cover image Telltale Hearts: The Origins and Impact of the Vietnam Antiwar Movement

Telltale Hearts: The Origins and Impact of the Vietnam Antiwar Movement

Adam Garfinkle. St. Martin's Press, $24.95 (370pp) ISBN 978-0-312-12520-2

Garfinkle (Israel and Jordan in the Shadow of War), director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Middle East Council, convincingly challenges the commonly held view that the Vietnam antiwar movement played a major role in winding down the conflict in Southeast Asia. While granting the movement some initial successes, he argues that the conduct of the youthful radicals who took over in 1966 repelled many potential antiwar members of the middle class. His startling but well-supported argument is that the movement ultimately had little effect on the conduct of the war and may actually have prolonged it. Garfinkle defines the agendas of such prominent protest groups as the Weathermen and Students for a Democratic Society and goes on to examine the underestimated postwar influence of the antiwar movement on American political and popular culture. This work is sure to stir controversy and will cause many readers to view the Vietnam antiwar movement in a new way. (Sept.)