Hearden's book is filled with facts and falacies and has no place in achedemia. He paints a portrait of predatory economics that totally neglects facts that must have been in play at the time, for example the concept of specialization and trade is made to sound like totalitarian colonialism. Did France exploit the uneducated Vietnamese? Proabably. Was it really that much different from exploitation felt by coal miners in the US, or the exploitation felt by any subcultural group in an growing economy? Proabaly not. There always is someone at the top of an economic ladder.

I have wandered from my review, sorry. The book is longwinded and repetative. If you are reading The Tragedy of Vietnam, make sure to remember it comes with a disclaimer located at the top of the book: "Historical Interpretations"--this is exactly what you are getting, and not a very accurate one. Hearden would have you hugging Ho Chi Minh, believing him never to have a violent or corrupt bone in his body. Geeze! Also, while Hearden never relented in piling on domineering ulterior motives of the US and France, he neglects to mention that the Khmer Rouge, once in charge, went on to kill 1.7 million people in an effort to cleanse the educated masses from the countryside.

I'm angry that my professor would have us read such a twisted view of events. What put me over the edge and made me want to write this review was when Hearden started ascribing US motives as based on a Trilateral economic model. I searched for better than half an hour on the WEB and could not find anything credible about his Trilateral assertions. Also, the only references to anything trilateral that you will find on the Internet seem to be crackpot based conspiracy theories. It's not like you can go to Trilateral.gov. Therefore, if Hearden has to stoop so low as to include this kind of speculation in his text, then it is not for me. I would like rate this book minus four stars.

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