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Books > History > American history > From 1900
At 7:53 a.m., December 7, 1941, America's national consciousness and confidence were rocked as the first wave of Japanese warplanes took aim at the U.S. Naval fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor. As intense and absorbing as a suspense novel, At Dawn We Slept is the unparalleled and exhaustive account of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. It is widely regarded as the definitive assessment of the events surrounding one of the most daring and brilliant naval operations of all time. Through extensive research and interviews with American and Japanese leaders, Gordon W. Prange has written a remarkable historical account of the assault that-sixty years later-America cannot forget.
A "better war." Over the last two decades, this term has become
synonymous with US strategy during the Vietnam War's final years.
The narrative is enticingly simple, appealing to many audiences.
After the disastrous results of the 1968 Tet offensive, in which
Hanoi's forces demonstrated the failures of American strategy,
popular history tells of a new American military commander who
emerged in South Vietnam and with inspired leadership and a new
approach turned around a long stalemated conflict. In fact, so
successful was General Creighton Abrams in commanding US forces
that, according to the "better war" myth, the United States had
actually achieved victory by mid-1970. A new general with a new
strategy had delivered, only to see his victory abandoned by
weak-kneed politicians in Washington, DC who turned their backs on
the US armed forces and their South Vietnamese allies. In a bold
new interpretation of America's final years in Vietnam, acclaimed
historian Gregory A. Daddis disproves these longstanding myths.
Withdrawal is a groundbreaking reassessment that tells a far
different story of the Vietnam War. Daddis convincingly argues that
the entire US effort in South Vietnam was incapable of reversing
the downward trends of a complicated Vietnamese conflict that by
1968 had turned into a political-military stalemate. Despite a new
articulation of strategy, Abrams's approach could not materially
alter a war no longer vital to US national security or global
dominance. Once the Nixon White House made the political decision
to withdraw from Southeast Asia, Abrams's military strategy was
unable to change either the course or outcome of a decades' long
Vietnamese civil war. In a riveting sequel to his celebrated
Westmoreland's War, Daddis demonstrates he is one of the nation's
leading scholars on the Vietnam War. Withdrawal will be a standard
work for years to come.
In the annals of Vietnam War history, no figure has been more
controversial than Ngo Dinh Diem. During the 1950s, U.S. leaders
hailed Diem as "the miracle man of Southeast Asia" and funneled
huge amounts of aid to his South Vietnamese government. But in 1963
Diem was ousted and assassinated in a coup endorsed by President
John F. Kennedy. Diem's alliance with Washington has long been seen
as a Cold War relationship gone bad, undone either by American
arrogance or by Diem's stubbornness. In Misalliance, Edward Miller
provides a convincing new explanation for Diem's downfall and the
larger tragedy of South Vietnam. For Diem and U.S. leaders, Miller
argues, the alliance was more than just a joint effort to contain
communism. It was also a means for each side to pursue its plans
for nation building in South Vietnam. Miller's definitive portrait
of Diem-based on extensive research in Vietnamese, French, and
American archives-demonstrates that the South Vietnamese leader was
neither Washington's pawn nor a tradition-bound mandarin. Rather,
he was a shrewd and ruthless operator with his own vision for
Vietnam's modernization. In 1963, allied clashes over development
and reform, combined with rising internal resistance to Diem's
nation building programs, fractured the alliance and changed the
course of the Vietnam War. In depicting the rise and fall of the
U.S.-Diem partnership, Misalliance shows how America's fate in
Vietnam was written not only on the battlefield but also in
Washington's dealings with its Vietnamese allies.
On the early morning of March 16, 1968, American soldiers from
three platoons of Charlie Company (1st Battalion, 20th Infantry
Regiment, 11th Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division), entered a group of
hamlets located in the Son Tinh district of South Vietnam, located
near the Demilitarized Zone and known as "Pinkville" because of the
high level of Vietcong infiltration. The soldiers, many still
teenagers who had been in the country for three months, were on a
"search and destroy" mission. The Tet Offensive had occurred only
weeks earlier and in the same area and had made them jittery; so
had mounting losses from booby traps and a seemingly invisible
enemy. Three hours after the GIs entered the hamlets, more than
five hundred unarmed villagers lay dead, killed in cold blood. The
atrocity took its name from one of the hamlets, known by the
Americans as My Lai 4. Military authorities attempted to suppress
the news of My Lai, until some who had been there, in particular a
helicopter pilot named Hugh Thompson and a door gunner named
Lawrence Colburn, spoke up about what they had seen. The official
line was that the villagers had been killed by artillery and
gunship fire rather than by small arms. That line soon began to
fray. Lieutenant William Calley, one of the platoon leaders,
admitted to shooting the villagers but insisted that he had acted
upon orders. An expose of the massacre and cover-up by journalist
Seymour Hersh, followed by graphic photographs, incited
international outrage, and Congressional and U.S. Army inquiries
began. Calley and nearly thirty other officers were charged with
war crimes, though Calley alone was convicted and would serve three
and a half years under house arrest before being paroled in 1974.
My Lai polarized American sentiment. Many saw Calley as a
scapegoat, the victim of a doomed strategy in an unwinnable war.
Others saw a war criminal. President Nixon was poised to offer a
presidential pardon. The atrocity intensified opposition to the
war, devastating any pretense of American moral superiority. Its
effect on military morale and policy was profound and enduring. The
Army implemented reforms and began enforcing adherence to the Hague
and Geneva conventions. Before launching an offensive during Desert
Storm in 1991, one general warned his brigade commanders, "No My
Lais in this division-do you hear me?" Compelling, comprehensive,
and haunting, based on both exhaustive archival research and
extensive interviews, Howard Jones's My Lai will stand as the
definitive book on one of the most devastating events in American
military history.
Issues of the war that have provoked public controversy and legal
debate over the last two years--the Cambodian invasion of May-June
1970, the disclosure in November 1969 of the My Lai massacre, and
the question of war crimes--are the focus of Volume 3. As in the
previous volumes, the Civil War Panel of the American Society of
International Law has endeavored to select the most significant
legal writing on the subject and to provide, to the extent
possible, a balanced presentation of opposing points of view. Parts
I and II deal directly with the Cambodian, My Lai, and war crimes
debates. Related questions are treated in the rest of the volume:
constitutional debate on the war; the distribution of functions
among coordinate branches of the government; the legal status of
the insurgent regime in the struggle for control of South Vietnam;
prospects for settlement without a clear-cut victory; and Vietnam's
role in general world order. The articles reflect the views of some
forty contributors: among them, Jean Lacouture, Henry Kissinger,
John Norton Moore, Quincy Wright, William H. Rhenquist, and Richard
A. Falk. Originally published in 1972. The Princeton Legacy Library
uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available
previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of
Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original
texts of these important books while presenting them in durable
paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy
Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage
found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University
Press since its founding in 1905.
A Guardian Best Book of the Year "A gripping study of white
power...Explosive." -New York Times "Helps explain how we got to
today's alt-right." -Terry Gross, Fresh Air The white power
movement in America wants a revolution. Returning to a country
ripped apart by a war they felt they were not allowed to win, a
small group of Vietnam veterans and disgruntled civilians who
shared their virulent anti-communism and potent sense of betrayal
concluded that waging war on their own country was justified. The
command structure of their covert movement gave women a prominent
place. They operated with discipline, made tragic headlines in
Waco, Ruby Ridge, and Oklahoma City, and are resurgent under
President Trump. Based on a decade of deep immersion in previously
classified FBI files and on extensive interviews, Bring the War
Home tells the story of American paramilitarism and the birth of
the alt-right. "A much-needed and troubling revelation... The power
of Belew's book comes, in part, from the fact that it reveals a
story about white-racist violence that we should all already know."
-The Nation "Fascinating... Shows how hatred of the federal
government, fears of communism, and racism all combined in
white-power ideology and explains why our responses to the movement
have long been woefully inadequate." -Slate "Superbly
comprehensive...supplants all journalistic accounts of America's
resurgent white supremacism." -Pankaj Mishra, The Guardian
"Fulbright was erudite and eloquent in all the books he wrote, but
this one is his masterpiece. Within its pages lie his now historic
remonstrations against a great nation's overreach, his powerful
argument for dissent, and his thoughtful propositions for a new way
forward . . . lessons and cautions that resonate just as strongly
today." - From the foreword by Bill Clinton J. William Fulbright
(1905-1995), a Rhodes scholar and lawyer, began his long career in
public service when he was elected to serve Arkansas's Third
District in Congress in 1942. He quickly became a prominent member
of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where he introduced the
Fulbright Resolution calling for participation in an organization
that became the United Nations. Elected to the Senate in 1944, he
promoted the passage of legislation establishing the Fulbright
exchange program, and he served as chairman of the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee from 1959 to 1974, longer than any senator in
American history. Fulbright drew on his extensive experience in
international relations to write The Arrogance of Power, a sweeping
critique of American foreign policy, in particular the
justification for the Vietnam War, Congress's failure to set limits
on it, and the impulses that gave rise to it. The book-with its
solid underpinning the idea that "the most valuable public servant,
like the true patriot, is one who gives a higher loyalty to his
country's ideals than to its current policy"-was published in 1966
and sold 400,000 copies. The New York Times called it "an
invaluable antidote to the official rhetoric of government."
Enhanced by a new forward by President Bill Clinton, this eloquent
treatise will resonate with today's readers pondering, as Francis
O. Wilcox wrote in the original preface, the peril of nations whose
leaders lack ""the wisdom and the good judgment to use their power
wisely and well.
A poignant, angry, articulate book Newsweek 'Mr Fall's book is a
dramatic treatment of a historic event graphic impact New York
Times Originally published in 1961, before the United States
escalated its involvement in South Vietnam, Street Without Joy
offered a clear warning about what American forces would face in
the jungles of Southeast Asia; a costly and protracted
revolutionary war fought without fronts against a mobile enemy. In
harrowing detail, Fall describes the brutality and frustrations of
the Indochina War, the savage eight-year conflict, ending in 1954
after the fall of Dien Bien Phu, in which French forces suffered a
staggering defeat at the hands of Communist-led Vietnamese
nationalists. Street Without Joy was required reading for
policymakers in Washington and GIs in the field and is now
considered a classic.
Finalist for the 1971 National Book Award
In early 1968, Communist forces in Vietnam launched a surprise
offensive that targeted nearly every city, town, and major military
base throughout South Vietnam. For several hours, the U.S. embassy
in Saigon itself came under siege by Viet Cong soldiers.
Militarily, the offensive was a failure, as the North Vietnamese
Army and its guerrilla allies in the south suffered devastating
losses. Politically, however, it proved to be a crucial turning
point in America's involvement in Southeast Asia and public opinion
of the war. In this classic work of military history and war
reportage--long considered the definitive history of Tet and its
aftermath--Don Oberdorfer moves back and forth between the war and
the home front to document the lasting importance of this military
action. Based on his own observations as a correspondent for the
"Washington Post" and interviews with hundreds of people who were
caught up in the struggle, "Tet " remains an essential contribution
to our understanding of the Vietnam War.
Efforts to understand the impact of the Vietnam War on America
began soon after it ended, and they continue to the present day. In
"After Vietnam" four distinguished scholars focus on different
elements of the war's legacy, while one of the major architects of
the conflict, former defense secretary Robert S. McNamara,
contributes a final chapter pondering foreign policy issues of the
twenty-first century.
In the book's opening chapter, Charles E. Neu explains how the
Vietnam War changed Americans' sense of themselves: challenging
widely-held national myths, the war brought frustration,
disillusionment, and a weakening of Americans' sense of their past
and vision for the future. Brian Balogh argues that Vietnam became
such a powerful metaphor for turmoil and decline that it obscured
other forces that brought about fundamental changes in government
and society. George C. Herring examines the postwar American
military, which became nearly obsessed with preventing "another
Vietnam." Robert K. Brigham explores the effects of the war on the
Vietnamese, as aging revolutionary leaders relied on appeals to
"revolutionary heroism" to justify the communist party's monopoly
on political power. Finally, Robert S. McNamara, aware of the
magnitude of his errors and burdened by the war's destructiveness,
draws lessons from his experience with the aim of preventing wars
in the future.
This concluding volume of The Vietnam War and International Law
focuses on the last stages of America's combat role in Indochina.
The articles in the first section deal with general aspects of the
relationship of international law to the Indochina War. Sections II
and III are concerned with the adequacy of the laws of war under
modern conditions of combat, and with related questions of
individual responsibility for the violation of such laws. Section
IV deals with some of the procedural issues related to the
negotiated settlement of the war. The materials in Section V seek
to reappraise the relationship between the constitutional structure
of the United States and the way in which the war was conducted,
while the final section presents the major documents pertaining to
the end of American combat involvement in Indochina. A supplement
takes account of the surrender of South Vietnam in spring 1975.
Contributors to the volume--lawyers, scholars, and government
officials--include Dean Rusk, Eugene V. Rostow, Richard A. Falk,
John Norton Moore, and Richard Wasserstrom. Originally published in
1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books
from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press.
These editions preserve the original texts of these important books
while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions.
The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase
access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of
books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in
1905.
Issues of the war that have provoked public controversy and legal
debate over the last two years--the Cambodian invasion of May-June
1970, the disclosure in November 1969 of the My Lai massacre, and
the question of war crimes--are the focus of Volume 3. As in the
previous volumes, the Civil War Panel of the American Society of
International Law has endeavored to select the most significant
legal writing on the subject and to provide, to the extent
possible, a balanced presentation of opposing points of view. Parts
I and II deal directly with the Cambodian, My Lai, and war crimes
debates. Related questions are treated in the rest of the volume:
constitutional debate on the war; the distribution of functions
among coordinate branches of the government; the legal status of
the insurgent regime in the struggle for control of South Vietnam;
prospects for settlement without a clear-cut victory; and Vietnam's
role in general world order. The articles reflect the views of some
forty contributors: among them, Jean Lacouture, Henry Kissinger,
John Norton Moore, Quincy Wright, William H. Rhenquist, and Richard
A. Falk. Originally published in 1972. The Princeton Legacy Library
uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available
previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of
Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original
texts of these important books while presenting them in durable
paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy
Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage
found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University
Press since its founding in 1905.
This concluding volume of The Vietnam War and International Law
focuses on the last stages of America's combat role in Indochina.
The articles in the first section deal with general aspects of the
relationship of international law to the Indochina War. Sections II
and III are concerned with the adequacy of the laws of war under
modern conditions of combat, and with related questions of
individual responsibility for the violation of such laws. Section
IV deals with some of the procedural issues related to the
negotiated settlement of the war. The materials in Section V seek
to reappraise the relationship between the constitutional structure
of the United States and the way in which the war was conducted,
while the final section presents the major documents pertaining to
the end of American combat involvement in Indochina. A supplement
takes account of the surrender of South Vietnam in spring 1975.
Contributors to the volume--lawyers, scholars, and government
officials--include Dean Rusk, Eugene V. Rostow, Richard A. Falk,
John Norton Moore, and Richard Wasserstrom. Originally published in
1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books
from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press.
These editions preserve the original texts of these important books
while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions.
The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase
access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of
books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in
1905.
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