History Commons^™

Napalm: More Than A Weapon, Edwin Martini

Edwin A. Martini

This book will explore the military, political, and cultural history of napalm across time and space. Moving beyond the Vietnam War, this book will examine the use of napalm by the United States in World War Two, Korea, and elsewhere, and its proliferation in other countries’ arsenals as well. It will also explore the many cultural representations of napalm in the post-Vietnam war world.

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

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 …

"Even We Can't Prevent Forests: The Chemical War And The Illusion Of Control", Edwin Martini

Edwin A. Martini

By exploring tactical and strategic uses of chemical agents beyond Agent Orange and the other ‘Rainbow Herbicides’ used as part of Operation Ranch Hand during the Vietnam War, this essay seeks to fill a gap in our under- standing of the chemical war waged by the United States in South-east Asia, and to make a contribution to the growing body of literature devoted to the intersections of military and environmental history. Taking seriously the roles played by both human and non-human actors, it explores how the White House and Pentagon continually attempted, unsuccessfully, to impose more stringent forms of control …

Agent Orange: History, Science, And The Politics Of Uncertainty, Edwin A. Martini

Edwin A. Martini

Taking on what one former U.S. ambassador called “the last ghost of the Vietnam War,” this book examines the far-reaching impact of Agent Orange, the most infamous of the dioxin-contaminated herbicides used by American forces in Southeast Asia. Edwin A. Martini’s aim is not simply to reconstruct the history of the “chemical war” but to investigate the ongoing controversy over the short- and long-term effects of weaponized defoliants on the environment of Vietnam, on the civilian population, and on the troops who fought on both sides.

Beginning in the early 1960s, when Agent Orange was first deployed in Vietnam, Martini …

"Incinerating Agent Orange: Operations Pacer Ho, Pacer Ivy, And The Global Legacies Of The Chemical War, Edwin Martini

Edwin A. Martini

Most studies of Agent Orange to date focus either on the wartime use of herbicides or the long-term consequences of that use after the war was over. Lost in that narrative gap is the story of what happened to the 2.4 million gallons of Agent Orange still in possession of the U.S. military after its use had been banned in 1971. In addressing this surplus supply during Operations Pacer IVY and Pacer HO, the U.S. Air Force was forced to navigate a host of new challenges that had sprung up in the decade since the start of the war in …

Invisible Enemies: The American War On Vietnam, 1975-2000, Edwin Martini

Edwin A. Martini

Beginning where most histories of the Vietnam War end, Invisible Enemies examines the relationship between the United States and Vietnam following the American pullout in 1975. Drawing on a broad range of sources, from White House documents and congressional hearings to comic books and feature films, Edwin Martini shows how the United States continued to wage war on Vietnam "by other means" for another twenty-five years. In addition to imposing an extensive program of economic sanctions, the United States opposed Vietnam's membership in the United Nations, supported the Cambodians, including the Khmer Rouge, in their decade-long war with the Vietnamese, …