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Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945 > Vietnam War
Choice Outstanding Title Scorned by allies and enemies alike, the
Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) was one of the most maligned
fighting forces in modern history. Cobbled together by U.S.
advisers from the remnants of the French-inspired Vietnamese
National Army, it was effectively pushed aside by the Americans in
1965. When toward the end of the war the army was compelled to
reassert itself, it was too little, too late for all concerned. In
this first in-depth history of the ARVN from 1955 to 1975, Robert
Brigham takes readers into the barracks and training centers of the
ARVN to plumb the hearts and souls of these forgotten soldiers.
Through his masterly command of Vietnamese-language
sources-diaries, memoirs, letters, oral interviews, and more-he
explores the lives of ordinary men, focusing on troop morale and
motivation within the context of traditional Vietnamese society and
a regime that made impossible demands upon its soldiers. Offering
keen insights into ARVN veterans' lives as both soldiers and devout
kinsmen, Brigham reveals what they thought about their American
allies, their Communist enemies, and their own government. He
describes the conscription policy that forced these men into the
army for indefinite periods with a shameful lack of training and
battlefield preparation and examines how soldiers felt about
barracks life in provinces far from their homes. He also explores
the cultural causes of the ARVN's estrangement from the government
and describes key military engagements that defined the
achievements, failures, and limitations of the ARVN as a fighting
force. Along the way, he explodes some of the myths about ARVN
soldiers' cowardice, corruption, and lack of patriotism that have
made the ARVN the scapegoat for America's defeat. Ultimately, as
Brigham shows, without any real political commitment to a divided
Vietnam or vision for the future, the ARVN retreated into a
subnational culture that redefined the war's meaning: saving their
families. His fascinating book gives us a fuller understanding not
only of the Vietnam War but also of the problems associated with
U.S. nation building through military intervention.
As the Vietnam War divided the nation, a network of antiwar
coffeehouses appeared in the towns and cities outside American
military bases. Owned and operated by civilian activists, GI
coffeehouses served as off-base refuges for the growing number of
active-duty soldiers resisting the war. In the first history of
this network, David L. Parsons shows how antiwar GIs and civilians
united to battle local authorities, vigilante groups, and the
military establishment itself by building a dynamic peace movement
within the armed forces. Peopled with lively characters and set in
the tense environs of base towns around the country, this book
complicates the often misunderstood relationship between the
civilian antiwar movement, U.S. soldiers, and military officials
during the Vietnam era. Using a broad set of primary and secondary
sources, Parsons shows us a critical moment in the history of the
Vietnam-era antiwar movement, when a chain of counterculture
coffeehouses brought the war's turbulent politics directly to the
American military's doorstep.
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