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Four Decades On: Vietnam, The United States, And The Legacies Of The Second Indochina War, Edwin A. Martini
Four Decades On: Vietnam, The United States, And The Legacies Of The Second Indochina War, Edwin A. Martini
Edwin A. Martini
In Four Decades On, historians, anthropologists, and literary critics examine the legacies of the Second Indochina War, or what most Americans call the Vietnam War, nearly forty years after the United States finally left Vietnam. They address matters such as the daunting tasks facing the Vietnamese at the war's end—including rebuilding a nation and consolidating a socialist revolution while fending off China and the Khmer Rouge—and "the Vietnam syndrome," the cynical, frustrated, and pessimistic sense that colored America's views of the rest of the world after its humiliating defeat in Vietnam. The contributors provide unexpected perspectives on Agent Orange, the …
“Hearts, Minds, And Herbicides: The Politics Of The Chemical War In Vietnam”, Edwin Martini
“Hearts, Minds, And Herbicides: The Politics Of The Chemical War In Vietnam”, Edwin Martini
Edwin A. Martini
In the early years of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, the Departments of State and Defense battled over the decision to use chemical herbicides to defoliate the landscape and destroy enemy access crops. While the Pentagon won the initial battle, allowing herbicidal warfare to proceed, State’s concerns about program ultimately proved prophetic as the chemical war waged by the United States in Southeast Asia further alienated the Vietnamese villagers the program was ostensibly designed to protect. This essay moves beyond previous studies of Operation Ranch Hand by exploring the politics of the herbicidal warfare, and crop destruction in particular, from Washington …