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Books > Humanities > History > American history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945 > Vietnam War
In 1961, the U.S. government established the first formalized
provisions for intercountry adoption just as it was expanding
America's involvement with Vietnam. Adoption became an increasingly
important portal of entry into American society for Vietnamese and
Amerasian children, raising questions about the United States'
obligations to refugees and the nature of the family during an era
of heightened anxiety about U.S. global interventions. Whether
adopting or favoring the migration of multiracial individuals,
Americans believed their norms and material comforts would salve
the wounds of a divisive war. However, Vietnamese migrants
challenged these efforts of reconciliation. As Allison Varzally
details in this book, a desire to redeem defeat in Vietnam, faith
in the nuclear family, and commitment to capitalism guided American
efforts on behalf of Vietnamese youths. By tracing the stories of
Vietnamese migrants, however, Varzally reveals that while many had
accepted separations as a painful strategy for survival in the
midst of war, most sought, and some eventually found, reunion with
their kin. This book makes clear the role of adult adoptees in
Vietnamese and American debates about the forms, privileges, and
duties of families, and places Vietnamese children at the center of
American and Vietnamese efforts to assign responsibility and find
peace in the aftermath of conflict.
Most of us never get to test ourselves in combat. As a UH-1
Helicopter pilot flying in the jungle highlands of South Vietnam,
Warrant Officer Jim Crigler and the men he flew with were tested
daily. Coming of age in the late 1960s and early 1970s was
challenging for most young men of that era. Throw in drugs, free
love, draft notices, the Vietnam War and a country deeply divided,
and you have one of the most important books of this genre. This
true story is a raw, bold, introspective autobiography where the
author openly wrestles with his personal moral dilemma to find
meaning and purpose in his life. He calls it his "Mission of
Honor."
In 2012, President Obama announced that the United States would
spend the next thirteen years - through November 11, 2025 -
commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War, and the
American soldiers, "more than 58,000 patriots," who died in
Vietnam. The fact that at least 2.1 million Vietnamese - soldiers,
parents, grandparents, children - also died in that war will be
largely unknown and entirely uncommemorated. And U.S. history
barely stops to record the millions of Vietnamese who lived on
after being displaced, tortured, maimed, raped, or born with birth
defects, the result of devastating chemicals wreaked on the land by
the U.S. military. The reason for this appalling disconnect of
consciousness lies in an unremitting public relations campaign
waged by top American politicians, military leaders, business
people, and scholars who have spent the last sixty years justifying
the U.S. presence in Vietnam. It is a campaign of patriotic conceit
superbly chronicled by John Marciano in The American War in
Vietnam: Crime or Commemoration?A devastating follow-up to
Marciano's 1979 classic Teaching the Vietnam War (written with
William L. Griffen), Marciano's book seeks not to commemorate the
Vietnam War, but to stop the ongoing U.S. war on actual history.
Marciano reveals the grandiose flag-waving that stems from the
"Noble Cause principle," the notion that America is "chosen by God"
to bring democracy to the world. Marciano writes of the Noble Cause
being invoked unsparingly by presidents - from Jimmy Carter, in his
observation that, regarding Vietnam, "the destruction was mutual,"
to Barack Obama, who continues the flow of romantic media
propaganda: "The United States of America ...will remain the
greatest force for freedom the world has ever known."The result is
critical writing and teaching at its best. This book will find a
home in classrooms where teachers seek to do more than repeat the
trite glorifications of U.S. empire. It will provide students
everywhere with insights that can prepare them to change the world.
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