A war refined : reframing the narrative of the Vietnam War -- Same side, different wars: grunts and REMFs in Vietnam -- This place just isn't John Wayne: U.S. military bases in Vietnam -- Total war on boredom: the U.S. military's recreation program in Vietnam -- The things they bought: G.I. consumerism in Vietnam -- War zone wonderland: the strange world of "the Nam" -- From Vietnam to Iraq: reimagining the American way of war
Summary
In this ms., Meredith Lair seeks to recalibrate the way Americans think about their wars by addressing non-combat experiences of American soldiers in Vietnam. Though only one in four Vietnam veterans served in combat--and likely even fewer--both popular representations and scholarly treatments of the war focus on combat and its after-effects, erasing comfort, recreation, and fun from the picture. In this ms, Lair instead paints a provocative picture of the Vietnam War in which beauty and ice cream take precedence over the bullets, as they often did for Americans who served there. Lair uncovers
