Book Review: The American war in Afghanistan: A history
| Published date | 01 December 2021 |
| Date | 01 December 2021 |
| Author | Aaron Ettinger |
| DOI | 10.1177/00207020211066332 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Kennedy, not least in Indochina, that old-style colonialism was likely unsustainable. In
Indochina, he speculated that the nationalist leader Ngo Dinh Diem might be the man of
the future. He urged the French to reform their colonial administration, but stopped
short of urging an American ultimatum.
Logevall concludes with an excitingdepiction of the 1956 Democratic convention, at
which presidential standard-bearer Adlai Stevenson, hoping to energize his campaign,
allowed the convention to choose his running-mate. Kennedy ran, and came second,
delivering a gracious concession speech that exposed him to a national audience. The
book closes with Kennedy’s subsequent decision to seek the presidency in 1960.
The brisk, well-paced narrative leaves one eager for volume two. The fundamental
question, of course, is how well Logevall explains Kennedy, his thoughts and actions.
Much of the mystery remains, but that is perhaps inevitable with a man who com-
partmentalized his relationships so thoroughly. Still, Logevall brings us closer to a full
understanding than we have come to before. His Kennedy, plagued by ill health, is
aware of the fleeting nature of all things, including his own life. Perhaps as a result, he
approaches things with a pragmatist’s detachment, reluctant to commit himself to any
cause and assessing each situation from every possible angle, a quality that served him
well in the White House. This may be inseparable from his coldly instrumental view of
human relationships: Logevall confirms that Kennedy treated many, notably but not
exclusively the women in his life, as disposable. This raises a further question which
Logevall does not answer, a question as old as Machiavelli if not Thucydides, that of
whether one can be an effective leader without a sliver of ice in one’s heart.
Carter Malkasian.
The American War in Afghanistan: A History.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. 561 pp. $34.95 (cloth)
ISBN: 978-0-19755-077-9
Reviewed by: Aaron Ettinger(aaron.ettinger@carleton.ca), Carleton University, Ottawa, ON,
Canada
While in the middle of reading Carter Malkasian’s monumental The American War in
Afghanistan: A History, my phone dinged. It was a text message from a friend asking,
“How is it possible that the Taliban forces are so superior to the Afghan forces?”His
question was prompted by news of Taliban battlefield successes in Afghanistan during
the summer of 2021, months before the scheduled US withdrawal from the country. My
friend’s question—asked nearly two decades after the 9/11 attacks—contains multi-
tudes. And within those multitudes are answers to why the United States continued to
fight a twenty-year war that would ultimately fail.
The book is very much about the American war inside Afghanistan. Unlike George
C. Herring’s 1979 history of the Vietnam War, now obsoletely titled America’s Longest
608 International Journal 76(4)
To continue reading
Request your trial