It is clearly my mistake not to have considered the synopsis more carefully, but I was expecting this book to focus more on the why’s and less on the who’s. The (geo)political processes are completely drowned by the torrent of names and brief personal accounts, leaving my knowledge forever patchy in regard to why certain battles are fought or particular decisions made. For example, there is so much talk about Ngo Dinh Diem’s incompetence but so little detail on how it actually manifested. The book feels like a collection of micro-biographies more than anything else. I just wish the systemic processes received more attention. If anyone ever reads this book and finds my post, please recommend me an alternative read, so I could actually learn why the Vietnam tragedy transpired the way it did.