Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret Wars for Laos, 1942-1992

Book Description

Jane Hamilton-Merritt, Nobel-nominated scholar and photojournalist, has followed the plight of the Hmong and the war in Indochina since the 1960s. The staunchest of allies, the Hmong sided with the Americans against the North Vietnamese and were foot soldiers in the brutal secret war for Laos. Since the war, abandoned by their American allies, the Hmong have been subjected to a campaign of genocide by the North Vietnamese, including the use of chemical weapons. Tragic Mountains moves from the big picture of international diplomacy and power politics to the small villages and heroic engagements in the Lao jungle. It is a story of courage, brutality, heroism, betrayal, resilience, and hope.

Customer Reviews:

The Hmong, the Americans and secret wars .......2005-12-28

This is a documentary about unsung heros who paid a deal price working for the Americans from the 40s and on. They were being hired to stop communism working with the French in the 40-50s. As the tide of North Vietnamese infiltration into South Vietnam turned, Vang Pao, a former French colonial officier was put in charge of covert operations working for CIA in the little known secret war in Laos. The book went into details on how much sacrifice the Hmong people made to please Americans.
They gave up just about everything to wage an American war and learned their American sponsors who abandoned them after 1975. Similar to CIA's involvement in Cuba the Hmong fighters who were abandoned had to flee their country. This time they had to accept either slughter or content with refugee camp life in Thailand. The author, Jane Hamilton-Merritt, produced horror pictures and sketches of the effect of chemical-biological toxins on the people and the atrocities committed by the communists. Through some unorganized chapters Jane lost her enthusium and called it quits up to 1992. This may be the weakest part of the fine documentary.

As more and more Hmong immigrants are leaving the refugee camps and re-settled in many parts of the world, we need to understand their heritage and believes. Unlike the Indo-chinese refugees coming into the US who are mostly city dwellers, the Hmong have for 4,000 years able to attain a certain degree of identity/freedom. This is in a way like the Native Americans who do not wish to be fully assimilated. We need to respect and help the Hmong people by not imposing the same attitude as we have done on other immigrants. We also need to understand the cultural and habits of those who fought so hard for the Americans. Unlike other enthnic cultures, this is a hard to find book on the war history of Hmong people in Laos.

the truth? not really..........2005-10-12

this book has some truth...but woopti doo... anyone can research...but until you were actually there...you'll never know.
If you are Hmong and you read hamiltons book and you beleive all that is said, you need help....HA just kidding... but you do need to go to a HMONG SOURCE, someone that was there, fighting in the war, and leading the Hmong people to freedom, to find out what really happened, not rely on someone who wants to make a buck off our culture. Please do not think i'm trying to sound better than anyone, all i'm saying is that the world deserves to know the truth about the Hmongs and how MAJORLY significant we were to the "war". We have been sworn in as an ethnic group recently, but now we also need to map the Hmong into American History for all to learn about. This is not about Hmong pride, this is about education...Again, this book has some truth... but...stay tuned and the truth will soon be out.

Engaging.......2005-07-30

As will be established by many other reviewers, there ARE some significant points of contention, particularly regarding the Yellow Rain element of the book and the occasional heavy-handed romanticizing of the Hmong. But these are not enough to totally undermine the value of the book.

By and large, it really tells a deeply engaging story about the Hmong and should be considered one of the essential reads on the matter.

Considering the large lack of material on the Hmong prior to this book, it is an important step.

One might want to compare it to Backfire/Shooting At the Moon by Warner in particular, or even The Ravens / Air America by Robbins. Another good text to have on hand is Sky Is Falling by Morrisson.

We should all still be waiting for the great Hmong account of the war in Laos from their own perspective however. That should make fascinating reading.

UNTOLD HISTORY.......2003-11-29

THE BOOK "TRAGIC MOUNTAINS" GIVES ME AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE HISTORY IN THE PAST. ALSO, A REASON WHY HMONG WERE VERY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE WHO LIVED IN THE SHADOWS BECAUSE THEY HAD MADE LOAS A HISTORY BY JOINED WITH THE AMERICANS TO FOUGHT AGANIST COMMUNIST. IT INSPIRED ME IN MANY WAYS WHICH I CAN NOT EXPLAIN BUT WITH TEARS AND FEARS. NOW THAT THE HISTORY IS TOLD IN THE BOOK "TRAGIC MOUNTAINS," I FELT THAT IT IS MY DESTINATION TO MAKE A DIFFERANCE IN AMERICA. "BY MAKING A DIFFERANCE IN AMERICA, IT WILL BECAME PART OF OUR HISTORY," SAID NELSON NAGAI.

Candlestick Fac analysis.......2001-07-17

Jane Hamilton-Merritt's research and reporting is outstanding.After serving as a Candlestick fac (NKP 1969-1970),I have spent the last three years reading about these poor people who gave so much for the American aircrews.. I spent a two week'Sabbatical" at 20 alternate and was shocked by the yound age of V.P.s troops.Ms. jane has portrayed it brilliantly....Her work is phenomenal and should be required reading for the war colleges She correctly questions why any country would sign a treaty with the United States.. The genocide which we have supported by "sticking our heads in the sand" is grievous.I retired early from the USAF since I lost confidence in our government.Indeed even the services spent a great deal of their time trying to absorb each other's missions,rather than dealing with the losing battle in SEA in the 1970s.. The administration never told the American people that we were actually fighting against Russian and Chinese advisors leave alone that we were in Laos for almost ten years. .Every congressman should also read about this stain on our moral fiber .Somehow,there are more important things in this life than being reelected .Thank you and Bless Ms. Hamilton-Merritt for trying to wake up Washington. The best treatise ever on our Laotian allies !

Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People's Army of Vietnam,

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Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People's Army of Vietnam,

Manufacturer: University Press of Kansas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0700611754

Book Description

What was for the United States a struggle against creeping Communism in Southeast Asia was for the people of North Vietnam a "great patriotic war" that saw its eventual victory against a military Goliath. The story of that conflict as seen through the eyes--and the ideology--of the North Vietnamese military offers readers a view of that era never before seen.

Victory in Vietnam is the People's Army of Vietnam's own account of two decades of struggle, now available for the first time in English. It is a definitive statement of the Vietnamese point of view concerning foreign intrusion in their country since before American involvement-and it reveals that many of the accepted truths in our own histories of the war are simply wrong.

This detailed account describes the ebb and flow of the war as seen from Hanoi. It discloses particularly difficult times in the PAVN's struggle: 1955-59, when Diem almost destroyed the Communist movement in the South; 1961-62, when American helicopter assaults and M-113 armored personnel carriers inflicted serious losses on their forces; and 1966, when U.S. troop strength and air power increased dramatically. It also elaborates on the role of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Communist effort, confirming its crucial importance and telling how the United States came close to shutting the supply line down on several occasions.

The book confirms the extent to which the North orchestrated events in the South and also reveals much about Communist infiltration--accompanied by statistics-- from 1959 until the end of the war. While many Americans believed that North Vietnam only began sending regular units south after the U.S. commitment of ground forces in 1965, this account reveals that by the time Marines landed in Da Nang in April 1965 there were already at least four North Vietnamese regiments in the South.

Translator Merle Pribbenow, who spent several years in Saigon during the war, has sought to render as accurately as possible the voice of the PAVN authors, retaining much of the triumphant flavor of the text in order to provide an uncensored feel for the Vietnamese viewpoint. A foreword by William J. Duiker, author of Ho Chi Minh: A Life and other books on Vietnam, puts both the tone and content of the text in historical perspective.

Book Description

Half-Hispanic, half-Yaqui Indian, and an orphan, Roy Benavidez fought his way out of poverty and bigotry to serve with the U.S. Armyâ€™s eliteâ€”the Airborne and the Special Forces. Seriously wounded in Vietnam, he was told he would never walk again. Benavidez not only conquered his disability but demanded to return to combat.

On his second tour, when twelve of his comrades on a secret CIA mission in Cambodia were surrounded by hundreds of North Vietnamese regulars, Benavidez volunteered to rescue them. Despite severe injuries suffered in hand-to-hand combat, Benavidez personally saved eight men. His actions ensured his everlasting place as one of the great heroes of the war. In February 1981, President Reagan awarded him the Medal of Honor.

Customer Reviews:

Duty, Honor, Country.......2004-04-17

I met MSG Benavidez in 1990 while stationed in NJ. I had the distinct honor of driving him around for 2 days while he was there to speak, and that experience will stay with me for the rest of my life. One thing that I remember is him saying that 22 years later metal fragments were still occasionally working their way out of his body.

I still have his picture hanging on my wall after 14 years. I have an extremely short list of hero's; Roy Benavidez holds the top slot...

The Voice of a True American Hero.......2003-05-13

MSG Roy Benevidez was an amazing person, and that's putting it mildly. In spite of his fearful wounds from his first tour-of-duty and doctors saying that he would never walk again, he went on to become an elite member of the US Army Special Forces. His actions in combat showed him to be brave, his actions after made him a hero. Roy Benevidez was not out to gain glory and status from his actions, nor did he ever look for pity because of his humble upbringings. Though his ancestry was Mexican-Indian and Hispanic, he always said, "I prefered to think of myself simply as an American." He had a "never say die" attitude, and strong sense of morals. He possesed neither vanity nor false modestly, and he served as an example of what one can accomplish in a lifetime. Sadly, MSG Roy Benevidez died in 1998. He truely was an American Hero! May God bless his soul.

A True American Hero.......1999-12-22

I was privileged to know and very fortunate to have served with Roy Benavidez. His entire life was a struggle: from his difficult early years in Texas, to his incredible struggle to remain in the Army after his first tour's devastating wounds, to his amazing jump status qualification after the doctors told him he would never walk again, to his incredible heroism that resulted in the MOH (but only after another long battle with the bureaucracy that refused to acknowledge heroism at a time that the country was trying to "forget" Vietnam) and finally, the redemption that came on the White House steps with the MOH ceremony, the "last" MOH given out for Vietnam service. I am glad that Brassey's has put the book out in paperback so that kids can read about Roy and learn to never give up. God Bless You, Roy.

Excellent book, I could not put it down........1999-10-02

Roy Benevidez must have been an incredible person. The feelings and thoughts he shares through out the book shows that behind "The Medal" there was a very real individual. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what really goes through the mind of a hero.

Military Art of People's War: Selected Writings

Average customer rating:

A great reference for the modern history of Vietnam

Military Art of People's War: Selected Writings
Vo Nguyen Giap
Manufacturer: Monthly Review Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

A great reference for the modern history of Vietnam.......1999-05-19

These are interesting, very readable collected writings of Vo Nguyen Giap, with other historical information. A book like this one is essential for any comprehensive, semi-rational, inclusive understanding of why the U.S. (and other western countries) fought a war in Vietnam.

Pavn: People's Army of Vietnam (A Da Capo paperback)

Average customer rating:

Quite good
Sometimes we learn
The strategy of the other side

Pavn: People's Army of Vietnam (A Da Capo paperback)
Douglas Pike
Manufacturer: Da Capo Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0306804328

Customer Reviews:

Quite good.......2006-06-21

This work is quite good, and I recommend it. It was the kind of book which a Vietnam veteran usually picks up with a lot of skepticism. It was probably better than a four-star work, but the chapter on Dau Tranh likely kept me from rating it with five stars. Pike's overall research was masterful, and for the year 1986 when the book was published, was very early on with analysis about not only why we (the U.S.) had to leave, but also why the Vietnamese in the north likely would never give up. Since their old die-hard leaders also wound up dying pretty old, there would have been a long time of misery for everyone.

I smiled at the Dau Tranh chapter, because communist governments and organizations always come up with names and slogans for the rationale of their irrationality, usually after the fact. It also didn't matter, as North Vietnam was run by xenophobes who kept their people away from the outside world, and the spirit of this Dau Tranh thing already existed at their poor infantryman's level all along. The soldiers and local cadre probably called it something else. In a way that we would call benignly perverted, these people were fighting for their independence on their terms, in spite of the xenophobes at the top. Independence makes a man fight hard.

I wish Dr. Pike had lived long enough to publish a sequel to PAVN. Much of what he said in his book turned out quite accurate and thoughtful. He missed on some other things, but so did we all. I suspect he would have been forthcoming about his misses, and very modest where he was right on.

Sometimes we learn.......2003-11-06

A few years ago I wrote a positive review of Pike's PAVN. Since then, I have learned a few things about the historian's art, and I would like to ammend my earlier review.
Pike's work is not a well-researched scholarly approach to the Vietnam War, but is instead, a biased, poorly researched, emotion laden diatribe. Dau Tranh is not an established and proven strategy, as Pike would have us believe, but only a dream of old NVA generals, who would have liked to have won the war on their terms. That all of the Vietnamese actually lost the war, and are now enslaved in a Communist totalitarian regime, is the end of the war, not some glorious victory of an all-seeing, all-wise NVA strategy. Pike fails to prove his case, has little actual dcoumentary evidence, and his book should not be accepted as anything other than a diatribe.
The true story of the complex, long, bloody and difficult war in South East Asia remains to be told. However, the historiography of the nearly twenty years since this book was first published has shown that the outcome of the war was much more circumstantial and nuanced than Pike would have us believe. It was not this simple!

The strategy of the other side.......2000-06-24

Douglas Pike performed a valuable service to history by capturing the essence of the North Vietnamese strategy for victory in the Vietnam War. His explanation of the various techniques used to win not only victory on the battlefield, but, more importantly, strategic and political victories over both the American and South Vietnamese opponents, should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in how the United States lost this war. Well written and researched, this book is both enjoyable and disturbing.

Hmong Means Free Pb (Asian American History & Cultu)

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My thoughts
To the not so cool dude. Get a life!
Cried and laughed all at once.
Helping young Hmong Americans find and identity...
Hmong means free

Hmong Means Free Pb (Asian American History & Cultu)
Sucheng Chan
Manufacturer: Temple University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1566391636

Book Description

This collection of evocative personal testimonies by three generations of Hmong refugees is the first to describe their lives in Laos as slash-and-burn farmers, as refugees after a Communist government came to power in 1975, and as immigrants in the United States. Reflecting on the homes left behind, their narratives chronicle the difficulties of forging a new identity.

Customer Reviews:

My thoughts.......2006-07-15

I thought the chineses' called Hmongs "Miao" and the Tais' called Hmongs "Meo." Don't quote me on that, I could be wrong.

Hmong peoples' stories are a bit different than most immigrants that came to the US. They are here because they assisted the US CIA with a "Secret War" against Indochina Communist and fled to the US to escape from death and imprisonment.

I agree that other races faced equal or more horrific conflicts, as well, but to bicker with PMS is a bit over the top. All of the reviews have brought much joy to me. At least there are people thinking deeply about the idea of Hmong and "reading" this cool book.

To the not so cool dude. Get a life!.......2005-01-18

I have not read this book personally, but the reviews I have read seemed like some of you are a little ticked off. It doesn't matter what "Hmong" really means to you, it's what it means to the author. But all of a sudden, some of you have become experts in the Hmong culture and language. Well send me your email address and I will personally send you a diploma, a B.S. in Hmong culture and language.

Now for the jerk that wrote the last review- The Hmong have put up with all kinds of stereotyping, but to say that they are inferior by looking at the way they live is really a slap in the face. I could say the same thing about the Vietnamese, Laotians, Cambodians, Chinese, or any other Asian groups in this country but I don't. What a person becomes is really up to that individual, so for you to pass judgement on others, especially a group of people, based on your narrow minded pea brain, I nominate you for the "Jerk of the Year" award.

Go get a life and stop ruining mine!

Cried and laughed all at once........2004-01-11

The author's intro was informative but lacks passion (some day, a Hmong author may be able to do a more passionate job on our plight).

The narratives were honest and sincere. There was no "sugar-coating"--I know! The narratives had a single common denominator: the sufferings of the human condition. Throughout the narration, I cried and laughed all at once. I cried: all the sufferings. I laughed: when one of the narratives failed the drivers' written test (in California) the first time because after she took the test, she didn't even realized it was in Spanish until her husband told her--she did not know Spanish.

The book gave me a sense of my history in a personal and down-to-earth way. The book is an excellent reference.

Helping young Hmong Americans find and identity..........2003-04-02

I work in the healthcare field and have seen quite a few young (teenage +) Hmong Americans struggling with their sense of value. In particular, a young girl who had been "Americanized" AKA taken from her family when she was young because of supposed abuse - a common practice not that long ago. She was depressed, living with a loving but very white family in which she felt inferior. Asian gang activities in our area made her feel embarrassed. This book put a spark back in her eyes. I found it wonderful and would highly recommend it.

Hmong means free.......2002-05-16

I just want to say something about the two words Hmong and Meo because many people seem to misunderstand.

"Hmong" is what the Hmong called themselves long ago during Fishing & Gathering, agrarian, and horticulture civilization. On the other hand, "Meo" is what the Chinese named the Hmong due to prejudice and discrimination result from war: Chinese battled with the Hmong during pre-industrial society in the late 1700s.

Tou B. YAng

Average customer rating:

very good.

History should not be fact based

Misleading, Trotskyist account of the US attack on Vietnam

Making Sense of Vietnam

An Excellent Primer to the Vietnam War

A People's History of the Vietnam War
Jonathan Neale , and Howard Zinn
Manufacturer: New Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Class, Race, and the Civil Rights Movement (Blacks in the Diaspora)

From Hanoi to Hollywood: The Vietnam War in American Film

America's Half-Century: United States Foreign Policy in the Cold War and After (The American Moment)

Hiroshima: Why America Dropped the Atomic Bomb

The People Speak: American Voices, Some Famous, Some Little Known

ASIN: 1565849434

Book Description

The war in Indochina as seen by those who fought on both sides.

This latest addition to The New Press's People's History series offers an incisive account of the war America lost, from the perspective of those who opposed it on both sides of the battlefront as well as on the homefront.

The protagonists in Neale's history of the "American War" (as the Vietnamese refer to it) are common people struggling to shape the outcome of events unfolding on an international stage —American foot soldiers who increasingly opposed American military policy on the ground in Vietnam, local Vietnamese activists and guerrillas fighting to build a just society, and the American civilians who mobilized to bring the war to a halt.

His narrative includes vivid, first-person commentary from the ordinary men and women whose collective actions resulted in the defeat of the world's most powerful military machine. 11 black-and-white photographs.

Customer Reviews:

very good........2007-04-15

The war in Iraq and September 11th probably will be the defining event of the youth of the United States today when we look back in a few decades, in much the same way the war in Vietnam defined a generation of youth in the 1960s and 1970s. In a war that ended place a decade before most of those youth were born, what lessons can we take back? How exactly did the Vietnamese win? What were the social movements in the US that arose out of this conflict? Why are the myths of the American-Vietnamese War?

The trick to understanding a lot of history is that a lot of what was taught us growing up was simply wrong and just a particular point of view. "A People's History of the Vietnam War", by Jonathan Neale, does a fantastic job of presenting an excellent history that skips over the usual hoop-la about certain elite leaders of the war, and instead concentrates on a more systematic analysis of the war that took so many millions of lives. He sees the world in terms of class and therefore argues that the American ruling class got into Vietnam as a continuation of their policies aiming at domination of the globe. They needed to save South Vietnam, which was about a brutal a dictatorship as there gets, in order to shore up their support of other dictators throughout the world.

At the same time, he doesn't commit the same blunder that many other left-wing historians make in supporting elite cadre of the Communist Party either. He correctly identifies that the majority of the party leadership were the sons and daughters of the ruling landlord class, and though they wanted a better world and sought to destroy the class of their ancestors, they also made sure that they, the CP, stayed on as rulers. They did lead a mass mobilization of peasants which liberated their land and carried out a revolution, and life was much better under the CP than it was under the French, but at the same time as Vietnam liberalizes its economy, it is the Party which mainly benefits from it.

Neale makes a pretty convincing argument that three main factors led to the defeat of the United States military in Vietnam by the Vietnamese forces. 1) The main one was the peasants revolt, led by the Communists and guerillas, in which hundreds of thousands of fighters gave their lives to bring a new future to their country. Millions of peasants died in bombings, slaughters, and executions, but they never gave up. When the Viet Cong (the South Vietnamese guerrilla group) was nearly annihilated following the Tet offensive and Operation Phoenix by US special forces, North Vietnamese units filled the void and gave everything until the truce of 1973 five years later. By the time of that truce, the guerrillas of the south and soldiers of the north were completely exhausted.

The second factor for why the US could not win the war (which it could have done given a few more hundred thousand dead soldiers, a few more million dead civilians, and a few more years of death and war) was because of the US Peace movement. This is where Neale does a masterful job of shattering myths. He points out that the Peace movement is remembered mainly as being fought on campuses by middle-class students and that white workers usually were pro-war. This is simply not true. In fact, a greater percentage of middle-class Americans supported the war, and the great majority of working-class Americans were against the war, mainly because it was they who were dying in the war and returning home maimed and psychologically damaged because of the atrocities they were forced to commit. In this atmosphere of civil rights struggles, black and white workers were at the forefront of joint struggles against the war. In fact, Neale argues that a big limit of the student anti-war organizers was that they did not reach out to working class people as much because they had built-in assumptions about racist white working class people being pro-war. In fact, because of the large scale of the anti-war movement, it became hard to mobilize the country's military resources without facing political defeats at home.

There's a great passage here about President Johnson listening to a Pentagon whiz kid in 1966, two years before the war became hugely unpopular, saying the carpet-bombing Hanoi and several key North Vietnamese ports would end the war early, and argues that after feeding numbers into a computer,the Pentagon knows that the atoms bombs of Nagasaki and Hiroshima saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of American soldiers. Johnson responds:

"I have one more problem for your computer- will you feed into it how long it would take five hundred thousand angry Americans to climb the White House wall out there and lynch their President if he does something like that?"

The third factor argued by Neale which lead to the victory of the Vietnamese resistance was the GI revolt. By the end of the war, soldiers refusing to fight, fragging their officers who led them into dangerous missions or other stuff like racism towards black soldiers, and everyday acts of resistance by a huge chunk of the GIs in Vietnam led to an impossible task of the generals pushing forward when they were not even sure they could trust their own soldiers. On nearly every military base in the world, there was a radical underground soldiers newspaper which wrote articles about their dangerous superiors and anti-war material in general. Towards the end of the war, President Nixon switched to almost exclusively air war by carpet bombing North Vietnam and the countryside's of South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, supporters of the Communists.

Neale does a great job explaining the huge effect on post-war Vietnam and United States. The United States proceeded to isolate Vietnam with its alliance with China and the Khymer Rouge in Cambodia. China even invaded Vietnam because of it's occupation of Cambodia after after the Khymer Rouge proceeded to destroy what was left of Cambodia after the massive firebombing of 1973 by the US air force. Gradually, the state rolled back the communal lands that the peasants had won in the war from the landlord class, until the point where today Vietnam is becoming a massive sweatshop in conjunction with large multinational corporations. In the United States, the ruling class learned not to commit to a long ground war, and instead embarks on a big counter-offensive against the gains of marginalized people (People of color, women, gay movements, working people) beginning in the 1980s. They learned the lessons of not letting a large amount of soldiers commit to ground operations, else that breeds massive dissent. The book was written right before the invasion of Iraq in early 2003, and aptly predicted a long ground war in Iraq.

Anyway, this was a great read and very well done. I can't recommend it enough.

History should not be fact based.......2005-09-07

Amazon forces you to give stars. I would have given none.

While the history parts of the book appear accurate, (because it is all based on the research of others) a history book should be factual and not opinionated. The author uses the excuse of the subject to get on his soap box and go on about the angst of the worker. This book gets predictable and boring fast. I appreciate books and the written word and will almost always pass a book on rather than see an author's work wasted. However, I am tossing this book in the recycling bin to avoid it falling into the hands of someone who might listen to this nonsense and take it is as fact rather than an angry man's opinion. No one should be fooled by the word history in the title. This is an essay by a cold war Trotskyisk looking to make waves.

I have no anomosity towards the Vietnamese people as my wife is Vietnamese and I have a lot of family there. However, the author fails to point out how the people of Vietnam prefer to forget about the war and look to the future. He also fails to point out that the U.S. is now one of the leading trading partners with Vietnam. But, I imagine that is current affairs and not history, so it does not fit into the author's scope of work.

I am disappointed in this publisher and will be wary of spending money on any of their publications in the future. What a waste of money! If you are really interested in a history of Vietnam, read Stanley Karnow. Thank you.

Misleading, Trotskyist account of the US attack on Vietnam.......2004-08-14

Jonathan Neale, the author of this book, is an American writer, an anti-globalisation activist and a member of the International Socialist Organisation. Chapters cover the Vietnamese people, why the USA attacked Vietnam, US atrocities, the guerrilla warfare, the US protests, the US soldiers, Vietnam and Cambodia after the war, and the USA and the world after the war. But unfortunately, the book is a Trotskyist account, so it is completely misleading about all the key elements of the war.

For example, Neale supports the US government's continuing hostility to Vietnam when he smears the Vietnamese government as `corrupt'. He parrots the US state's point of view, writing that the Vietnamese government "signed a mutual defence treaty with Russia late in 1978, and that pushed them into war with Cambodia and China."

This is a travesty of the truth. From 1975 onwards, the murderous Pol Pot regime in Cambodia, backed by the US state, had continuously attacked Vietnam, killing tens of thousands of people, until in December 1978 the Vietnamese counter-attacked and freed Cambodia.

And China that attacked Vietnam in 1979, not the other way round, after the US state had given Deng Hsiao-Ping the green light. Neale claims that "the victims of this war were the Chinese minority in Vietnam", again taking the US state's point of view, that the Vietnamese government was the aggressor, not the Chinese government.

This is typically Trotskyist - just enough class analysis to be plausible to a few, but always backing the counter-revolution at key moments, backing the US state in its counter-revolutionary attack on the Vietnamese people. Similarly, Trotskyists backed the kulaks against the Bolsheviks in the 1930s, the landlords in Hungary in 1956, the mujehadin in Afghanistan in 1989, and Boris Yeltsin in the Soviet Union in 1990.

Trotskyists always pontificate about other people's struggles, patronisingly telling the Vietnamese what they should have done at every moment, yet they never get it right for their own country.

Anyone interested in the Vietnamese people's historic victory over US imperialism should read Ho Chi Minh's writings, not this shoddy book.

Making Sense of Vietnam.......2004-01-17

Using a Marxist class perspective, Neale makes sense of the post WWII history of Vietnam in all its complexity. In fact, having read Neale's history, the standard nationalist histories which insist on nation states as the central actors, seem not just inadequate, but misleading. By emphasizing the clash of Vietnam's many masters and would-be masters, both colonial and local, including Asians -- Japanese and Chinese -- French, and U.S., Neale gives us compelling and instructive insights into time and a place that is now remebered by most Americans as the first war the U.S. ever lost, a war that created a syndrome that could only be overcome by winning the first Gulf War. Particularly good on how the French colonists and the Vietnamese landlord class ruled amicably for a number of years, the insurgence of the Marxist inspired North Vietnamese, followed by the arrival of the U.S. to prop up the French Catholic Vietnamese dictatorship in the name of global anti-communism. An excellent and even awesome achievment.

An Excellent Primer to the Vietnam War.......2003-12-11

Whether you are already familiar with the war, or new to the subject, this book is an excellent addition because of the approach it takes. While most history is written from the view of the powerful, this book concentrates on those segments of the population typically brushed aside in the telling of history, i.e. the masses.

To quickly address the previous reviewer's comments on the book--
Regarding the novel quoted from describing the rape scene: that was only one aspect of the author's approach; he also quotes directly from soldiers who witnessed such acts. If you want hard numbers on the number of rapes, good luck finding out, at least in any establishment histories or sources. While the number has been estimated in the hundreds of thousands, it was certainly a number the U.S. was unconcerned with, just as it was unconcerned with the numbers of Vietnamese dead (estimated to be 3 to 4 million dead peasants in that war).

J. Neale broaches the topics of the Russian revolution, McCarthyism, and classism here at home; but does so as to give the Vietnam war a more proper context. Wars don't occur in vaccums, and he points out that there were a number of factors that contributed to the U.S. terror in Vietnam.

Regarding the oversimplifications, you'll find that in any concise approach to telling history, particularly something as monolithic as the Vietnam war which spanned 4 decades. If you want a greater understanding, you'll need to read from a lot of sources.

Lastly, regarding the author's tying in of Vietnam with today's wars, the author is merely doing what a historian ought to be doing. Learning about previous acts of U.S. terror serves no purpose on its own unless the ultimate aim is to affect the terror that continues today. Many of the lessons of Vietnam aptly apply to Bush's acts of terror and aggression in the middle east today.

If you're looking for an establishment history of the war, try Robert McNamara's "In Retrospect" which is a typical exercise in apologetics for American terror (i.e. WE were attacked by Vietnam, OUR intentions were moral and good, WE suffered in the war, etc.)

Customer Reviews:

Truth is the first casualty.......2000-10-19

This book is, to put it bluntly, a fraud. The "author" says in the forward that the information in the book comes from research and personal interviews conducted in Vietnam and from internal Vietnamese Air Force documents. In fact, the book is nothing more than a considerably abridged, very slightly edited and annotated TRANSLATION of the official "History of the People's Air Force of Vietnam" (LICH SU KHONG QUAN NHAN DAN VIET NAM) published in Vietnam in 1993 and freely available to the public there. I have checked Toperczer's book against the "History of the People's Air Force" and found that virtually every paragraph, every sentence, every word of Toperczer's book is lifted directly from the "History of the People's Air Force." He did not even bother to change the order of the book, so I could do my checking directly page by page from one book to the other. I have been able to identify only one very short paragraph in Toperczer's entire book which is original. Otherwise, the only thing that Toperczer has added to the Vietnamese history are the photographs and, in one or two places, the names of pilots (most of the pilots names are given in the Vietnamese book). Neither the "author" nor the publisher cite the Vietnamese History as a reference. They claim copyright for the book, which in my admittedly non-professional legal opinion is a blatant violation of the copyright agreement reached between the U.S. and Vietnam in 1997 and which took force in 1998. Not that I feel any particular sympathy for the Vietnamese Air Force, which apparently holds the copyright rights, in this matter - I just don't like people claiming credit for work that is not theirs.

Window on a War: An Anthropologist in the Vietnam Conflict (Modern Southeast Asia Series)

Average customer rating:

The Futility of Being a Civilian at time of War
Hickey doesn't tell all & doesn't explain why he remained
One of the best books I have ever read!

Window on a War: An Anthropologist in the Vietnam Conflict (Modern Southeast Asia Series)
Gerald Cannon Hickey
Manufacturer: Texas Tech University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0896724905

Customer Reviews:

The Futility of Being a Civilian at time of War .......2005-12-13

"Window on a War" is the autobiography of anthropologist Gerald C. Hickey and his work in Vietnam, especially among the Montagnards, from 1956-1973. Hickey is probably the preminent world expert on the Montagnards, the peoples of the Central Highlands of Vietnam.

Hickey devotes most of the book to his impressions of Vietnam, its people, and what went wrong with the American war effort there. His advice on how to win "hearts and minds" among the Vietnamese farmers and Montagnards was mostly ignored. Would it have made a difference if he been heeded? Hard to say, but his observations ring true. One of the most startling assertions he makes is that the American government sought a military victory from the beginning of the conflict and blocked efforts of Vietnamese nationalists to reach a typical Vietnamese solution of accomodation. The assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963, in Hickey's view, made continued civil war certain. Robert MacNamara wanted it that way, he asserts. Hickey, however, was no simple-minded war protester, but rather a patriot who observed more in sorrow than in anger the failure of the American effort to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam.

Hickey throws darts at a number of people in the course of the book, including iconic figures like Daniel Ellsberg and John Paul Vann. That keeps the book interesting. He writes eloquently about his own experiences under fire, especially the communist attack on the outpost at Nam Dong in 1964. This is as good a piece of war reporting as you will find anywhere.

Hickey briefly describes what has happened in Vietnam since his departure in 1973, especially the plight of the Montagnards. He also describes being ostracized by his alma mater, the University of Chicago, because he worked for the RAND Corporation, a Defense contractor, in Vietnam. This is a thoughtful and provocative book that should be read by all those who go to war or plan to go to war. Winning often has little to do with military victories.

Smallchief

Hickey doesn't tell all & doesn't explain why he remained.......2004-08-26

As one who lived through many of the scenes depicted here I grew tired of Gerald Hickey's slowness in supposedly coming late to realize that the CIA, Pentagon, Special Forces, White House and Rand wasn't going to use his informaiton for peace. All of us who were there knew this was the case, why didn't he? He was betrayed so many times early on in this book that it seems obvious that his research was never going to be used for peace, so it was instead used for war.

One of the best books I have ever read!.......2003-07-04

If you only read one book about the war in Vietnam, read this one! Dr. Hickey's participation in the defense of the Nam Dong Special Forces camp had me sitting on the edge of my chair. That was the true nature of combat in Vietnam, some of which I experienced personally, but not with that intensity. More important are Dr. Hickey's brilliant descriptions of the lifestyles and attitudes of the many cultures which comprise the intricate social and political structure of Vietnam. The many missed opportunities for a just peace without the sacrifice of so many American soldiers make this book a "must read" for all who value peace.

'Vietnam': A Portrait of its People at War

Average customer rating:

Fascinating to hear the other perspective.
A Major Contribution Which Fills Many Gaps

'Vietnam': A Portrait of its People at War
David Chanoff , and Doan Van Toai
Manufacturer: I. B. Tauris
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1860640761

Book Description

The American experience during the Vietnam conflict is universally known: the brutalisation of the US fighting men, the drug abuse, and the trauma. Even today the very word 'Vietnam' is too often interpreted as referring to this conflict (and specifically the American perception of it) rather than to the country and its people.The view from the other side-- the Vietcong and North Vietnamese-- has been virtually ignored. In this remarkable piece of twentieth-century oral history-- now available in paperback for the first time-- the story emerges of the ordinary people of both North and South Vietnam, of the Vietcong guerrilla fighters and terrorists, North Vietnamese soldiers and cadres, monks, opposition leaders, propaganda chiefs and village secretaries. Constructed as a series of interviews, this book provides an account of dedication and heroism at all levels, and also of the brutality and trauma faced by a people in the grip of revolution and a terrifying war.Those featured in the book describe aspects of the war: the murderous trek down the Ho Chi Minh trail, the self-immolation of Buddhist monks, the methods of Vietcong assassination teams and life under attack from American bombs and napalm. Taken as a whole, the accounts provide a rare insight into the thinking of the 'other side.'

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating to hear the other perspective........2004-01-14

This was quite interesting and I will use a few of the interviews for my teaching of the Vietnam War in my US History class. Nice to expose my students to the "enemy".

A Major Contribution Which Fills Many Gaps.......1998-05-26

This is that rare book on Vietnam which contributes new information which is essential to understanding the war and the country. Chanoff and Toai have assembled an extraordinary set of new interviews, published reminiscences, and war-time interrogation reports with northern and southern Vietnamese participants in the decades long struggle to build a unified communist country.

These are as frank and revealing a set of eyewitness interviews as anyone is ever likely to assemble. They deal honestly and painfully with the hardships of war, the combination of idealism and brutality that pervade daily life during war, and the shattered dreams of many participants during land reform, ideological purges and power grabs.

I consider this one of the 15 or 20 books that belongs on everyone's list of the ten most important books written on the war. Along with books by David Marr, Hue-Tam Ho Tai and Le Ly Hayslip, I consider it one of the essential sources on Vietnam itself. There is not just the insight of personal memoirs from well-known events, there are also many major revelations about critical events in the war -- such as the Buddhist struggles and the building of the Ho Chi Minh trail.

I have been teaching courses on the contry and the war for over 20 years at the University of California at San Diego. I expect to be using this book in class for many years.

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