"personal view of ""fire in the lake"" is that it is a dated political tract written at a time (1972?) before many sources were available to write any kind of history. Especially any history about events in North Vietnam during the 1950s. The author of the book further makes all kinds of statements about Vietnamese that with distance sound condiscending or even worse. When the book starts talking about the Vietnamese mind, its almost embarrasing to read it. Yes, it won awards when it was published. But its a very flawed book. For example, the basis of your claim that only 800 people died in the anti-landlord campaign is that her North Vietnamese/NLF friends told the author so. By contrast, Stanley Karnow writing in 1983, was writing in a less hysterical political climate and had access to more material than was available in 1972.

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