The Pentagon Papers

The Secret History of the Vietnam War

By: Neil Sheehan, E. W. Kenworthy, Fox Butterfield, Hedrick Smith, James L. Greenfield - foreword

Narrated by: James Anderson Foster

"The WikiLeaks of its day" (Time) is as relevant as ever to present-day American politics.

Not fake news! The basis for the 2018 film The Post, The Pentagon Papers are a series of articles, documents, and studies examining the Johnson Administration's lies to the public about the extent of US involvement in the Vietnam War, bringing to light shocking conclusions about America's true role in the conflict.

Published by The New York Times in 1971, The Pentagon Papers riveted an already deeply divided nation with startling and disturbing revelations about the United States' involvement in Vietnam. The Washington Post called them "the most significant leaks of classified material in American history" and they remain relevant today as a reminder of the importance of a free press and First Amendment rights. The Pentagon Papers demonstrated that the government had systematically lied to both the public and to Congress.

This incomparable volume includes:

• The Truman and Eisenhower Years: 1945-1960 by Fox Butterfield
• Origins of the Insurgency in South Vietnam by Fox Butterfield
• The Kennedy Years: 1961-1963 by Hedrick Smith
• The Overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem: May-November, 1963 by Hedrick Smith
• The Covert War and Tonkin Gulf: February-August, 1964 by Neil Sheehan
• The Consensus to Bomb North Vietnam: August, 1964 - February, 1965 by Neil Sheehan
• The Launching of the Ground War: March-July, 1965 by Neil Sheehan
• The Buildup: July, 1965 - September, 1966 by Fox Butterfield
• Secretary McNamara's Disenchantment: October, 1966 - May, 1967 by Hedrick Smith
• The Tet Offensive and the Turnaround by E. W. Kenworthy
• Analysis and Comment
• Court Records
• Biographies of Key Figures

With a brand-new foreword by James L. Greenfield, this edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning story is sure to provoke discussion about free press and government deception, and shed some light on issues in the past and the present so that we can better understand and improve the future.

©2018 Neil Sheehan, E. W. Kenworthy, Fox Butterfield, Hedrick Smith (P)2018 Brilliance Audio, Inc., all rights reserved

couldn't pay attention

i really tried to listen but the narrators voice is so vanilla and business like that I end up zoning out and miss paragraphs at a time.

Why Vietnam?

This book answers in detail why we were in Vietnam, how we got in and eventually reasons we lost Vietnam. The read was interesting yet exhausted. I have a better understanding of the subject.

Not appropriate for audio.

Narration: stilted, boring, burdensome---reason enough to avoid listening.

Content: important for archives but unless you are insured to robotic narration, skip this one.

K Stephens review of the Pentagon papers audiobook

I recommend a shorter version of the Supreme Court back and forth and get to the point of the final decision. I found that very distracting and somewhat irrelevant. As a Vietnam veteran this was a real iopener on the history of the war. I would also recommend citing other sources to read about what happened through to 1975 for a complete reference.

great book ! The inside story of VN war

quite long reading but really interesting: the debate behind the key decisions in VN. Narrator great as well

Good Historic Document, Poor Delivery

Please, please, please make sure narrators and familiar with the material they narrate. This narrator’s pronunciation is atrocious which significantly distracts from the material. If the historical content wasn’t so significant I would have stopped listening. It was painful!

a critical read

important to read for anyone wanting to understand modem American politics and the basics of counterinsurgency

Not what I expected

Having listened to over 12 hours of this title, I decided it really was not something I wanted to complete and so I returned it.

The title is literal: it really is the narrator reading out a bunch of messages about the Vietnam War in between analyses summarising what has occurred in a particular period. It got dull fast, and while the narrator does a professional job of trying to make sense of what was originally published in the New York Times - including various addenda and edits to the documents - the task seems overwhelming. I will seek out a written history of the war rather than the contemporaneous tedious US government communications.

Awful as an audiobook

This may be the worst suited book for an audio version ever. I gave up after four chapters. There is nothing enjoyable about someone reading a list of dates and events, let alone multiple government documents word for word. Through the first four chapters there was almost no narrative, except in the foreword. I am considering purchasing this book in hard copy as I like both documentary evidence and this subject matter, but this book in this format was as hellacious as a firefight in a Vietnamese monsoon.