Vietnam Shadows

the long version

In Vietnam Shadows, former war correspondent Arnold Isaacs turns his reportorial eye to the conflict since Vietnam, covering the skirmishes and firefights of a cultural battle - some would say stalemate - that refuses to end. Isaacs takes on the popular myths and misconceptions about Vietnam - among them the mistaken belief that the U.S. military lacked clear goals. He exposes the myth of the MIAs - a myth sustained not only by grieving relatives but also by professional con men of breathtaking cynicism - and shows how the many false MIA stories may nonetheless reveal a deeper truth: "We lost something in Vietnam and we want it back.". Isaacs talks to the veterans unable to forget the war no one wanted to talk about. He explores the class divisions deepened by a conflict in which the privileged avoided service that an earlier generation had embraced as a duty. And he shows how the "Vietnam Syndrome" continues to affect nearly every major U.S. foreign policy decision, from the Persion Gulf to Somalia, Bosnia, and Haiti.