num_pages: 179
description: In December 1965 Ward Just went to Vietnam as a correspondent for the Washington Post. In his eighteen months there he would earn a citation from the Overseas Press Club and a Combat Infantryman's Badge—and discover a time, place, and subject that would fuel many decades of writing and many acclaimed, best-selling novels.The experience also inspired To What End, his very first book: a vivid, personal evocation of the atmosphere, the politics, and the moral dilemmas of Vietnam at the height of American involvement. Neither a polemic nor an apologia, it was the very first book on Vietnam to pose the question: What are we doing here? It offers a morally ambiguous view of the war that was radical in its day and still bears the string of truth. "The war hypnotized," Ward Just writes, "and those whose business it was to observe it came to regard it as a drama whose characters and plot were only dimly perceived."In a profoundly moving foreword to this new edition, Just reflects on the legacy of Vietnam, on himself as a young man, and on how his views have and haven't changed since he wrote this sharply observed, sad, beautiful, and still disturbing book.
language: English
title: To What End: Report From Vietnam
titlecomplete: To What End: Report From Vietnam
genres: History, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 48
publisher: PublicAffairs