Bright Shining Lie Essay Research Paper A

Bright Shining Lie Essay, Research Paper

A Bright Lie Shining: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam

Neil Sheehan has used this novel to tell the story of the Vietnam conflict utilizing the perspective of one of its most respected characters. This is the story of John P. Vann who first came to Vietnam as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army and later returned as a civilian official. It is the story of his life from the beginning to the end. It is also Vietnam’s story; it offers clear reasons for the conflict, and why it was such a disaster for all those involved.

Vann arrived in Vietnam on March 23, 1962 as part of the new U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam. He became a chief advisor to an ARVN infantry division. His duty was to advise his Vietnamese counter part, but he officially had no power over any ARVN troops. It was this situation that became a major point of conflict between him and those who were running the war.

During his first stay in Vietnam, Vann came to the conclusion that the U.S. could not win the war the way it was being fought. He decided to try and change the way things were. He gathered data and submitted detailed reports to those in charge of the actual conditions and state of the war. However, those above him either ignored the reports or destroyed them, because they could not believe that anyone could stand up to the might of the U.S. Reports that were sent to Washington were often dressed up to make things appear better than they were. No deliberated plan to misinform the government was ever uncovered, the generals simply believed that eventually things would go their way and they didn’t want to alarm anyone. Vann learned of this practice and decided to start using the press to get his ideas out, in hopes that someone would listen and fix the problems. People listened, but high-ranking officials repeated denied his claims and informed the President that he had nothing to worry about everything was going fine.

Vann left Vietnam and retired because there was little chance of advancement for him. Almost two years after he left Vietnam he once again returned, but in a civilian role. He was to help with the pacification programs that were developed to reduce the Viet Cong’s presence in South Vietnam. Once again the problems with the way the U.S. was fighting became clear to him. This time he was in a little bit better of a position to change things. He had spent his years away from Vietnam developing his connections and reputation. However no real action was taken until 1968, after the Tet Offensive showed just how ineffective the war of attrition was. When Nixion took office he was looking for new ideas. John’s ideas were looked at, and partially adopted. He called for the U.S. to take complete control of South Vietnam in order to make ARVN troops more effective. This idea was doomed to fail however, because most people viewed that step as to close to colonialism. So once again his ideas were ignored. John Vann died on June 6, 1972 in a helicopter crash while in Vietnam.

This was just a general overview on how the book addresses Vann’s role in Vietnam. Neil Sheehan was a reporter during the war, and like many other people came to believe Vann was the only person with his head screwed on straight. The reporters who knew him often described him as their bible because of his understanding of the situation. This above all is a work of history, it covers Vann’s childhood, the Korean War, World War II, and even a little bit of World War I. Sheehan uses the information from all these sources to clearly spell out why things occurred and the reasons why people behaved the way they did. The sheer volume of information contained in this novel is astonishing. I found it difficult to absorb and analyze all of the information. So in the sections to come, I plan to address specific parts of this novel and relate them to what we have discussed in class so far.

The title A Bright Shining Lie describes Vietnam to the letter. American generals and advisors were lying to the president and the public about how the war was going. General Westmoreland assured President Johnson that his war of attrition was severely hurting the Viet Minh and their ability to wage war. He consistently ignored or failed to report increasing Viet Cong activity in the Siagon area, and boasted that he would have the war won within a year. The Tet offensive proved him to be wrong. Another major lie of the war was the effectiveness of the AVRN troops. Vann many times reported on how the practice of buying one’s promotion within ARVN produced officers that were not competent. Added with the fact that they were ordered to keep casualties down; they often avoided engagements with the Viet Cong, which rendered them useless. However, they did start to conduct fake raids and bombardments, with fictitious body counts to make it appear as if they were doing something. This was pointed out to the generals in charge, but instead of taking action they added these fake engagements to their statistics, in order to bolster their claim that they were winning the war.

The constant lying reminded me of what Tim O’brien said about war stories in The Things They Carried. He said that there were no war stories that they were all just stories. As you can see there were a lot of war stories being told during Vietnam. Vann himself was a lie, which raises serious