⭐⭐⭐⭐
A book that has stood the test of time.A deeply moving and sensitive forward with a meeting of important US figures of the Vietnam War at the funeral of John Paul Vann.Mr.Sheehan -a great man,now deceased who enlightened many with his knowledge and pursuit of truth in his writings.
a great man deceiving a lie detector test to hide his pedophilia . Pure trash, read the book .No hero he . self centered user, morals of a slug .worse yet he was so very proud of it .
Amazing book. Not trying to provide a spoiler, but at some point in the book, it had a Sixth Sense moment where everything we thought we knew about Vann was questioned. This book is worth a read.
Thank you for posting this excellent discussion with Neil Sheehan. I've just started reading 'A Bright Shining Lie' and this is really good background information. Thanks again!
A Bright Shining Lie is the best book I’ve read in 10 years. Hearing Neil Sheehan cogently explain his thoughts, feelings and motivations in this ‘Conversation’ is just the cherry on the top. Sheehan’s moral integrity is brilliantly on display and perfectly illustrates why the book is pitch perfect. Unfortunately, the lessons he recounts at the end were not learned. America’s foreign policy myopia and military might arrogance was tragically demonstrated by President Bush and his courtiers.
A great author, a great book, I read it when I was 20 years old in France. An history about Vietnam, and the wrong decision taken.... Irak, Afghanistan, Lybie, our leader should have read this book......Do never turn our back to history...
THE MAN IS RIGHT IN MANY WAYS ?? THE MILITARY LEADERSHIP REPEATED IT AGAIN IN AFGHANISTAN??? NEVER MIND UKRAINE$$$ ALWAYS UNDERSTAND WHY YOU FIGHT AND THE PEOPLE YOUR FIGHTING FOR??? ALWAYS ASK QUESTIONS?? ESPECIALLY MAINSTREAM STREAM MEDIA??? WELCOME HOME TO ALL VEITNAM VET'S!!! TELL YOUR STORIES NEVER LET THEM FORGET THE BETRAYAL FROM THE POLITICIANS AND PUBLIC??YOU ARE ALL HEROES!!
I first read the book in '95 and was fully impressed with the detailed reporting by Sheehan. Ironically the movie rights were purchased by Jane Fonda (of all people) for $50k and made into a movie by HBO. I have yet to see anything more than bit parts. But the one thing I remember from the book was the absolute incompetence of one Paul D Harkins, the first MACV commander. Of all people to have been assigned that job he would be the very last one to pick. Read anything of the French involvement in Vietnam and the French commanders all state clearly that the Viet Mihn; later the NVA; were some of the finest infantry in the world. I served as a Ranger with Co C, 1st Ranger battalion. My CO was David Grange and he stated the same thing.
his ´a bright shining lie ´ gives me a deep insight into the backgrounds of the vietnam war, and also into the hidden ill-mechanism prevailing in any modern giant organizations and corporations. the contents are very fresh even now in this sense. it depends how you read it.
When I read A Bright Shining Lie, I was informed of the ruse Ho Chi Minh and General Giap had successfully executed against General Westmoreland by sending 40,000 NVA to surround 8,000 Marines at Khe Sanh. General Westmoreland began to empty cities around the nation, of American forces which he sent to bolster the American contingent at Khe Sahn. Westmoreland had the grand delusion of Khe Sahn being the next battle of Dien bin Phu, the final deciding battle. When me and 3 Army truck drivers were dispatched to Siagon at 9pm January 30, we had no idea that 7,000 Viet Cong soldiers had infiltrated the city now drained of US forces. The Tet offensive was ordered to begin at 3am, Jan 31, exactly. We made it out of the city by 2:30am and survived despite being watched by thousands of Viet Cong who were ordered not to shoot any Americans until 3am. I learned these facts years later. Then decades later I read in Lake of Fire by Francis Fitzgerald that after Westmoreland transferred ground troops from Saigon to Khe Sahn, there were only 300 American troops left in Saigon capable of defending the city and Embassy against attack. They were from the 557th Military Police. There were no American ground forces in Saigon. Many of those MPs died after the shock of sudden warfare at 3 in the morning. The MPs who set-up checkpoints around the city mostly were annihilated due to Westmoreland's mistake in judgement, and because of the Bright Shining Lie of Westmoreland, which was his false report to the President that we were winning and the suspected offensive was a farce, I almost died' He lied and I almost died. Me? I put the pedal to the metal and survived the largest enemy offensive in modern American war history when we were surprise attacked by 80,000 enemy forces all at the same time. America lost the war at Tet. The claim that we destroyed the Viet Cong as a fighting force s total BS. The Viet Cong guerrillas just receded back into their homes where they proceeded to live the life of the South Vietnamese citizens they were. They did their damage which turned US popular opinion against the war, and went to bed. 1968 was the bloodiest year of the war. The statistic that the US killed 40,000 VC during the offensive and won is just not true, but is more like sour grapes, the loser whinning. That statistic is not a number based on verification, but on conjecture alone. What is verifiable are the 40,000 US troops and allies who were taken off the battlefield due to both being injured and killed in the war which equals the total number taken off the battlefield.
10:42. "USA to take over SV and reform the country.....sv regime could not reform itself..." ; 12:40 JPV familial background; 15:31 JPV calls in B52's to stop NV
I first read Neil Sheehan's _A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam_ in 1989 and loved it. Had the U.S. fought the war the way Vann wanted it fought in 1962, it would have been a much better and successful war for both America and Vietnam.
I remember reading the book when it was first published in the UK in the late eighties I think. Thanks for making this excellent interview available on RU-vid.
The damage that the broken social contract with its citizens (sending loyal Americans off to die in a war that should never have happened) has generated the current distrust of government and media. That and poor economic conditions is shredding the social cohesion of the country. I don't think even Neil understood the damage that was done....I truly hope that healing will start soon.
the grove of trees at the burial ground was spared the axe by Vann himself who did not want to disturb the site. ironic bumped into him at the bridge over the Dak Bla in April of '72 and watched him read the riot act to some officers....both MACV American and ARVN....that let HIS bridge get damaged (either by a mortar shell or a satchel charge...never heard) heckuva guy
Thank You to Utube and Harry Kreisler of UCTV for this interview. Yet the greater thanx go to the founding fathers whom enacted the first amendment (article 1) of the US constitution. Without it; Neil Sheehan and his masterpiece “A Bright Shining Lie” could never have been written.
This interview is the real evidence of such cases when the author is an author but not a writer just. He has a message that he send to people through his book. I still didn't read the book. But after this interview, I know that I and my family have to read it to know the truth but not what others want us to know.
This interview brings out some great information from Neil Sheehan about John Paul Vann and the American intervention in the Vietnam War. _A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam,_ which I first read in 1989, is the best history of the American war in Vietnam that I have ever read.
Excellent interview and a stunning book. The secretary of the Swedish Academy, Peter Englund, wrote highly of Bright Shining Lie years ago, which is how I heard of it.
I don’t know that John Paul Vann had a keener sense of reality than any American in Vietnam. It took me less than six weeks after arriving there in late 1965 to come to the realization that we were not going to win. Now, that having been said, I often wonder what happened to Vann’s mistress Lee. I worked at her school while I was there.
The interviewer’s comments about Vann’s use of B52 strikes around Kontum, is a rude mischaracterization. Those were heavy bomber strikes against TACTICAL maneuvering PAVN units. It was a genius application of operational echelon airpower, utilized as assistance to ARVN groundforces.
If we destroyed the VC during Tet, why was '68 the bloodiest year of the war? I was there all of 68 and WE DID NOT DESTROY THE VC during Tet. They were always a threat around the Saigon region; VC battalion after battalion went through the area all year; I know; I was there. WE DID NOT WIN TET. Me and my unit were almost always under fire everywhere we went. During Tet we lost 4,000 American dead, countless injured, counting both death and injury statistics of all, 40,000 allies and Americans were taken out of action by both death and injury. The number 40,000 VC deaths has never been verified and was another lie; I was in Tet and watched the battle for Saigon. I drove Army trucks all of '68. Had to deal with ambushes, snipers, mortar attacks, border attacks, etc. VC bombardments were an everyday thing AFTER Tet. Our commander General William Westmorland lost his job 3 months after Tet and also at the same time LBJ stated he wouldn't run for the Presidency again. We won? The Vietnamese believe they won because they gave more lives than we did. Both sides cynically claim to have won the war. The book The Bright Shining Lie is the best book on the Vietnam war, and I have read it twice and pick it up to read for the memories. I think Mr. Van was the last, and maybe only hero of the war-he truly sacrificed his life for the anti-communist cause. It's ironic that so many Vietnam vets became Marxist/Leninists after they left the Army in the 70s.
The units remained, refilled with NVA , the majority of the VC NCOs were killed at Tet, they were years of experience. This caused a lot of internal conflict between northern and southern Veits in later yrs
