Treatise on Guilt

DENIS WARNER

William Shawcross’ Sideshow is not a history. Although it is buttressed by voluminous classified documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, it is a highly partisan reconstruction of the war in Cambodia and an exercise in character assassination; the author’s bias is apparent on nearly every page. That the Cambodian “sideshow” reflected a disastrous failure of American policy and military effort is demonstrable, but that is not the burden of Mr. Shawcross’ argument. His aim is to show that Nixon and Kissinger caused the catastrophe that has now so tragically engulfed the Cambodian people; and the evidence that might qualify this conclusion is conveniently put aside, or touched on so lightly as not to be obvious to the general reader.

Featured Tags

DENIS WARNER

William Shawcross’ Sideshow is not a history. Although it is buttressed by voluminous classified documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, it is a highly partisan reconstruction of the war in Cambodia and an exercise in character assassination; the author’s bias is apparent on nearly every page. That the Cambodian “sideshow” reflected a disastrous failure of American policy and military effort is demonstrable, but that is not the burden of Mr. Shawcross’ argument. His aim is to show that Nixon and Kissinger caused the catastrophe that has now so tragically engulfed the Cambodian people; and the evidence that might qualify this conclusion is conveniently put aside, or touched on so lightly as not to be obvious to the general reader.