From a reader:

“I have caused my somewhat liberal (but turning conservative) wife to now have some doubts about the “conventional” wisdom of Vietnam – “unjust war”, blah blah…
“Can you recommend a good book about our Vietnam saga?”

I’m stumped. The Best and the Brightest is probably still the finest portrait of the main figures in the war—LBJ, McNamara, Taylor, Westmoreland, and all the rest—but it assumes the war was a fiasco. A balanced treatment? A book that shows the fundamentally good American intentions? That demonstrates the way in which the war achieved a kind of holding action, creating the opportunity for Thailand, Taiwan, and other Asian nations to develop their economies and attain political stability? I’m unable to name nary a one.

Derb? Jonah? Anyone?