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Robert K. Brigham
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Reckless: Henry Kissinger and the Tragedy of Vietnam Hardcover – September 4, 2018

by Robert K. Brigham (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 48 ratings
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Henry Kissinger's role in the Vietnam War prolonged the American tragedy and doomed the government of South Vietnam

The American war in Vietnam was concluded in 1973 after eight years of fighting, bloodshed, and loss. Yet the terms of the truce that ended the war were effectively identical to what had been offered to the Nixon administration four years earlier. Those four years cost America and Vietnam thousands of lives and billions of dollars, and they were the direct result of the supposed master plan of the most important voice in American foreign policy: Henry Kissinger.

Using newly available archival material from the Nixon Presidential Library, Kissinger's personal papers, and material from the archives in Vietnam, Robert K. Brigham punctures the myth of Kissinger as an infallible mastermind. Instead, he constructs a portrait of a rash, opportunistic, and suggestible politician. It was personal political rivalries, the domestic political climate, and strategic confusion that drove Kissinger's actions. There was no great master plan or Bismarckian theory that supported how the US continued the war or conducted peace negotiations. Its length was doubled for nothing but the ego and poor judgment of a single figure.

This distant tragedy, perpetuated by Kissinger's actions, forever changed both countries. Now, perhaps for the first time, we can see the full scale of that tragedy and the machinations that fed it.
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  1. Print length
    320 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    PublicAffairs
  4. Publication date
    September 4, 2018
  5. Dimensions
    6.38 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9781610397025
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1610397025
  8. See all details
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From the Publisher

Reckless

Editorial Reviews

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"One of the most compelling elements of the book is Brigham's portrayal of Kissinger's manipulation of an emotionally insecure Nixon. The president often responded by expressing doubts about Kissinger's methods, but he did Kissinger's bidding more often than not out of desperation to win over the American electorate during the 1972 election cycle."―Kirkus Reviews

"A welcome, much-needed reexamination of the secret negotiations that led to America's withdrawal from the Vietnam War. Using impressive new research, Robert K. Brigham skillfully analyzes the origins of the 1973 Paris Agreement and persuasively debunks the myth of Henry Kissinger as a diplomat of rare ability."―George C. Herring, author of America's Longest War: The United States andVietnam, 1950-1975

"Robert K. Brigham, drawing on many previously unpublished official transcripts and records, makes a scholarly and convincing case that Henry Kissinger's policymaking on Vietnam during the Nixon Administration was 'reckless.' Both in the secret peace negotiations with the North Vietnamese in Paris and in ordering massive bombing raids on their forces in Cambodia and Laos, and on Hanoi itself, Kissinger was ignorant of their determination to reunite their country at all costs. Ultimately, with no consultation with the US-supported regime in Saigon, he negotiated a peace agreement that freed US prisoners of war and completed the American military withdrawal in 1973, but allowed North Vietnamese military forces to remain in territory they had occupied in South Vietnam-dooming it, as President Nguyen Van Thieu knew it would, to defeat, which came two years later."―Craig R. Whitney, Saigon correspondent andbureau chief of the New York Times,1971-1973

"Brigham offers a persuasive argument that [Kissinger] lied, misled, and deceptively outmaneuvered other policy makers in setting Vietnam War policy from 1969 to 1975, with disastrous results.... This all-but-total condemnation...confirms what many Kissinger skeptics have believed for decades and may change the minds of some who have believe him to be a foreign policy guru."―Publishers Weekly

"Vietnam-era scholars and informed audiences fascinated by Kissinger will welcome the author's insights."―Library Journal

"Brigham makes a strong case that Kissinger's war policy-making was 'a total failure'....Making good use of new primary source material...he destroys Kissinger's carefully and deceptively cultivated image as a foreign policy guru....[Reckless] should change the minds of those who have believed Kissinger's deceptive, self-aggrandizing re-writing of Vietnam War history."―Vietnam Veterans of America Magazine

"It's a clapback 15 years in the making, and offers insight into how Kissinger's machinations were less brilliance than guesswork and ego, with disastrous results....[Reckless] squarely assigns the blame."―Progressive Populist

About the Author

Robert. K. Brigham is the Shirley Ecker Boskey Professor of History and International Relations at Vassar College. He is a specialist on the history of U.S. foreign policy. His fellowships include the Rockefeller Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for Humanities. Brigham is author or co-author of nine books, among them Iraq, Vietnam, and the Limits of American Power (PublicAffairs, 2008) and Argument Without End (PublicAffairs, 1999).

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 1610397029
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ PublicAffairs; 1st edition (September 4, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9781610397025
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1610397025
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.14 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.38 x 1 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 48 ratings

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Robert K. Brigham

Robert K. Brigham

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Robert K. Brigham, Shirley Ecker Boskey Professor of History and International Relations at Vassar College. He is a specialist on the history of US foreign policy, particularly the Vietnam War. Brigham's father served with the Marines as a combat photographer in Vietnam, earning a Purple Heart at Hue during the Tet Offensive.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
48 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars excellent
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2024
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I'm looking forward to reading this latest addition to my books about Watergate and Kissinger.
I just want to compliment the shippers. It came carefully wrapped against damage and when I opened it there was that wonderful new car smell. Perfect condition and service.
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Michael Burnam-fink
5.0 out of 5 stars Folly, not genius
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2018
Verified Purchase
Henry Kissinger is the grand doyen of the 'Realist' school of US Foreign Policy. One of the pillars of realism, along with an anarchic and security-centric view of states and their interests, is that high level bilateral negotiations by intelligent and empowered plenipotentiary, can achieve successful foreign policy. Kissinger's role in the the ending of the Vietnam War should be a prime example. After all, he got a Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the end, peace with honor and all of that. Anything that happened after the American withdrawal was not his fault. Right?

Yeah, right. In this book drawing on a close read of the historical record and new archival sources, Brigham shows that Kissinger failed in every single one of his major goals in the negotiations. His paranoid personal style cut key stakeholders out of negotiations, meaning that there was no broad support for his treaty in the American bureaucracy, the public mind, or especially South Vietnam. Kissinger was a major driver of military escalations, which caused immense suffering without commensurate military or diplomatic benefits. Kissinger had a weak hand, but he played it poorly, dragging out the end of the war.

The American objectives for a political resolution of the war was a peace covering Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, mutual withdrawal of American and North Vietnamese forces, the recognition of South Vietnam as an independent nation with a border at the DMZ, and return of American prisoners of war. Of these, he accomplished only the last. North Vietnamese goals were more flexible, but their essential core was recognition of NVA forces on the ground and a weak political outcome for South Vietnam that would lead to unification on Communist terms.

The major sticking point was the removal of South Vietnamese leaders Thieu and Ky. The hardline North Vietnamese position was that their removal was a prerequisite for negotiations and forming a provisional government that contained the National Liberation Front. Negotiations dragged on for years. For obvious reasons, Kissinger refused to throw Thieu under the bus, but he also never engaged with the possibilities of South Vietnamese politics. The South Vietnamese were very much junior partners in their own fate, and their job was to accept whatever deal Kissinger negotiated.

Meanwhile, with every month that passed, more American troops left South Vietnam, and Kissinger's military leverage deteriorated. Domestic political concerns drove the negotiating position. North Vietnam didn't need to agree to mutual withdrawals, they simply had to outwait the American public. As his military bargain cards slipped away, Kissinger was a strenuous advocate for enlarging the war; secretly bombing Cambodia, invading Laos, and area bombing of North Vietnam in Linebacker and Linebacker II. For what it's worth, Kissinger was right that a maximum pressure air campaign in Vietnam would not lead to Chinese intervention and World War III, especially as a response to the massive conventional Easter Offensive in 1972, but there were no diplomatic results from this coercion. The victims died for Kissinger's ambition.

In the end, as conventional wisdom puts it, "We bombed them into accepting their concession." The final treaty accepted the victories of the NVA, allowing ten divisions to remain in South Vietnam, along with the supply routes through Laos and Cambodia. The political resolution was deliberately vague, and a clear victory for North Vietnam. While they did not get their non-Thieu provisional government, there were no mechanisms to defend South Vietnam, aside from Nixon's word of honor. The political outcome would be settled, finally, as NVA tanks rolled into Saigon in 1975 and America did nothing.

Kissinger was a mediocre negotiator at the close of the Vietnam War. He was much more adept at managing upwards, playing to Nixon's distrust of bureaucracy, love of intrigue and military options, and siege-mentality paranoia. Kissinger has also been adept at shaping the historical record to conceal his basic failure in seeking a settlement. The facts on the ground were the facts on the ground, and Kissinger failed to change them militarily. Rather than bold genius, his negotiation tactics were ineffective and conventional, and ultimately a fig-leaf over a drawn out American defeat. The lessons here are lessons in what not to do.
10 people found this helpful
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J. M. Jensen
4.0 out of 5 stars Met My Needs
Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2018
Verified Purchase
Hated the book, but that's not your fault.
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LuAnn G.
3.0 out of 5 stars Book about Henry Kissinger and his diplomacy
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2023
Verified Purchase
Behind the scenes insight of maneuvering in an age with no social public media exposure
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Hande Z
5.0 out of 5 stars Fooled the world?
Reviewed in the United States on May 15, 2019
Verified Purchase
Most of the enlightening books published in the past year or two, including ‘Westmoreland’s War’ and ‘Road to Disaster’ are mainly on the military and strategic mistakes made by the generals and the team led by President Johnson. This book focuses on the errors and arrogance of one man who has been most culpable – Henry Kissinger. There is no doubt that readers will rethink how Kissinger should be assessed after reading this book.

‘The war in Vietnam was an American disaster, Brigham writes, ‘The loss of lives and treasure for all sides was immense. The United States suffered psychic damage from which it never fully recovered. And yet Kissinger, despite his failures in Vietnam, has emerged as a symbol of American shrewdness in exercising power. But Kissinger was never able to strip away emotion ego, and conventional wisdom from his handling of the Vietnam War. He recklessly sought ends beyond his mean.’

If President Nixon has been a dishonest president, Kissinger had been dishonest to the presidents he had served. The president of South Vietnam, Nguyen Van Thieu, was right not to have trusted Kissinger, who had kept him in the dark as to how the Paris Peace Talks between America and North Vietnam were going. This book also provides an insight into the way American presidents conduct themselves in world affairs – mainly by pandering to the American public during election years.
5 people found this helpful
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Matthew Crawford
5.0 out of 5 stars An engrossing read.
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2019
Verified Purchase
Brigham really delves deep into the history of Kissinger's policies regarding Vietnam. Truly an informative and enjoyable read.
One person found this helpful
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Phelps Gates
5.0 out of 5 stars Instructive and suggestive, especially for those of us alive at the time
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2018
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
Interesting and detailed account (with the benefit of hindslght) of Kissinger's attempts at negotiations to end the Vietnam war, from when Nixon tapped him to head the NSC in 1968 to the end of US involvement in early 1973. The book isn't the hatchet job that one might have expected. Kissinger had his flaws, and made his mistakes, especially in his desire to be a lone wolf and go it alone, keeping Laird and Rogers out of the loop and spoonfeeding Nixon with what Kissinger wanted him to hear. Could anyone have done better? The book implies that he delayed the end, and that what happened in 1973 could have happened much earlier when Nixon took office, but is that realistic? The book takes issue with Kissinger keeping Thieu out of the negotiations until the very end, but given Thieu's prickly ego, that was probably for the best. With forces pulling in all directions: Thieu, the Provisional Government, the hawks and doves in the US and the hawks and doves in the North Vietnam politburo, and the US Congress, it's a miracle that any progress at all got made in settling the war. The book is a helpful correction to self-serving autobiographical accounts, especially of Kissinger! For those of us who remember that era, it's fascinating to see what was really happening, thanks to now-unclassified documents and access to Vietnamese sources, and anyone with an interest in international negotiations will find lots to think about here. I wonder what's happening today....
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