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Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945 > Vietnam War
Between 1966 and 1976, American artist Nancy Spero completed some
of her most aggressively political work. Made at a time when Spero
was a key member of the anti-war and feminist arts-activism that
burgeoned in the New York art world during the period, her works
demonstrate a violent and bodily rejection of injustice.
Considering the ways in which anti-war and feminist art used
emotion as a means to persuade and protest, Pain and Politics in
Postwar Feminist Art examines the history of this crucial decade in
American art politics through close attention to Spero's practice.
Situating her work amongst the activism that defined the era, this
book examines the ways in which sensation and emotion became
political weapons for a generation of artists seeking to oppose
patriarchy and war. Exemplary of the way in which artists were
using metaphors of sensation and emotion in their work as part of
the anti-Vietnam war and feminist art movements in the late 1960s
and early 1970s, Spero's practice acts as a model for representing
how politics feels. By exploring Spero's political engagement anew,
this book offer a profound recontextualization of the important
contribution that Spero made to Feminist thought, politics and art
in the US.
On 30 March 1972 the South Vietnamese positions along the
Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separated the North from South
Vietnam were suddenly shelled by hundreds of heavy guns and
multiple rocket launchers. Caught in a series of outposts of what
was the former 'McNamara Line', the shocked defenders had just
enough time to emerge from their bunkers at the end of the barrage
before they were attacked by regular North Vietnamese Army
divisions, supported by hundreds of armoured vehicles that crashed
though their defensive lines along the border. Thus began one of
the fiercest campaigns of the Vietnam War but also one of the less
well documented because by then most of the American ground forces
had been withdrawn. Following on from the details of the downsizing
of American forces and the setting up of the'Vietnamization'
policy, the build up of both the Army of the Republic of Vietnam
(ARVN) in the South and the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) in the
North is discussed at length. A special emphasis is devoted to the
study of the development the North Vietnamese armoured corps that
would spearhead the coming offensive. Consequently, the nature of
the war changed dramatically, evolving from a guerrilla one into a
conventional conflict. The South Vietnamese resistance shuddered,
and then crumbled under the communist onslaught, putting Hue the
ancient imperial capital at risk. It was only thanks to US
airpower, directed by a small group of courageous American
advisers, which helped to turn the tide. Under the command of a new
capable commander, the South Vietnamese then methodically
counterattacked to retake some of the lost ground. This culminated
in the ferocious street fighting for Quang Tri. This first volume
describes the combat taking place in the northern part of South
Vietnam, and uses not only American archives but also Vietnamese
sources, from both sides. The book contains 130 photos, five maps
and 18 colour profiles. Asia@War - following on from our
highly-successful Africa@War series, Asia@War replicates the same
format - concise, incisive text, rare images and high quality
colour artwork providing fresh accounts of both well-known and more
esoteric aspects of conflict in this part of the world since 1945.
The Vietnam War lasted twenty years and resulted in the deaths of
over 58,000 American soldiers, with many more Vietnamese victims.
But the roots of the American-led conflict lay in the complex
colonial history of Vietnam itself. Here, Pablo de Orellana uses
recently declassified material to provide a new interpretation of
the diplomatic failures and processes that lead to the outbreak and
continuation of the conflict. Through a focus on the first Vietnam
War, de Orellana shows how and why a Southeast Asian French colony
already devastated by two wars came to be seen as an existential
threat by policymakers in the United States, and how an attempt to
stem the influence of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of
China spiraled out of control. The Road to Vietnam features new
archival documents, including diplomatic notes and briefing
material, to construct a new history of America's descent into
conflict. This will be an essential resource for scholars and
students of the Vietnam War and 20th Century diplomatic history.
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Paperback
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Discovery Miles 6 110
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