Neal F. Thompson’s Reckoning: Vietnam and America’s Cold War Experience, 1945-1991 (Charlevoix Books; print $22.95, Kindle $9.99) offers readers an original and insightful account of America’s Cold War experience by exposing and demolishing the propaganda surrounding the conventional wisdom about the events of the Cold War era.

Cold War orthodoxy provides Americans with every reason to be proud of their “long twilight struggle” against Communism.

It begins, of course, with Harry Truman, his heroic resistance to Soviet aggression in Europe, his defense of democracy in Korea and his opposition to the disastrous influence of McCarthyism, a malevolent force injected into “the bloodstream of the society” by the right in 1948.

Moving on, that orthodoxy teaches us of John Kennedy’s doomed if honorable attempts to save an unsustainable ally in Southeast Asia, Lyndon Johnson’s disastrous attempt to follow Kennedy’s path and the courage and insight of those who saw the folly before them and led America out of this singularly unjust, ill-advised campaign.

The orthodox narrative ends with the West’s final, brilliantly engineered triumph over Soviet Communism, which represents a splendid, bi-partisan accomplishment in which all Americans, left and right can take pride.

This is all very nice if only it were true.

Starting with the “Communist movement of the 1930s” and all that came with it, Reckoning chronicles the Soviets’ massive North American espionage network, Truman’s feckless response, his relentless obstruction of Congressional attempts to investigate these matters and his ruthless purge of leftists from the federal civil service, all of which combined to poison political discourse in this country for decades.

Reckoning examines Truman’s senseless campaign in Korea in all its folly and brutality—a campaign that led the United States directly into Southeast Asia—which, orthodoxy aside, was a war winnable within a reasonable definition of victory but fought ineffectively and lost by politicians like John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson.

Finally, Reckoning examines the campaign in Southeast Asia in full Cold War context, focusing on history rather than ideology and applying a single, reasonably objective set of standards to judge the conduct of enemies, allies and Americans from 1939 to the fall of the Soviet Union, demonstrating thereby that there is no intellectually honest way to condemn this country’s war in Southeast Asia that does not serve to delegitimize the Truman Doctrine in its entirety.

Among the many important issues Thompson addresses includes:

—How and why are political system became (and still is) grossly dysfunctional

—How America’s political class deceived itself, its citizens, and its allies and enemies alike

—Why America’s effort is foundering in Afghanistan due to the incompetence and dishonesty of our politicians

—Why the conventional Cold War historical narrative has no basis in fact, reason or even common sense.

—Why America may ultimately bankrupt itself just as the Soviets bankrupted themselves chasing their Marxist chimera

—Why American leadership is no longer trusted or even desired by the today’s international community.

—Why neither progressive international interventionism nor neo-isolationism are viable answers to today’s global problems.

—Why the much-cherished notion that laissez-faire capitalism and constitutional liberalism go hand-in-hand is just factually and historically wrong.

Readers of all political persuasions will be surprised and even shocked by much of what they read in Reckoning as Thompson skillfully demolishes the false narratives and propaganda to which Americans have come to accept as the truth. Yet the paradigm shift embodied in these pages offers all of us an opportunity to rethink and address anew the quagmires, dilemmas, and catastrophes that have wrecked American foreign policy.

About the Author
Neal Thompson entered the United States Army as a warrant office candidate in August 1970. He completed flight school at Ft. Rucker, Alabama in November 1971 and served a one-year tour of duty in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot, logging in nearly 600 hours combat time. His awards include the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart.

He subsequently earned a B.A. in history with high honors and a law degree cum laude from Northwestern University Law School. After ten years of private practice, he became a prosecutor in DuPage County, Illinois, and was appointed Supervisor of the Financial Crimes and Public Integrity. He continues to practice law in Chicago.

Contact Info

Book reviewers / bloggers, journalists, editors, and other media professionals wanting to review Reckoning: Vietnam and America’s Cold War Experience, 1945-1991 or interview Neal F. Thompson should contact GK Zachary at 845-493-0468 or email him at gilbert@probookmarketing.com