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Books > History > American history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945
Monuments and Memory-Making immerses students in the conversations
and controversies that emerged as the nation grappled with how best
to memorialize what was at the time the longest military conflict
in US history. As students engage in the historical process of
memory-making, they will work to reconcile the varied and often
contradictory voices that rose up after the fall of Saigon.
Students will tackle questions such as How do we create a national
memory of the past? How do we reckon with a war that was widely
understood as a defeat for the United States? How do we remember
the dead while honoring the living? How do we reunite a fractured
nation? How do public opinion and public consciousness shape our
understanding of the past, and whose voices are privileged over
others? Working with primary and secondary sources, students will
take command of the subject matter as they immerse themselves in
their individual roles as historical actors in the debate of how
best to remember and honor American participation and sacrifice in
the Vietnam War.
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God's Love
(Paperback)
Ruth E Sheets
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R374
R306
Discovery Miles 3 060
Save R68 (18%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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In the decades after World War II, tens of thousands of soldiers
and civilian contractors across Asia and the Pacific found work
through the U.S. military. Recently liberated from colonial rule,
these workers were drawn to the opportunities the military offered
and became active participants of the U.S. empire, most centrally
during the U.S. war in Vietnam. Simeon Man uncovers the
little-known histories of Filipinos, South Koreans, and Asian
Americans who fought in Vietnam, revealing how U.S. empire was
sustained through overlapping projects of colonialism and race
making. Through their military deployments, Man argues, these
soldiers took part in the making of a new Pacific world-a
decolonizing Pacific-in which the imperatives of U.S. empire
collided with insurgent calls for decolonization, producing often
surprising political alliances, imperial tactics of suppression,
and new visions of radical democracy.
Doug Dickey was an unlikely Marine hero. He was a gentle soul who
sang in the school's chorus and struggled to make it through boot
camp. However, in the terrible seconds that passed after a grenade
landed in the middle of his platoon's command element, Doug chose
to sacrifice his life to save his comrades. For this Final Valiant
Act, Doug received the Medal of Honor. Doug grew up on a farm in
Ohio and enlisted in the Marine Corps with four of his friends from
high school. Arriving in Vietnam, he was assigned to "Blackjack"
Westerman's 1st Battalion, 4th Marines - one of the few Marine
units to make amphibious assaults during the Vietnam War. As part
of 2nd Platoon, Company C, Doug took part in Operation Deckhouse
VI, to rout the Viet Cong from Quang Ngai; and Operation Beacon
Hill, which culminated in the desperate battle on March 26, 1967.
That afternoon, the platoon became engaged with a much larger NVA
unit just south of the DMZ. In the midst of that fierce battle,
with casualties mounting rapidly, an enemy grenade landed in the
middle of the platoon's command group. Doug dove on the grenade -
saving his friends and comrades. Second Platoon was ultimately
victorious, but at a high cost: more than 40 men had gone into
battle that day; only 12 walked out the next morning. Doug's
comrades in 2nd Platoon never forgot him. Easter Sunday 1967 was
seared into their memories. In 1997, they began holding yearly
reunions. They decided to honor Doug by holding their first reunion
in his hometown. Harold and Leona Dickey were finally able to meet
the men their son had saved 30 years earlier. A Final Valiant Act
is the result of over 14 years of research - drawing on Doug's
letters home, and more than 50 interviews. The personal stories are
woven into a meticulously researched battle history, sourced from
dozens of declassified combat reports - yielding the most detailed
account of Operation Beacon Hill yet written.
The M551 Sheridan is often referred to as a light tank, but in
actuality it was an armored reconnaissance/airborne assault
vehicle. The M551 was designed to be a lightweight, amphibious,
air-droppable vehicle armed with a massive 152 mm gun that doubled
as a rocket launcher. The gun launcher was designed to fire the
MGM-51 Shillelagh antitank missile, or 152 mm conventional rounds
with a combustible cartridge case. The vehicles saw extensive use
in Vietnam, Operation Just Cause in Panama (where they saw their
only combat air drop), and Operations Desert Shield and Desert
Storm. The Sheridan ended its service with the US Army masquerading
as Soviet Bloc vehicles at the National Training Center. Through
dozens of archival as well as detailed photographs of some of the
finest extant examples of these vehicles, the Sheridan is explored,
and its history explained. Part of the Legends of Warfare series.
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