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Challenging Pop Culture on Vietnam

By Barry Romo (Reviewer)

Vietnam and Other American Fantasies
H. Bruce Franklin
University of Massachusetts Press
Amherst, 2000

After all these years since the American War in South Asia and the forests of trees that have been cut down to document that war, do we really need another book?

If it's as good as H. Bruce Franklin's latest book, the answer is a definite yes. This latest of his eighteen books contains science fiction, Star Trek, Reagan's "Star Wars," poetry, politics, POW/MIAs, anti-war activism, vets being spit upon, history, revision and, most importantly, analysis.

Those of us who lived through the war are reminded of the terrible destructivness, outright lies and political campaigns it took to keep the war going and to fool the American public. Franklin reminds us of the role of the pro-peace forces in the population - including veterans and servicemen - in ending the war. He doesn't sidestep the truth.

I do have one problem with the book. He never mentions VVAW, although he does talk about our demonstrations and our impact. 'Nam vets in their tens of thousands (including thousands in 'Nam) were led by our organization, not by an abstraction. But this is a minor problem compared to the whole book.

I read it in three days, and you will too.