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Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945 > Vietnam War
In the 1970s, the United States faced challenges on a number of
fronts. By nearly every measure, American power was no longer
unrivalled. The task of managing America's relative decline fell to
President Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and Gerald Ford. From
1969 to 1977, Nixon, Kissinger, and Ford reoriented U.S. foreign
policy from its traditional poles of liberal interventionism and
conservative isolationism into a policy of active but conservative
engagement. In Nixon in the World, seventeen leading historians of
the Cold War and U.S. foreign policy show how they did it, where
they succeeded, and where they took their new strategy too far.
Drawing on newly declassified materials, they provide authoritative
and compelling analyses of issues such as Vietnam, d tente, arms
control, and the U.S.-China rapprochement, creating the first
comprehensive volume on American foreign policy in this pivotal
era.
On the early morning of March 16, 1968, American soldiers from
three platoons of Charlie Company (1st Battalion, 20th Infantry
Regiment, 11th Brigade, 23rd Infantry Division), entered a group of
hamlets located in the Son Tinh district of South Vietnam, located
near the Demilitarized Zone and known as "Pinkville" because of the
high level of Vietcong infiltration. The soldiers, many still
teenagers who had been in the country for three months, were on a
"search and destroy" mission. The Tet Offensive had occurred only
weeks earlier and in the same area and had made them jittery; so
had mounting losses from booby traps and a seemingly invisible
enemy. Three hours after the GIs entered the hamlets, more than
five hundred unarmed villagers lay dead, killed in cold blood. The
atrocity took its name from one of the hamlets, known by the
Americans as My Lai 4. Military authorities attempted to suppress
the news of My Lai, until some who had been there, in particular a
helicopter pilot named Hugh Thompson and a door gunner named
Lawrence Colburn, spoke up about what they had seen. The official
line was that the villagers had been killed by artillery and
gunship fire rather than by small arms. That line soon began to
fray. Lieutenant William Calley, one of the platoon leaders,
admitted to shooting the villagers but insisted that he had acted
upon orders. An expose of the massacre and cover-up by journalist
Seymour Hersh, followed by graphic photographs, incited
international outrage, and Congressional and U.S. Army inquiries
began. Calley and nearly thirty other officers were charged with
war crimes, though Calley alone was convicted and would serve three
and a half years under house arrest before being paroled in 1974.
My Lai polarized American sentiment. Many saw Calley as a
scapegoat, the victim of a doomed strategy in an unwinnable war.
Others saw a war criminal. President Nixon was poised to offer a
presidential pardon. The atrocity intensified opposition to the
war, devastating any pretense of American moral superiority. Its
effect on military morale and policy was profound and enduring. The
Army implemented reforms and began enforcing adherence to the Hague
and Geneva conventions. Before launching an offensive during Desert
Storm in 1991, one general warned his brigade commanders, "No My
Lais in this division-do you hear me?" Compelling, comprehensive,
and haunting, based on both exhaustive archival research and
extensive interviews, Howard Jones's My Lai will stand as the
definitive book on one of the most devastating events in American
military history.
Postwar Journeys: American and Vietnamese Transnational Peace
Efforts since 1975 tells the story of the dynamic roles played by
ordinary American and Vietnamese citizens in their postwar quest
for peace-an effort to transform their lives and their societies.
Hang Thi Thu Le-Tormala deepens our understanding of the Vietnam
War and its aftermath by taking a closer look at postwar Vietnam
and offering a fresh analysis of the effects of the war and what
postwar reconstruction meant for ordinary citizens. This thoughtful
exploration of US-Vietnam postwar relations through the work of US
and Vietnamese civilians expands diplomatic history beyond its
rigid conventional emphasis on national interests and political
calculations as well as highlights the possibilities of
transforming traumatic experiences or hostile attitudes into
positive social change. Le-Tormala's research reveals a wealth of
boundary-crossing interactions between US and Vietnamese citizens,
even during the times of extremely restricted diplomatic relations
between the two nation-states. She brings to center stage citizens'
efforts to solve postwar individual and social problems and bridges
a gap in the scholarship on the US-Vietnam relations. Peace efforts
are defined in their broadest sense, ranging from searching for
missing family members or friends, helping people overcome the
ordeals resulting from the war, and meeting or working with former
opponents for the betterment of their societies. Le-Tormala's
research reveals how ordinary US and Vietnamese citizens were
active historical actors who vigorously developed cultural ties and
promoted mutual understanding in imaginative ways, even and
especially during periods of governmental hostility. Through
nonprofit organizations as well as cultural and academic exchange
programs, trailblazers from diverse backgrounds promoted mutual
understanding and acted as catalytic forces between the two
governments. Postwar Journeys presents the powerful stories of love
and compassion among former adversaries; their shared experiences
of a brutal war and desire for peace connected strangers, even
opponents, of two different worlds, laying the groundwork for
US-Vietnam diplomatic normalization.
Beginning as a young boy, Jules takes you through the unique
process of becoming a Naval Aviator, engages you into his
experiences as a brand new pilot in a combat squadron and, finally
becoming a flying warrior. Having survived two combat cruises
aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk from 1966-1968,
compiling 332 career carrier take offs and landings, being shot at
daily by enemy fire while completing 200 combat missions over
Vietnam, he clearly shares the views of the aviators who flew along
with him on these missions while fighting this unpopular war. Jules
was awarded the Nation's Distinguished Flying Cross, 21 Air Medals,
and many other accolades. After reading this book the reader will
have a new understanding and appreciation about the Warriors who
protect not only their comrades in arms, but the defense of the
nation as well.
DISCOVER THE EXHILARATING TRUE STORY BEHIND THE ACTION-PACKED
CLASSIC FILM 'GOOSE AND MAVERICK MOVE OVER . . .' Admiral James
Stavridis ________ March 1969. American jets are getting shot down
at an unprecedented rate over Vietnam. In an urgent effort to
regain the advantage the Admirals turn to a young naval aviator
called Dan Pedersen. Officially, the programme he set up was called
the US Navy Fighter Weapons School. To everyone else it was known
simply as TOPGUN. Pedersen's hand-picked team of instructors - the
Original Eight - were the best of the best. Together, they
revolutionised aerial warfare and rediscovered the lost art of
fighter combat. This is the extraordinary, thrilling story of how
TOPGUN saw America reclaim the skies, by the man who created it.
________ 'It's hard to read Dan Pederson's Topgun and not think of
Tom Cruise. A pleasure to read' Wall Street Journal 'Direct, vivid
and unvarnished. A high-flying, supersonic tale' Hampton Sides,
author of Ghost Soldiers 'Topgun earned Dan Pedersen the title of
American Hero' Washington Times 'A riveting seat-of-the-pants
flight into the lethal world of the fighter pilot' Dan Hampton,
author of Viper Pilot
A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Duong Van Mai Elliott's The
Sacred Willow illuminates recent Vietnamese history by weaving
together the stories of the lives of four generations of her
family. Beginning with her great-grandfather, who rose from rural
poverty to become an influential landowner, and continuing to the
present, Mai Elliott traces her family's journey through an era of
tumultuous change. She tells us of childhood hours in her
grandmother's silk shop, and of hiding while French troops torched
her village, watching while blossoms torn by fire from the trees
flutter "like hundreds of butterflies" overhead. She makes clear
the agonizing choices that split Vietnamese families: her eldest
sister left her staunchly anti-communist home to join the Viet
Minh, and spent months sleeping in jungle camps with her infant
son, fearing air raids by day and tigers by night. And she follows
several family members through the last, desperate hours of the
fall of Saigon-including one nephew who tried to escape by grabbing
the skid of a departing American helicopter. Based on family
papers, dozens of interviews, and a wealth of other research, this
is not only a memorable family saga but a record of how the
Vietnamese themselves have experienced their times.
** NOW A MAJOR MOVIE STARRING ZAC EFRON, RUSSELL CROWE AND BILL
MURRAY THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 'An extraordinary story.' -
Daily Mail 'An unforgettable, wild ride from start to finish.' -
John Bruning 'The astounding true story - from the streets of
Manhattan to the jungles of Vietnam.' - Thomas Kelly IT SEEMED LIKE
A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME. As a result of a rowdy night in his local
New York bar, ex-Marine and merchant seaman "Chick" Donohue
volunteers for a legendary mission. He will sneak into Vietnam to
track down his buddies in combat to bring them a cold beer and
supportive messages from home. It'll be the greatest beer run ever!
Now, decades on from 1968, this is the remarkable true story of how
he actually did it. Armed with Irish luck and a backpack full of
alcohol, Chick works his passage to Vietnam, lands in Qui Nhon and
begins to carry out his quest, tracking down the disbelieving
soldiers one by one. But things quickly go awry, and as he talks
his way through checkpoints and unwittingly into dangerous
situations, Chick sees a lot more of the war than he ever planned -
spending a terrifying time in the Demilitarized Zone, and getting
caught up in Saigon during the Tet Offensive. With indomitable
spirit, Chick survives on his wits, but what he finds in Vietnam
comes as a shock. By the end of his epic adventure, battered and
exhausted, Chick finds himself questioning why his friends were
ever led into the war in the first place.
"Air Cav: History of the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam 1965-1969
is the story of the small, close world of fighting men in action.
This volume can be many things to many people a book of memories, a
souvenir, a pictorial essay on airmobility, or simply a story of
gallant men at war. It can be many things, but one thing it is not,
nor does it pretend to be a complete history of the 1st Air Cavalry
Division in Vietnam.
The task and burden of history must lie with the objectivity of
future generations, far removed from current pressures and
restraints. It is true, of course, that much research for this book
has been done from available official records, the ultimate source
of written history. But even more has been drawn from the vivid
recollections of the Cavalrymen who fought, tasted the brassy bile
of fear, shared the fierce exultation of victory, or were drenched
in the dark despair of death.
This volume contains the memoirs of a fighting team the FIRST
TEAM. It is a memory
Fifty years since the signing of the Paris Peace Accords signaled
the final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam, the war's mark on
the Pacific world remains. The essays gathered here offer an
essential, postcolonial interpretation of a struggle rooted not
only in Indochinese history but also in the wider Asia Pacific
region. Extending the Vietnam War's historiography away from a
singular focus on American policies and experiences and toward
fundamental regional dynamics, the book reveals a truly global
struggle that made the Pacific world what it is today. Contributors
include: David L. Anderson, Mattias Fibiger, Zach Fredman, Marc
Jason Gilbert, Alice S. Kim, Mark Atwood Lawrence, Jason Lim, Jana
K. Lipman, Greg Lockhart, S. R. Joey Long, Christopher Lovins, Mia
Martin Hobbs, Boi Huyen Ngo, Wen-Qing Ngoei, Nathalie Huynh Chau
Nguyen, Noriko Shiratori, Lisa Tran, A. Gabrielle Westcott
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