America: The Last Best Hope, Volume 2: From a World at War to the Triumph of Freedom Book

Volume Two of Bennett's history survey takes us from the turn of the century through Reagan's second term. Bennett is a patriot, so you Howard Zinn fans will hate this book - if you like American you may find this refreshing. Bennett presents our history warts and all, but avoids the continual bashing that some textbooks focus. Probably the best example of this patriotic but balanced history is the coverage of the Vietnam War. Yes, we widened the war when we made incursions into Cambodia, but most texts ignore that the Cambodians wanted us there since the Viet Cong were invading their country. Further the bombings were successful and helped lead to the Paris peace accords. Bennett discusses our shameful behavior after we left Vietnam. We agreed to lend air support in order to defend the South Vietnamese. When the North realized that we were cutting and running, the south fell within two years, the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia and 2 million died; all this because we wouldn't do a little high altitude bombing. Most texts cover this incident in just the opposite fashion -- it was bad to widen the war, but it was honorable and right that we abandoned the South Vietnamese and Cambodians.