Edward lansdale an the american tragedy in vietnam max boot vietnam war books. During the vietnam war why was body count used as a. The vietnam war and militarized refugees examines how the vietnam war has continued to serve as a stage for the shoring up. Try searching on jstor for other items related to this book. There are issues around killing and counting unarmed civilians noncombatants as enemy combatants, as well as inflating the number of actual enemy who were killed in action kia. After we posted this article, times readers weighed in with their favorite books on the vietnam war. Nov 12, 2017 if you saw the recent ken burns series on the vietnam war, it was hard to escape how much emphasis the u. Now that ken burns pbs documentary has concluded, were rereading the classics of the vietnam wars literary canon. Body counts are easily manipulated, and difficult to verify. Focusing on the politics of war memory and commemoration, this book.
To justify themselves, or to cover up their mistakes, military leaders in vietnam would sometimes instruct their forces to add civilians to the days body count. At the same time, the book moves decisively away from the damagecentered approach that pathologizes loss and trauma by detailing how first and secondgeneration vietnamese have created alternative memories and epistemologies that challenge the established public narratives of the vietnam war and vietnamese people. Apr 27, 2010 vietnam was a lousy war, started by the cia. The vietnam war and militarized refugees free books. Focusing on the politics of war memory and commemoration, this book retheorizes the. Rent body counts the vietnam war and militarized refugees 1st edition 9780520277717 and save up to 80% on textbook rentals and 90% on used textbooks. I have read a lot of books that deal with the different ways we have been involved in.
Reassessing american strategy in vietnam, by gregory a. The vietnam war and militarized refugees examines how the vietnam war has continued to serve as a stage for the shoring up of american imperialist adventure and for the reproduction of american and vietnamese american identities. This intervention would become one of the most divisive decisions in u. I first encountered the very well written body count back when i was a lad during the early 1980s when vietnam war message movies still werent quite the rage just yet, probably in my sophomore year in high school. Army employed body counts the number of confirmed vietnamese killsto chart u. In lewis sorleys book a better war, published in 1999 after studies of voluminous previouslysecret papers of creighton abrams, he writes. Some of these myths, because they have been repeated so many times, and have been showcased in some deplorable books and movies about the war, have taken on the status of fact in the minds of an alarming number of people. The vietnam war and militarized refugees examines how the vietnam. The vietnam war and militarized refugees is an account of the american intervention in the vietnam war and its ongoing consequences even after the end of the war in 1975. Jan 12, 2018 westmoreland and mcnamara needed body counts, and the higher the better.
Westmoreland has long been derided for his failed strategy of attrition in the vietnam war. One enemy soldier takes three bullet wounds from three different guns, one to the leg, follo. The vietnam war and militarized refugees by yen le. Im glad for the memory loss since it was a very fine read. It was merely a minimally justifiable excuse for claiming a kill, whether one actually took place or not. Historians have argued that westmorelands strategy placed a premium on high body counts through a big unit war that relied almost solely on search and destroy missions. He was a united states marine corps veteran, who served during the vietnam war. Vietnam war myths i have put together a compendium of the most virulent myths to come out of the vietnam war. Readers weighed in on the best books about the vietnam war. The vietnam war and militarized refugeesexamines how the vietnam war has. Focusing on the politics of war memory and commemoration, this book retheorizes the connections among history, memory, and power and refashions the. The vietnam war body count controversy centers on the counting of enemy dead by the united.
The vietnam war and militarized refugees examines how the vietnam war has continued to serve as a stage for the shoring up of american. Addressing the seemingly dogged entanglement in south vietnam with general william westmoreland, brig. Jerry gustave hasford november 28, 1947 january 29, 1993, also known under his pen name gustav hasford was an american novelist, journalist and poet. And that was because, unlike other american wars, the only way to measure success, or lack thereof, in vietnam, was body counts by counting the number of enemy soldiers dead which virtually guaranteed that the american people would eventually turn against the war. To invade the north risked involving stronger communist powers into play.
Press coverage of the twentyfifth anniversary of the fall of saigon in american quarterly, she was at the cusp of the wave of important new scholarship in critical. The vietnam war body count controversy centers on the counting of enemy dead by the united states armed forces during the vietnam war 19551975. Military fatal casualty statistics electronic records reference report. Our homeland is the united states my father would say at every family dinner. Body counts the vietnam war and militarized refugees 1st. I constantly find myself drawn to the past that my father insists i forget about. Body count figures were grossly exaggerated throughout the vietnam war due to several factors. Focusing on the politics of war memory and commemoration, this book retheorizes the connections among history, memory, and power. Military people now realize that quantifying victory is far more complex. Body count was an aspect of the attrition based war that took place in vietnam. In several books i read about the vietnam war a 6 inch or.
The vietnam war and militarized refugees edition 1. May 05, 2014 in other words, like so many reporters in vietnam, i saw mainly one aspect of one corner of the war. Sep 15, 2017 whats your favorite book about the vietnam war. Aphorst faas vietnam was even more horrific than we thought nick turses new book kill anything that moves reveals that massacres like my lai were downright common. His semiautobiographical novel the shorttimers 1979 was the basis of the film full metal jacket 1987. Body counts by yen le espiritu overdrive rakuten overdrive. The vietnam war and militarized refugees paperback. Retreats on publicizing body count of militants killed. Firstly, the communist fighters vietcongnorth vietnamese army vcnva understood that body count was important to u.
The vietnam war and militarized refugees read online. Focusing on the politics of war memory and commemoration, this book retheorizes the connections. How accurate are the body count figures during the vietnam war. What i had seen was ghastly, but it was not enough to serve as a basis for generalizations. In the midst of a deteriorating war in 1967 a senior cia operative seeking to rearm the mekong deltas anticommunist buddhists in the hopes of transforming a failing military strategy is killed under mysterious circumstances.
Us military intervention initially prioritized propping up the unstable south to create a strong buffer against reunification efforts from the north. Accordingly, i use this very term, body counts, as the books title in order to expose the war s costs borne by the vietnamese and to insist that bodiesvietnamese bodiesshould count. While i have always considered this one of the best novels on the vietnam war i suppose i should read it again. Focusing on the politics of war memory and commemoration, this book retheorizes the connections among history, memory, and power and. This book was so awesome and realistic that i felt the emotions of each.
Tables containing record counts that were generated from the vietnam conflict extract data file of the defense casualty analysis system dcas extract files as of april 29, 2008 by the following field categories. Sep 20, 2018 washington taking a page from vietnam war propaganda, the american military in afghanistan has been widely publicizing body counts of taliban and islamic state fighters killed in battle. If this second read of body count is any indication a return to webbs book should be refreshing and enjoyable. Jan 15, 20 based on classified documents and firstperson interviews, a startling history of the american war on vietnamese civiliansamericans have long been taught that events such as the notorious my lai massacre were isolated incidents in the vietnam war, carried out by a few bad apples. Body counts by yen le espiritu paperback university of. In 2006, when yen le espiritu published her seminal piece, the wewinevenwhenwelose syndrome.
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