The involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War has been the most polarizing issue within post-war American history. It was divisive at the time, both domestically and internationally, and debates continue to the present day. At the heart of the disputes has always been the question of 'failure' - why was the United States unable to achieve its objectives? Was failure inherent in the decision to go to war? Was it inherently an unwinnable war, or was failure the result of inept strategy, poor leadership, and a biased media? In Vietnam, Gary R. Hess describes and evaluates the main arguments of scholars, participants, and journalists, both revisionist and orthodox in their approach, as they consider why the United States was unable to achieve its objectives. While providing a clear and well-balanced account of existing historical debate, Hess also offers his own interpretation of the events and opens a dialogue about the usefulness of historical argument in reaching a deeper understanding of the conflict. This concise book is essential reading for students and teachers of the Vietnam War as both a clear and well-balanced account of existing historical debate and a thought-provoking look at the future of historical scholarship.

I sat in the tall elephant grass waiting. I knew the gooks were out there, I could smell them. For once I wished it was raining, because anything would be better than this thick fog that was engulfing everything in the jungle. It was now 0500 hrs and I was waiting for the word to move out and kill this band of gooks.

This book presents the personal narratives of six Palestinians—four men and two women—whose stories are central to describing the greater Palestinian plight in the Gaza Strip, the Intifada, the beginning of the 1993 peace process, and beyond. Each Palestinian has related crucial events in his or her life story, and by reading their accounts, we come to see the struggle through their eyes and put a human face on events that Western media and consciousness have only partially explored. The story of the Intifada in the Gaza Strip, with its tragic and inspiring outcomes, is slowly fading from the world's collective memory. In the final weeks of 1987, however, this small strip of land became the major battleground of what the authors consider one of the few authentic national rebellions of the second half of the 20th century. This book presents the personal narratives of six Palestinians—four men and two women—whose stories are central to describing the greater Palestinian plight in the Gaza Strip, the Intifada, the beginning of the 1993 peace process, and beyond. Each Palestinian has related crucial events in his or her life story, and by reading their accounts, we come to see the struggle through their eyes and put a human face on events that Western media and consciousness have only partially explored. This book is an important corrective for scholars, students, researchers, and the general reading public concerned about the contemporary Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

At a time when a lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis seems virtually unattainable, understanding the roots of the longest-running conflict in the Middle East is an essential step in restoring hope to the region. In "The Iron Cage", Rashid Khalidi, one of the most respected historians and political observers of the Middle East, examines the Palestinian's struggle for statehood, presenting a succinct and insightful history of the people and their leadership throughout the twentieth century. Ranging from the Palestinian struggle against colonial rule and the establishment of the State of Israel, through the eras of the PLO, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas, this is an unflinching and sobering critique of the Palestinian failure to achieve statehood, as well as a balanced account of the odds ranged against them. Lucid yet challenging, Rashid Khalidi's engrossing narrative of this tortuous history is required reading for anyone concerned about peace in the Middle East.

The book explains why Germany opposed the US decision to attack Iraq in 2003, whereas Japan supported it, despite the two countries' many similarities. Employing the concept of alliance security dilemma--constituted by the twin fears of abandonment and entrapment--the author argues that the two countries pursued opposite policies toward the Iraq War because the level of Germany's alliance security dilemma in its relationships with the US was higher than Japan's. The two countries' alliance security dilemma with the US, however, is not derived from the mere presence or absence of external threats. Instead, it is a product of (1) the regional security environments plus U.S. security commitment to the two countries, (2) the type of alliance institutions to which each country belongs, and (3) the characteristics of their military institutions. The author's conclusions are based on analysis of primary and secondary materials as well as interviews conducted with key political actors in both countries.

The Vietnam War ended over thirty years ago. Yet, it continues as a cultural reference point, shaping contemporary American society and culture, its impact felt in many different contexts. Vietnam precipitated a crisis in national self-confidence and a breakdown in political consensus out of which new ideological perspectives, including neo-conservatism, emerged. This book offers fresh perspectives on a defining event in "the American Century," examining its historical and political significance as well as its continuing cultural relevance.

Throughout American history, Christianity has shaped public opinion, guided leaders in their decision making, and stood at the center of countless issues. To gain complete knowledge of an era, historians must investigate the religious context of what transpired, why it happened, and how. Yet too little is known about American Christianity's foreign policy opinions during the Cold and Vietnam Wars. To gain a deeper understanding of this period (1964-75), David E. Settje explores the diversity of American Christian responses to the Cold and Vietnam Wars to determine how Americans engaged in debates about foreign policy based on their theological convictions.

Settje uncovers how specific Christian theologies and histories influenced American religious responses to international affairs, which varied considerably. Scrutinizing such sources as the evangelical "Christianity Today," the mainline Protestant, "Christian Century," a sampling of Catholic periodicals, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Southern Baptist Convention, and the United Church of Christ, "Faith and War" explores these entities' commingling of religion, politics, and foreign policy, illuminating the roles that Christianity attempted to play in both reflecting and shaping American foreign policy opinions during a decade in which global matters affected Americans daily and profoundly.

Many combat veterans refuse to discuss their experiences on the line. With the passage of time and the unreliability of memory, it becomes difficult to understand the true nature of war. In The Line: Combat in Korea, January--February 1951, retired Army colonel William T. Bowers uses firsthand, eyewitness accounts of the Korean War to offer readers an intimate look at the heroism and horror of the battlefront. These interviews of soldiers on the ground are particularly telling because they were conducted by Army historians immediately following combat. Known as the "forgotten war," the action in Korea lasted from June 1950 until July 1953 and was particularly savage for its combatants. During the first few months of the war, American and U.N. soldiers conducted rapid advances and hasty withdrawals, risky amphibious landings and dangerous evacuations, all while facing extreme weather conditions. In early 1951, the first winter of the war, frigid cold and severe winds complicated combat operations. As U.N. forces in Korea retreated from an oncoming Chinese and North Korean attack, U.S. commanders feared they would be forced to withdraw from occupation and admit to a Communist victory. Using interviews and extensive historical research, The Line analyzes how American troops fought the enemy to a standstill over this pivotal two-month period, reversing the course of the war. In early 1951, the war had nearly been lost, but by February's end, there existed the possibility of preserving an independent South Korea. Bowers compellingly illustrates how a series of small successes at the regiment, battalion, company, platoon, squad, and soldier levels ensured that the line was held against the North Korean enemy. The Line is the first of three volumes detailing combat during the Korean War. Each book focuses on the combat experiences of individual soldiers and junior leaders. Bowers enhances our understanding of combat by providing explanatory analysis and supplemental information from official records, giving readers a complete picture of combat operations in this understudied theatre. Through searing firsthand accounts and an intense focus on this brief but critical time frame, The Line offers new insights into U.S. military operations during the twentieth century and guarantees that the sacrifices of these courageous soldiers will not be lost to history.

In the spring of 2003, a stunned world watched the armed forces of the United States and Britain conduct a military campaign against Iraq. As a result, the Iraqi regime was dismantled, and much of the conventional wisdom about modern war was irrevocably altered. Yet as U.S. and British forces occupy Basra, Tikrit, and Mosul, the Iraqi nation has slipped into anarchy--and the phrase "shock and awe" has begun to sound more appropriate as a description of the war's aftermath, rather than its opening. Such has been the twisted trail of the Iraq War's dramatic events. But like so many other conflicts, the war ultimately seems to pose more questions than it solved. This book is the first in-depth analysis of the second war against Saddam Hussein's regime. What are the repercussions of the pre-war political fights in Washington, Paris, and the UN? Was meeting initial military goals really due to Anglo-American arms, or had Saddam's regime simply been too degraded to fight? Why didn't Baghdad become a second Stalingrad? Why weren't the occupying forces prepared to impose order? And then there is the significant question: Where are Iraq's weapons of mass destruction? Respected military analyst Anthony Cordesman incisively examines the key issues swirling around the most significant U.S. war since Vietnam. Beginning the search for answers is essential to understanding America's awesome power and its place in a new age of international terror and regional conflict.

Offering the widest scope of any study of one of popular music's most important eras, "Songs of the Vietnam Conflict" treats both anti-war and pro-government songs of the 1960s and early 1970s, from widely known selections such as Give Peace a Chance and Blowin' in the Wind to a variety of more obscure works. These are songs that permeated the culture, through both recordings and performances at political gatherings and concerts alike, and James Perone explores the complex relationship between music and the society in which it is written. This music is not merely an indicator of the development of the American popular song; it both reflected and shaped the attitudes of all who were exposed to it.

Whereas in previous wars, musicians rallied behind the government in the way of Aaron Copland and Samuel Barber, the Vietnam conflict provoked anger, frustration, and rage, all of which comes through in the songs of the time. This reference work provides indispensable coverage of this phenomenon, in chapters devoted to Anti-War Songs, Pro-Government Songs, and what might be called Plight-of-the-Soldier (or Veteran) songs. A selected discography guides the reader to the most notable recordings, all of which, together, provide a unique and important perspective on perhaps the 20th century's most contentious time.

Hope and Healing For All Who Have Been Touched by War

"Made in America, Sold in the Nam" brings together the writings of more than two dozen Vietnam-era veterans who have never before had the chance to speak their peace. Through diaries, essays, and poems, each contributor brings a unique first-person perspective that will be appreciated by veterans, their families, and historians. Taken together, this book represents the conscience of a nation: patriotic, duty-bound, and mired in a swamp of confusion and pain.

New Second Edition includes material by the spouses, adult children, and other survivors of the war. "Made in America, Sold in the Nam" is Book #2 in the Reflections of History Series from Modern History Press.

• For Viet Nam Vets: an opportunity to verify their experiences against experiences of others leading to validation and perhaps even an airing of their suspicions and fears about themselves. No matter how long it has been, healing is possible.
• For Families of the KIA: peace and understanding about the experiences of their loved one and if they have letters from their loved ones, perhaps a way to fill in what could never be spoken.
• For Adult Children and Spouses of Vets: empathy for their war experience, in spite of whether or not there has been communication about how it really went down.
• For Vets of Recent Conflicts: a shortcut to understanding the overall experience of war and how one copes with its indelible marks. Discover the commonality of those who have endured their time as warriors.
• For Society and Generations to come:
  . Learn what really happens during a modern military conflict.
  . A plea for wisdom in how we deal with other peoples on Earth.
  . A chance to break the cycle of doing the same things and hoping for magically different outcomes.
  

"That there is conflict and confusion over how we are to view the Viet Nam War and how we are to feel about those who sacrificed for this effort, makes this book all the more important. These pieces give the average person insight into what really happened to those that served and what they thought that they were trying to accomplish. There is some personal truth, buried emotion, and a few heroes in their own right." -Tami Brady, TCM Reviews

Modern History Press is an imprint of Loving Healing Press (www.LovingHealing.com)

"All Good Men" was written to chronicle the experiences of a young lieutenant from the time he joined the First Artillery Battalion to fight in the Korean War in August 1950 until he returned home in December 1951. He describes in gripping detail his days as a forward observer in the Naktong Bulge during the searing heat of August, his exploits as a reconnaissance officer from the Pusan Perimeter through the dash to the Yalu River, his contribution as Assistant Operations Officer to the 52nd Field Artillery Battalion, and his days as a unit commander when he rebuilt his firing battery from scratch after losing most of his experienced personnel. With his untested unit he supported the final advance of the 21st Infantry Regiment 30 miles north of the 38th Parallel in October 1951. The author pays tribute to the men who gave their lives fighting in the stinking rice paddies and frozen hills of that unforgiving land under the harsh conditions of ground combat. His poignant comment is still true today. "They could stand tall in any nation's hall of heroes. They were all good men."

Moving through the jungle near the Cambodian border on May 18, 1967, a company of American infantry observed three North Vietnamese Army regulars, AK-47s slung over their shoulders, walking down a well-worn trail in the rugged Central Highlands. Startled by shouts of ""Lai day, lai day"" (""Come here, come here""), the three men dropped their packs and fled. The company commander, a young lieutenant, sent a platoon down the trail to investigate. Those few men soon found themselves outnumbered, surrounded, and fighting for their lives. Their first desperate moments marked the beginning of a series of bloody battles that lasted more than a week, one that survivors would later call ""the nine days in May border battles."" Nine Days in May is the first full account of these bitterly contested battles. Part of Operation Francis Marion, they took place in the Ia Tchar Valley and the remote jungle west of Pleiku. Fought between three American battalions and two North Vietnamese Army regiments, this prolonged, deadly encounter was one of the largest, most savage actions seen by elements of the storied 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam. Drawing on interviews with the participants, Warren K. Wilkins recreates the vicious fighting in gripping detail. This is a story of extraordinary courage and sacrifice displayed in a series of battles that were fought and won within the context of a broader, intractable strategic stalemate. When the guns finally fell silent, an unheralded American brigade received a Presidential Unit Citation and earned three of the twelve Medals of Honor awarded to soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam.

View the Table of Contents.
Read the Prologue.

"An exceptionally well written, well documented, fast-moving account."--"Washington Times"

"This is a book written on multiple levels, and well worth reading."--"M.S. Naval Institute Proceedings"

"This book is a welcome addition to the history of naval aviation and fills a much-needed void by detailing the later years of the Vietnam naval air campaign."--"Sea Power"

"Makes for lively, vivid, and informative reading. I would include it...on my list of the top ten books on the air war in Vietnam."
--"Air Power History"

"John Sherwood has done a fine job in giving us a first-rate account of a confusing but critically important period in Naval Aviation history."--"The Hook"

"As a collection of individual studies and 'war stories, ' "Afterburner" should find an interested readership." --"Military History"

"With a 45-degree dive angle set, 450 knots of airspeed building, and my altimeter unwinding like crazy, my scan went rapidly between the bombsight and flight instruments. . . . When I looked over my shoulder at the target, I could see where the bombs had hit and exploded."

Through stories like this diary entry of a fighter pilot, John Darrell Sherwood brings forth the personal accounts of 21 naval and marine aviators in this chronicle of the second half of the Navy's air war over Vietnam.

Despite spending over 200 billion dollars and dropping almost 8 million tons of bombs on Southeast Asia, the U.S. was unable to score a definitive victory in the air war. Afterburner takes us inside the day-to-day operations of the air war, particularly during the most intense year of the campaign: 1972. During that year, North Vietnam launched the first large-scale conventional attacks on strongholds in South Vietnam. Sherwood shows how the U.S. fought back with some of the most innovative air campaigns in its history, including Nixon's Linebacker bombings and the Navy's mining operation in Haiphong Harbor. From duels with enemy MiGs to the experiences of Commander C. Ronald Polfer, who became the voice of reason among American POWs in the Hanoi Hilton's Room 5, the detailed stories in Afterburner make these historical events come to life.

Sherwood compiles and analyzes an incredible breadth of information about the details of each of the Navy's operations during the air war and then relates the key parts of the narrative through the eyes of an pilot or flight officer involved in each action. Through tales of courage and fear, triumph and horror, Sherwood reveals the lives of common aircrews who performed extraordinary service. Their experiences illustrate the personal nature of war--even from the air--and show that the air war in Vietnam may have begun as a slow burn, but by 1972, it was more intense than an F-4 afterburner.

The Mughals, British and Soviets all failed to subjugate Afghanistan, failures which offer valuable lessons for today. Taking a long historical perspective from 1520 to 2012, this multi-authored volume examines the Mughal, British, Soviet and NATO efforts in Afghanistan, drawing on new archives and a synthesis of previous counter-insurgency experiences. Special emphasis is given to ecology, terrain and logistics to explain sub-conventional operations and state-building in Afghanistan. War and State-Building in Modern Afghanistan provides an overall synthesis of British, Russian, American and NATO military activities in Afghanistan, which directly links past experiences to the current challenges. These timely essays are particularly relevant to contemporary debates about NATO's role in Afghanistan; do the war and state-building policies currently employed by NATO forces undercut or enhance a political solution? The essays in this volume introduce new historical perspectives on this debate, and will prove illuminating reading for students and scholars interested in military history, the history of warfare, international relations and comparative politics.

Southern Voices: Biet Dong and the National Liberation Front presents oral histories from former members of an elite squad of Viet Cong operatives, focusing on their experiences during what is known, in Vietnam, as the American War. Author Michael Robert Dedrick conducted interviews with eight former Biet Dong (the equivalent of Ranger or Special Forces divisions in the US military) and sheds new light on this clandestine group. Best known for their role in the 1968 Tet Offensive, the Biet Dong in the south were organized units hiding in plain sight. Members included farmers, tradespeople, agents, spies, monks, students, intellectuals, and journalists - both young and old, men and women. They were highly patriotic, politically motivated, and very secretive, operating in three-person cells under aliases. Their voices and experiences emerge in this bilingual volume. In recent years, historians have made greater use of Vietnamese primary sources and transformed the study of one of the twentieth century's most controversial conflicts. Ably curated by Dedrick - who also offers his own perspectives as a veteran and peace activist - the firsthand accounts in Southern Voices add a new layer to the history of the Vietnam War and its aftermath.

Peace in the Mountains analyzes student activism at the University of Pittsburgh, Ohio University, and West Virginia University during the Vietnam War era. Drawing from a wide variety of sources including memoirs, periodicals, archival manuscript collections, and college newspapers such as The Pitt News, author Thomas Weyant tracks the dynamics of a student-led campus response to the war in real time and outside the purview of the national media. Along the way, he musters evidence for an emerging social and political conscience among the student bodies of northern Appalachia, citing politics on campus, visions of patriotism and dissent, campus citizenship, antiwar activism and draft resistance, campus issues, and civil rights as major sites of contention and exploration.Through this regional chronicle of student activism during the Vietnam War era, Weyant holds to one reoccurring and unifying theme: citizenship. His account shows that political activism and civic engagement were by no means reserved to students at elite colleges; on the contrary, Appalachian youth were giving voice to the most vexing questions of local and national responsibility, student and citizen identity, and the role of the university in civil society. Rich in primary source material from student op-eds to administrative documents, Peace in the Mountains draws a new map of student activism in the 1960s and early 1970s. Weyant's study is a thoughtful and engaging addition to both Appalachian studies and the historiography of the Vietnam War era and is sure to appeal not only to specialists-Appalachian scholars, political historians, political scientists, and sociologists-but to college students and general readers as well.

Even if you don't know much about the war in Vietnam, you've probably heard of "The Hanoi Hilton," or Hoa Lo Prison, where captured U.S. soldiers were held. What they did there and whether they were treated well or badly by the Vietnamese became lasting controversies. As military personnel returned from captivity in 1973, Americans became riveted by POW cominghome stories. What had gone on behind these prison walls? Along with legends of lionized heroes who endured torture rather than reveal sensitive military information, there were news leaks suggesting that others had denounced the war in return for favorable treatment. What wasn't acknowledged, however, is that U.S. troop opposition to the war was vast and reached well into Hoa Loa Prison. Half a century after the fact, Dissenting POWs emerges to recover this history, and to discover what drove the factionalism in Hoa Lo. Looking into the underlying factional divide between prowar "hardliners" and antiwar "dissidents" among the POWs, authors Wilber and Lembcke delve into the postwar American culture that created the myths of the HeroPOW and the dissidents blamed for the loss of the war. What they found was surprising: It wasn't simply that some POWs were for the war and others against it, nor was it an officersversusenlistedmen standoff. Rather, it was the class backgrounds of the captives and their precaptive experience that drew the lines. After the war, the hardcore heroholdouts-like John McCain-moved on to careers in politics and business, while the dissidents faded from view as the antiwar movement, that might otherwise have championed them, disbanded. Today, Dissenting POWs is a necessary mythbuster, disabusing us of the revisionism that has replaced actual GI resistance with images of suffering POWs - ennobled victims that serve to suppress the fundamental questions of America's drift to endless war.

Bringing together both contemporary and historical Just War concepts, Peter Lee shows that Blair's illusion of morality evaporated quickly and irretrievably after the 2003 Iraq invasion because the ideas Blair relied upon were taken out of their historical context and applied in a global political system where they no longer hold sway.

Did America's departure from Vietnam produce the "peace with honor" promised by President Richard Nixon or was that simply an empty wish meant to distract war-weary Americans from a tragic "defeat with shame"? While James Willbanks doesn't offer any easy answers to that question, his book convincingly shows why America's strategy for exiting the Vietnam War failed miserably and left South Vietnam to a dismal fate.

That strategy, "Vietnamization," was designed to transfer full responsibility for the defense of South Vietnam to the South Vietnamese, but in a way that would buy the United States enough time to get out without appearing to run away. To achieve this goal, America poured millions of dollars into training and equipping the South Vietnamese military while attempting to pacify the countryside. Precisely how this strategy was implemented and why it failed so completely are the subjects of this eye-opening study.

Drawing upon both archival research and his own military experiences in Vietnam, Willbanks focuses on military operations from 1969 through 1975. He begins by analyzing the events that led to a change in U.S. strategy in 1969 and the subsequent initiation of Vietnamization. He then critiques the implementation of that policy and the combat performance of the South Vietnamese army (ARVN), which finally collapsed in 1975.

Willbanks contends that Vietnamization was a potentially viable plan that was begun years too late. Nevertheless some progress was made and the South Vietnamese, with the aid of U.S. advisers and American airpower, held off the North Vietnamese during their massive offensive in 1972. However, the Paris Peace Accords, which left NVA troops in the south, and the subsequent loss of U.S. military aid negated any gains produced through Vietnamization. These factors coupled with corruption throughout President Thieu's government and a glaring lack of senior military leadership within the South Vietnamese armed forces ultimately led to the demise of South Vietnam.

A mere two years after the last American combat troops had departed, North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon, overwhelming a poorly trained, disastrously led, and corrupt South Vietnamese military. But those two years had provided Nixon with the "decent interval" he desperately needed to proclaim that "peace with honor" had been achieved. Willbanks digs beneath that illusion to reveal the real story of South Vietnam's fall.

Imagine growing up in a land where your government proudly tricks and imprisons its own citizens ... where city officers rob and confiscate their citizens' houses out of greed-legally ... where the local authorities monitor not only how much food each family can eat, but what they will eat. After four years of living under the brutal Vietnamese Communist government, one brave young girl has had enough. At fifteen, she sets out for the most unforgettable journey of her life, all alone and with only three sets of clothes to her name. Her faith, optimism, and humor give her the strength to fight for her freedom. Generous strangers step up to help her through the many dangers she faces, both from the elements and other people who do not want to see her escape. For one courageous young Vietnamese woman, hers is the adventure of a "new" lifetime.