There's none so blind as those who won't see

books:


	• None So Blind: A Personal Account of the Intelligence Failure in Vietnam George W. Allen Ivan R. Dee, Publisher, 2001 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The Real McCoy

This is altogether an extraordinary book by an extraordinary author. It is nothing less than the history of the evolution of U.S. policy towards Vietnam from the end of WWII to the conquest of South Vietnam by the Vietnamese Communists as observed by a professional intelligence analyst. The insights this book provides are not just on U.S. involvement in Vietnam (and by extension Laos and Cambodia), but on how U.S. National Security Policy toward South East Asia was formulated over a twenty year period. The comments about the value of a systematic process of formulating national security policy by integrating military, intelligence, and policy considerations are alone worth the price of the book.

If this were all the book did it would be a remarkable achievement. But George W. Allen does considerably more than this. Allen was from the beginning of his long career (some fifty years total) first and foremost a working intelligence analyst. As such he focused on Vietnam for some 18 years and developed in that time the increasingly rare quality of detailed knowledge of his target. Reading this book should provide any attentive reader with an excellent understanding of how the process of intelligence analysis actually works when executed by a real professional.

Although a personal account, Allen's book has an authentic feel to it. This reviewer found much of his account hauntingly familiar although we never met or worked together. Certainly his inability on several occasions to perform truly all source analysis due to ill-conceived compartmentalization is quite familiar. The same is true for his encounters with senior military leaders and civilian policy makers who considered any intelligence that did support their views almost a personal affront.

The Washington D.C. area is fairly awash with former `intelligence officers' claiming to be intelligence or counter-terrorism `experts' based on often rather dubious experiences in the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). It is refreshing then when a real intelligence professional is actually willing to share his thoughts with general public. Towards the end of this book, Allen, identifies himself as a "professional intelligence analyst" which he truly was. The U.S. could use a lot more like him.

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ONE OF THE VERY BEST BOOKS ON VIETNAM

This is an exceptional book, absolutely required reading for the history of the Vietnam War since 1950 but also for the foreign policy decisionmaking process in general. A classic! Reinforces those who thought the war a tragic waste of human lives and resources--who opposed the war.

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There's none so blind as those who won't see

'There's none so blind as those who won't see,' is a proverb that has proven itself over and over in life. And in the area of critical military intelligence it is a deadly proverb. It's an excellent choice of a title for this book on the intelligence failure in Vietnam.

The problem essentially comes when the estimates of the intelligence analysts conflict with the opinions of the leadership making the decisions. And the 'problem' in this case costs the lives of soldiers.

This book is basically a personal history of the author's travels, studies, and analysis of what was going on in Vietnam. He discusses the reports he made and how the powers in charge refused to believe the evidence he had collected through first hand observation during visits to Vietnam.

In his concluding chapter he says that President Roosevelt had the best understanding and recommendations for the future by supporting self-determination rather than assisting the French in re-establishing their empire. Oh what a difference that would have made.

Fascinating reading, especially in view of the current situation in Iraq.

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Amazing book on US involvement in Vietnam

I have read a number of books on the US involvement in Vietnam, some of them quite good. This is the best, the ONE book you should read if you're limited to one book. Other recommended books are _To Bear Any Burden: The Vietnam War and Its Aftermath in the Words of Forty-Seven Americans and Southeast Asians_ by Al Santoli, and _Our Vietnam/Nuoc Viet Ta: A History of the War 1954-1975_ by A. J. Langguth.
With first-hand knowledge -- not just reading from second-hand sources or going through one general's papers -- George Allen describes what happened in Vietnam from before Dien Bien Phu through the fall of Saigon. He has detailed information on the US side, and informed accounts of what the North Vietnamese strategy was. He introduces us to the personalities and events so important to the way Vietnam happened, all in a very engaging and readable style.
One of the most fascinating parts of the book is the listing of the many times the US took action without a full examination of the complete situation. Allen writes, "In foreign affairs and national security matters, there is no substitute for thorough, conscientious, and objective analysis of all the factors bearing on a decision, of alternative courses of action, and of a weighing of the consequences -- domestic as well as foreign -- of all the options available." This was rarely done in Vietnam. Among the hasty decisions the US made were to consider the northern Vietnamese as part of a monolithic Communist threat, to aid the French in maintaining their empire, to take over the French role in Vietnam, to give the green light to the Diem coup, to not realize the problems the lack of post-Diem leadership would create, to not encourage South Vietnam to develop an effective political message and a stable appealing government, to appear to favor Thieu as a candidate (by proclaiming neutrality), by failing to build an effective intelligence system in south Vietnam, by US in-country personnel repeatedly lying to their superiors by exaggerating US success and minimizing enemy strength (thus depriving themselves of the needed resources to meet the real threat), by the false "light at the end of the tunnel" PR campaign (setting the government up for an even bigger fall when Tet '68 came), by giving South Vietnam false assurances of our post-withdrawal support, etc. etc.
These just touch the surface. Allen explains how even minor decisions like insisting ARVN units included artillery support, and not replacing ONE incompetent colonel, possibly had very significant bad effects. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Vietnam, recent American history, or politics. It should be required reading for US policy-makers.
Hopefully someday we'll have someone the caliber of George Allen tell the true story of 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq.

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There Was No "Intelligence Failure"

An outrageously good book! George Allen offers us a look into the notoriously secretive world of intellence analysts. What is stunning is that just as I suspected, there was no "failure" on the part of the Intelligence Community in Vietnam. The CIA predicted,prior to US involvement, that we could not stop the spread of Communism in Vietnam. As far back as the Indochina War, intelligence analysts, like George Allen, had observed the French struggle against a Viet Minh insurgency that was determined, well-supplied, and well-led. The almost endless supply of weapons flowing in from China (and Russia?) meant that the Viet Mihn could outlast us. All this was communicated to the higher ups including "the best and the brightest". But Hubris (sound familiar?) got in the way. Good intelligence was ignored. Rosy, upbeat reports were printed by Washington to coverup a fiasco. Career obsessed generals placed too much confidence in technology and forgot about man's Darwinian capacity to adapt and thus survive. Reading this book was like reading a memoir on the Iraq War. Let's hope Iraq is not another Vietnam. However, I'm haunted by Hegel's famous line: "History shows us that people don't learn anything from History."

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reviews: page 1, 2

In this personal account of the intelligence failure in Vietnam, Mr. Allen reveals specifically how American leaders largely excluded intelligence from important policy deliberations until it was too late. Don't miss this book! --John Prados

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