ABSTRACT

More than thirty years later, the Vietnam War still stands as one of the most controversial events in the history of the United States, and historians have so far failed to come up with a definitive narrative of the wartime experience. With competing viewpoints already in play, Mark Moyar’s recent revisionist approach in Triumph Forsaken has created heated debate over who "owns" the history of America’s war in Vietnam.

Triumph Revisited: Historians Battle for the Vietnam War collects critiques of Triumph Forsaken from both sides of this debate, written by an array of Vietnam scholars, cataloguing arguments about how the war should be remembered, how history may be reconstructed, and by whom. A lively introduction and conclusion by editors Andrew Wiest and Michael Doidge provide context and balance to the essays, as well as Moyar’s responses, giving students and scholars of the Vietnam era a glimpse into how history is constructed and reconstructed.

chapter |13 pages

Introduction

Historians and the Vietnam War

part Section I|58 pages

The Vietnam War in an Asian Perspective

part Section II|96 pages

Debating Triumph Forsaken as History

chapter Chapter 6|4 pages

Triumph Impossible

chapter Chapter 7|11 pages

Fighting Stories

chapter Chapter 8|12 pages

Imperial Revanchism

Attempting to Recover a Post-war “Noble Cause”

chapter Chapter 10|11 pages

Governing the Vietnamese “Masses”

The United States, Ngo Dinh Diem, and the Notion of Triumph Forsaken

chapter Chapter 12|29 pages

Section II Response

part Section III|55 pages

Orthodoxy and Revisionism

chapter Chapter 13|4 pages

Orthodoxy and Revisionism

The Domino Theory as a Case Study

chapter Chapter 14|11 pages

Caricature for Caricature?

The Vietnamese Context in Triumph Forsaken

chapter Chapter 15|5 pages

Familiar Territory

Mark Moyar's Call to Revisionism and the Counterfactual

chapter Chapter 16|8 pages

Throwing Down the Gauntlet

Triumph Forsaken and the Revisionist Challenge

chapter Chapter 18|16 pages

Section III Response