Review of Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land

Title:  Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land:  The Vietnam War Revisited.
Editor:  Andrew Wiest.
Publisher:  Osprey Military Publishing.
Publishing Date:  2012.
Pages:  310.

This was the first book I purchased for my Nook ereader.  I read the entire work over the course of several weeks.  The book is a collection of essays by different authors about the Vietnam War ranging from historians to former ARVN generals and South Vietnamese civilians.  The articles themselves cover French involvement in Indochina, life in the North Vietnamese Army, American media coverage during the conflict, American political leadership, American air power, American naval operations, American air mobile operations, and the after effects of the Vietnam War on American military policy.

There is just too many things to talk about in this book.  It gives a good overview of the conflict. 

Though I'm troubled by the last essay.  It hits too close to home.  The author basically says there was no political discussion of America going to war in both Vietnam and the War on Terror.  This is true. 

There is no political discussion of why we should have gone to war in places like Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq.  And there is no serious political discussion of this today!  The author also pointed out the people who made an issue of others questioning their decisions to go to war in 2001 were the ones who hid from their draft boards in the 1960s! 

That aside, Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land will make a good addition to your military studies.  Whether you purchase it for Kindle, Nook, or buy an old fashioned hard copy.