| Description |
xvi, 279 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
Buddhist soldier defends a Catholic government -- Surviving the bloody jungle -- Electronic reconnaissance vs. guerrillas -- Communist regulars from the north -- People's war against Americans -- No final victory, no family life -- Russian missile officers in Vietnam -- Dragon's tale: Chinese troops in the jungle -- Chinese response to the U.S. rolling thunder campaign -- Russian spies in Hanoi -- Long days and endless nights: an artillery story -- And then they're gone... just like that -- No John Wayne movie: real bullets, real blood -- More than meets the eye: supporting the intelligence effort -- Medevac and medcap missions and more -- Drowning tears with laughter -- Life and death of an ARVN doctor -- Korean captain and his hospital -- "Loggie's" War: napalm, fuel, bombs, and sweat -- Support and survival in Thailand -- Three great escapes -- Chinese railroad engineering operations -- Perspectives on the war |
| Summary |
The Vietnam War's influence on politics, foreign policy, and subsequent military campaigns is the center of much debate and analysis. But the impact on veterans across the globe, as well as the war's effects on individual lives and communities, is a largely neglected issue. As a consequence of cultural and legal barriers, the oral histories of the Vietnam War currently available in English are predictably one sided, providing limited insight into the inner workings of the Communist nations that participated in the war. Furthermore, many of these accounts focus on combat experiences rather than the backgrounds, belief systems, and social experiences of interviewees, resulting in an incomplete historiography of the war. The author, a Chinese native corrects this oversight in this work. He spent seven years gathering hundreds of personal accounts from survivors of the war, accounts that span continents, nationalities, and political affiliations. The twenty two intimate stories in the book feature the experiences of American, Chinese, Russian, Korean, and North and South Vietnamese veterans, representing the views of both anti-Communist and Communist participants, including Chinese officers of the PLA, a Russian missile training instructor, and a KGB spy. These narratives humanize and contextualize the war's events while shedding light on aspects of the war previously unknown to Western scholars. Providing fresh perspectives on a long-discussed topic, this work offers a thorough and unique understanding of America's longest war |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Subject |
Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Veterans -- Personal narratives
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Veterans -- Personal narratives.
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Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Personal narratives.
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| Genre/Form |
Biographies.
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Personal narratives.
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| LC no. |
2010007779 |
| ISBN |
9780813125923 hardcover acid-free paper |
|
0813125928 hardcover acid-free paper |
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