SOURCE: "Vietnam Legacy," in The New Republic, Vol. 156, No. 6, February 11, 1967, pp. 25-8.

In the following excerpt, Schoenbrun examines The Bitter Heritage, focusing on Schlesinger's controversial interpretation of the escalation of the Vietnam War.

The Bitter Heritage is a bitter-sweet essay that will please few but stir all who read it. Despite some serious flaws, it is by far the best short history and analysis of the war in Vietnam available in book form. It is not, strictly speaking, a book. It totals less than 40,000 words, most of them previously published in three magazine articles. One whole chapter, "On the inscrutability of history," first published in Encounter, is a long, brilliant discursion with minimal relevance to the subject….

Its sweetness is found in its dedication and its last chapter. It is dedicated "for those fighting in Vietnam." (The hawks are by no means the only patriots, the only supporters...