|
Books > Humanities > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945
This study explodes prevailing myths about the Phoenix Program, the
CIA's top-secret effort to destroy the Viet Cong by neutralizing
its "civilian" leaders. Drawing on recently declassified documents
and interviews with American, South Vietnamese, and North
Vietnamese sources, Mark Moyar examines the attempts to eradicate
the Viet Cong infrastructure and analyzes their effectiveness. He
addresses misconceptions about these efforts and provides an
accurate, complete picture of the allies' decapitation of the Viet
Cong shadow government. Combining social and political history with
a study of military operations, Moyar offers a fresh interpretation
of the crucial role the shadow government played in the Viet Cong's
ascent. Detailed accounts of intelligence operations provide an
insider's view of their development and reveal what really happened
in the safe havens of the Viet Cong. Filled with new information,
Moyar's study sets the record straight about one of the last
secrets of the Vietnam War and offers poignant lessons for dealing
with future Third World insurgencies. This Bison Books edition
includes a new preface and chapter by the author.
By 1969, following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, over 500,000
US troops were 'in country' in Vietnam. Before America's longest
war had ended with the fall of Saigon in 1975, 450,000 Vietnamese
had died, along with 36,000 Americans. The Vietnam War was the
first rock 'n' roll war, the first helicopter war with its doctrine
of 'airmobility', and the first television war; it made napalm and
the defoliant Agent Orange infamous, and gave us the New Journalism
of Michael Herr and others. It also saw the establishment of the
Navy SEALs and Delta Force. At home, America fractured, with the
peace movement protesting against the war; at Kent State
University, Ohio National Guardsmen fired on unarmed students,
killing four and injuring nine. Lewis's compelling selection of the
best writing to come out of a war covered by some truly outstanding
writers, both journalists and combatants, includes an eyewitness
account of the first major battle between the US Army and the
People's Army of Vietnam at Ia Drang; a selection of letters home;
Nicholas Tomalin's famous 'The General Goes Zapping Charlie Cong';
Robert Mason's 'R&R', Studs Terkel's account of the police
breaking up an anti-war protest; John Kifner on the shootings at
Kent State; Ron Kovic's 'Born on the Fourth of July'; John T.
Wheeler's 'Khe Sanh: Live in the V Ring'; Pulitzer Prize-winner
Seymour Hersh on the massacre at My Lai; Michael Herr's 'It Made
You Feel Omni'; Viet Cong Truong Nhu Tang's memoir; naval nurse
Maureen Walsh's memoir, 'Burning Flesh'; John Pilger on the fall of
Saigon; and Tim O'Brien's 'If I Die in a Combat Zone'.
|
|