SOURCE: Gauthier, David P. Review of Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal, by Howard Zinn. Canadian Forum 47 (November 1967): 182-84.

In the following review, Gauthier contends that Zinn makes a well-argued case for immediate withdrawal from Vietnam, a position many critics of the war privately support.

The most considerable merit of this critique of American involvement in Vietnam is that it presents a clearly argued case for what most critics of the Vietnamese war believe but will not say—that America should withdraw now. Howard Zinn, a Professor of Government at Boston University, rejects the so-called realism of those who muffle their criticism, calling for de-escalation, negotiation, or other half-way measures. Against them he quotes Wendell Phillips—“We must ask for the whole loaf, to get the half of it” (p. 119). The argument that withdrawal is not politically feasible rests on a misunderstanding of the decision-making process. What is possible...