Fire in the Lake

The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam

By: Frances FitzGerald

Narrated by: Jeff Bottoms

Frances FitzGerald's landmark history of Vietnam and the Vietnam War, "A compassionate and penetrating account of the collision of two societies that remain untranslatable to one another." (New York Times Book Review)

This magisterial work, based on Frances FitzGerald's many years of research and travels, takes us inside the history of Vietnam--the traditional, ancestor-worshiping villages, the conflicts between Communists and anti-Communists, Catholics and Buddhists, generals and monks, the disruption created by French colonialism, and America's ill-fated intervention--and reveals the country as seen through Vietnamese eyes.

Originally published in 1972, FIRE IN THE LAKE was the first history of Vietnam written by an American, and subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the National Book Award. With a clarity and insight unrivaled by any author before it or since, Frances FitzGerald illustrates how America utterly and tragically misinterpreted the realities of Vietnam.

In the end, the Vietnamese became Vietnamese again!!!

The book was required reading for my college military history class. Now, I know why!

Dated which is its value

Writing history as it is unfolding is a valuable perspective on this turbulent period. It is part of the history of the war that it is attempting to understand. It has held up well over the ensuing 50 years.

Comprehensive, Exceptional, Indispensable

This is a comprehensive historical, political, social, and strategic review. I’ve read a fair bit about the war and this is the best, by far. It is brilliant and damning. It is almost incredible that it was written so early, published in 1972.

Excellent Book

I have been reading several books about the Vietnam War ad this tome is definitely one of the best. Its pages are filled with cultural details about Vietnam which allows its readers develop an understanding of cultural clash between the Vietnamese and the West, the French and the Americans. Fire in the Lake is a must read for scholars studying the Vietnam War.

American Hubris; Vietnamese Misery

Anyone studying the Vietnamese War needs to read ‘Fire in the Lake’ to get the cultural and social trauma the Vietnamese endured while American white men desperately tried to keep the domino upright.
I am a Vietnam veteran. Hubris and misery go hand in hand.