Amazon.com
A great memoirist can burnish even an ordinary childhood into something bright--see, for instance, Annie Dillard's An American Childhood. So what about a really good writer with access to a dramatic and little-documented story? This is the case with Catfish and Mandala, Vietnamese American Andrew X. Pham's captivating first book, which delves fearlessly into questions of home, family, and identity. The son of Vietnamese parents who suffered terribly during the Vietnam War and brought their family to America when he was 10, Pham, on the cusp of his 30s, defied his parents' conservative hopes for him and his engineering career by becoming a poorly paid freelance writer. After the suicide of his sister, he set off on an even riskier path to travel some of the world on his bicycle. In the grueling, enlightening year that followed, he pedaled through Mexico, the American West Coast, Japan, and finally his far-off first land, Vietnam.
The story, with some of a mandala's repeated symbolic motifs, works on several levels at once. It is an exploration into the meaning of home, a descriptive travelogue, and an intimate look at the Vietnamese immigrant experience. There are beautifully illuminated flashbacks to the experience of fleeing Vietnam and to an earlier, more innocent childhood. While Pham's stern father, a survivor of Vietcong death camps, regrets that Pham has not been a respectful Vietnamese son, he also reveals that he wishes he himself had been more "American" for his kids, that he had "taken [them] camping." Catfish and Mandala is a book of double-edged truths, and it would make a fascinating study even in less able hands. In those of the adventurous, unsentimental Pham, it is an irresistible story. --Maria Dolan
Book Description
Winner of the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book PrizeA New York Times Notable Book of the YearWinner of the Whiting Writers' AwardA Seattle Post-Intelligencer Best Book of the YearCatfish and Mandala is the story of an American odyssey-a solo bicycle voyage around the Pacific Rim to Vietnam-made by a young Vietnamese-American man in pursuit of both his adopted homeland and his forsaken fatherland. Andrew X. Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in California. His father had been a POW of the Vietcong; his family came to America as "boat people." Following the suicide of his sister, Pham quit his job, sold all of his possessions, and embarked on a year-long bicycle journey that took him through the Mexican desert, around a thousand-mile loop from Narita to Kyoto in Japan; and, after five months and 2,357 miles, to Saigon, where he finds "nothing familiar in the bombed-out darkness." In Vietnam, he's taken for Japanese or Korean by his countrymen, except, of course, by his relatives, who doubt that as a Vietnamese he has the stamina to complete his journey ("Only Westerners can do it"); and in the United States he's considered anything but American. A vibrant, picaresque memoir written with narrative flair and an eye-opening sense of adventure, Catfish and Mandala is an unforgettable search for cultural identity.
Customer Reviews:
a random and beautiful encounter.......2007-07-09
i was travelling alone in Lhasa, Tibet and found this book in Makye Ame restaurant. i started reading and couldn't put it down. it gave me true enjoyable solitude on my lonely journey. loved it. i spent the last two days reading it in that restaurant. ordered a copy from Amazon last week and i can't wait to finish it.
my heartfelt thanks to Mr Pham!
. . arriving at the place where you started. . .and knowing it for the first time.......2007-07-09
`I am a mover of betweens' writes Andrew X.Pham. . . `I slip among classifications, like water in cupped palms.' And in his award winning Catfish and Mandala he takes his readers into those `betweens' with him Viet-kieu, `foreign' Vietnamese, Pham sets out from San Francisco on his rickety 18 speed bicycle riding the Pacific Rim, first up the coast to Seattle, then through Japan, and finally arriving in Ho Chi Minh City from where he begins his odyssey through Vietnam, seeking to understand his relationship to the country of his birth, and the people, and his culture.
The ride he takes us on becomes, for the reader, as spiritual as it is physical. We feel every bump in the road, we push up the hills, we are cold, wet, hungry, ambivalent at times, and we suffer from chronic dysentery. Pham meets people who reject him, who taunt him, and those who, often after initial distrust, befriend him for part of the journey. While he is `pedaling and pushing' alone to Hanoi and back , on a journey everyone advises him is too dangerous, the narrative ebbs and flows through his childhood, through the escape on the boat, through the struggles of his family.
Pham moves comfortably from the specific, the particular, like his recollections of Scarface, Bugsy, Redeye, or Bagman and Mechanic, or the roasting ears of corn dripping with pork fat and scallions, to the philosophic - and then the poetic. It is little surprise he has been linked to writers like Thoreau, Kerouac, Steinback.. . I might add William Carlos Williams,T.S.Eliot or Carl Sandburg. He speaks at once of Vietnam and of his uncertain place there and of the US- and in so doing speaks to all of us who now count among the millions who have left homelands and no longer fully understand what home is, and who `move between.'
By the end of Pham's journey we begin to understand what that is, and value it.
moving.......2007-06-09
This story of a family's escape from Vietnam is a captivating memoir. The author combines his family history with richly detailed descriptions of the landscape of Vietnam. Very well-written and moving.
Great book!.......2007-04-30
Born in Vietnam and came to America at the age of 2--this book is such a great read. It's quite a feeling to see so many of my own thoughts and conflicts regarding my heritage written out this way. Highly recommended.
From another Vietnamese's perspective.......2007-02-23
Overall, this book is well written and has its good moments. As a Vietnamese who came to America at the same time frame and age as the writer, I can't help but to dislike the writer as I read the book.
First of all, I think the writer has a condescending view toward Vietnam and the people. He tries too hard to describe the negatives while not trying to even understand the reason for the state of the country and the people. I feel that the writer sensationalizes, even bordeline fictionalize, his story to appease to the readers. In the book, the author tried to describe the character Kim as a victim of the society, yet, he goes on to use her and skip town so he wouldn't have to face her. He paints such a negative picture of everyone that he met on the road. I wonder why he even took this trip. This author is the reason why Vietnamese Americans are so dislike in Vietnam. The author came back to the country without any knowledge nor understanding, and sadly, all he can do is whined.
I'm two years older than the author and came to United States when I was nine. What the author faced is not unlike any other Vietnamese refugees' story. I wonder about some facts and timeline in the author's recollection of his childhood. Base on the events that were stated, the author must have a photographic memory at such a young age. Some of his memories were a bit far fetched. One has to wonder if the memories were really his or a collection of someone else's memories.
As far as the difficulties in a new country, GET OVER IT!!! Every Vietnamese had to endure the similar situations. My father was a high ranking government official and he too had to work as a janitor. My mother who was a teacher, had to work on a assembly line making seat belts. I grew up in Fresno picking oranges and tomatoes. My wife escaped Vietnam by herself at the age of 16. We all survived and thrived on our experiences. There were many, many more Vietnamese who endured much worse fate than Mr. Pham. I find the author's self-indulgent story annoying by the end of the book.
Overall, I think the author tries a bit too hard writing about himself and forget the real victims, his motherland and the Vietnamese people. As much as the author wants to convey of his noble character, I find his views lack of empathy and understanding for Vietnam. I happen to be very proud of my roots and appreciate all that Vietnam has to offered, even with all of its imperfections. Sadly, Mr. Pham reflects many Vietnamese Americans that have turned their back on their roots. I'm proud that I was born in Vietnam and will be proud of my heritage everyday.
Amazon.com
"Chea, how come good doesn't win over evil?" young Chanrithy Him asks her sister, after the brutal Khmer Rouge have seized power in Cambodia, but before hunger makes them too weak for philosophy. Chea answers only with a proverb: When good and evil are thrown together into the river of life, first the klok or squash (representing good) will sink, and the armbaeg or broken glass (representing evil) will float. But the broken glass, Chea assures her, never floats for long: "When good appears to lose, it is an opportunity for one to be patient, and become like God."
Before this proverb could come true, Chanrithy had to watch her mother, father, and five of her brothers and sisters die, murdered by the Khmer Rouge or fatally weakened by malnutrition, disease, and overwork. Now living in Oregon, where she studies posttraumatic stress disorder among Cambodian survivors, Chanrithy has written a first-person account of the killing fields that's remarkable for both its unflinching honesty and its refusal to despair. In wrenchingly immediate prose, she describes atrocities the rest of the world might prefer to ignore: her sick yet still breathing mother, thrown along with corpses into a well; a pregnant woman beaten to death with a spade, the baby struggling inside her; a sister impossibly swollen with edema, her starving body leaking fluid from the webbing between her toes.
The mind retreats from horrors like these--and yet what emerges most strongly from this memoir is the triumph of life. Chanrithy is determined to honor her pledge to the dying Chea, to study medicine so she can help others live. When Broken Glass Floats accomplishes the same goal in a different way. "As a survivor, I want to be worthy of the suffering that I endured," Chanrithy writes; by giving such eloquent voice to her dead, she has proven herself more than worthy of her suffering--and theirs. --Chloe Byrne
Book Description
In this mesmerizing story, finalist for the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, Chanrithy Him vividly recounts her trek through the hell of the "killing fields." She gives us a child's-eye view of a Cambodia where rudimentary labor camps for both adults and children are the norm and modern technology no longer exists. Death becomes a companion in the camps, along with illness. Yet through the terror, the members of Chanrithy's family remain loyal to one another, and she and her siblings who survive will find redeemed lives in America. 15 b/w photographs.
Customer Reviews:
A Trek to the Past.......2007-08-18
When Broken Glass Floats is the author's journey to find the magic of a world lost as a result of the Khmer Rouge. This book, as a personal account of the Khmer Rouge regime, is also my personal journey as a reader and a Khmer person. Through this magical journey, my own forgotten memories are awakened and many traditional beliefs that I have pushed to the back of my mind resurface.
I was too young to have memories of the Killing Fields, but I have heard enough stories to feel connected to it. There were gaps missing in my memory and this book filled those gaps. When Broken Glass Floats is poetic and touching, a book rooted in the author's desire to let the world know about the tragic death of her family. It begins when her memories are awakened as a result of her work as an interpreter and interviewer for the Khmer Adolescent Project, studying post-traumatic stress disorder among Cambodian survivors. This is a story of triumph, survival, and hope written from the Khmer soul of a Cambodian-American woman.
When Broken Glass Floats is a book with two moving and powerful purposes: one, as a therapeutic tool for the author, and, two, as a reminder of an event that should never have occurred. The author describes her book as a way "to use the power of words to caution the world, and in the process to heal myself" (p. 23). The process of writing the book became a trek to the Himalayas, "a search to recapture the long-lost magic in [her] life" (p. 23). My travels have taken me to the Himalayas. I have been seeking magic for my own healing like the author of When Broken Glass Floats. The process of reading her book and other autobiographies has provided much healing. I recommend this book for everyone who is interested in this subject, but in particular to Cambodian-Americans, because this book can take you on a journey into yourself, your soul, memories, and past.
Good reading in preparation for Cambodia trip.......2007-03-15
I read this first and then Pol Pot, by Philip Short, in preparation for a trip to Cambodia. The combination was excellent. Short's historical, researched book helped me analyze what had happened and why. Him's book gave a personal story to go with it. While I traveled in Cambodia, I thought back to her comments as often as I remembered Short's history. Together, they gave me a much better travel experience.
Heart-Wrenching.......2006-11-05
this is one of the most heart-wrenching stories I've ever heard told, and it well illustrates what can happen when such a ridiculous, unrealistic political ideology as fanatical socialism/communism - and its well-armed proponents - cause a country to self-destruct. I read this book while in Cambodia, so it had all that much more impact, and I constantly found myself looking at older people - and there seemed to be disporportionately very few people over the age of about 50, which in itself is probably part of the story - and wondering what they went through, or what they inflicted on others, back in those horrible Khmer Rouge days.
Should be required reading.......2006-07-01
I met Ms. Him at a book signing and have a hardcover signed by her. She is a beautiful, gentle woman with one of the most musical voices I have ever heard. To listen to the stories of unspeakable horror that issued from her lips as she read a passage chilled me. She is my age; while I was struggling with Algebra, she was struggling with pure evil. I promised her that I would do my best to never let her story be forgotten. My children will be required to read this when they reach the age she was in the book.
Evil exists, and it will only grow stronger if we ignore it.
A Must Read.......2006-04-07
This is a great biography of a Child's perspective of the Khamer Rougue take over in Cambodia in the 1970's. Chanrithy's story will stir up every emotion in you. This is a real story about survival during a very dark time in history. Her escapes from labor death camps, while nearly dying from starvation and sickness. The constant fear of military attack, or excecution by the Khamer Rouge soldiers. The loss of innocence, freedom, family, Friends, a life she once knew and culture she once cherished.
This is a must read for all. Chanrithy's story really breaks through all the "static" of media coverage that we hear about on the news everyday regarding similar things going on all over the world and opens the eyes of the reader to see the PEOPLE who live through these horrific experiences, and how their lives are forever changed. What I realized from reading this story is how little we as a culture are aware of what horrors have existed in the past, and the horrors that exist now. It is a travesty that we are so blind.
Customer Reviews:
Pure Propaganda.......2001-12-08
"The Story of 'Miss Saigon'" by Edward Behr and Joseph Steyn is, quite simply, a work of propaganda. This is true not only because the purpose of the book is to persuade the reader to buy a ticket to see the stage musical "Miss Saigon," but because the book tells an egregiously one-sided account of the 1990 controversy over the casting of white British actor Jonathan Pryce as the musical's Vietnamese male lead, the Engineer. In the summer of 1990, "Miss Saigon's" powerful British producer, Cameron Mackintosh, wanted to cast Pryce as the Engineer -- Broadway's first Asian-male lead (non-supporting) role in 15 years -- without seriously considering any Asian actors for the part. Actors Equity, the American stage-actors' union, denied Pryce a visa to play the role, citing the paucity of lead roles for Asian American actors and Mackintosh's refusal to audition any in good faith. Rather than take the matter to arbitration, as was his option, Mackintosh indignantly accused Equity of "discriminat[ing] against Mr. Pryce on the basis of his race" and canceled the Broadway production, which had already amassed a then-record $25 million in advance ticket sales.
By vetoing Pryce for "Miss Saigon's" Asian-male lead, Equity hoped to call attention to a simple fact: Asian American actors do not have equal opportunities to play lead roles in the U.S. entertainment industry. White actors have always been allowed to play lead Asian roles -- from Charlie Chan to "The King and I" to "Kung Fu." Recognizably Asian actors, by contrast, had never been considered for white leads, and Asian lead roles are extremely rare. However well intended, casting Pryce as the Engineer would only perpetuate this racially discriminatory double standard. Pryce had many other opportunities to play lead roles; Asian Americans actors -- because of their race -- did not.
Although Mackintosh justified the casting of a white actor as the Engineer by saying that the character was of mixed Asian and European ancestry, nowhere in "Miss Saigon's" original London libretto is any reference made to his Caucasian background. In fact, the logic of the plot requires him to be 100% Vietnamese. So, many believe that the Engineer was labeled "Eurasian" solely to accommodate a white actor in an otherwise full-blooded Asian lead role.
In its chapter about the casting controversy, "Calamity and Catharsis" (written by Behr), "The Story of 'Miss Saigon'" does its best to demonize Equity's veto of Pryce and, in doing so, obscure the entertainment industry's historical discrimination against Asian American actors. For example, Behr attributes the objections against Pryce's casting to a "hard-core...radical fringe," when in fact, opposition to the casting of a white actor in a rare Asian lead was broadly supported by Equity's minority constituents. Behr refers to those opposed in principle to such biased casting as the "anti-Pryce" lobby, as though their objections were a personal attack upon this individual actor. And anticipating future arguments against affirmative action, Behr disingenuously accuses the non-white actors of "introducing the notion of racial privilege [for minorities] under the guise of multi-racial equality." The idea that *Pryce* might be racially privileged -- that he would not have had the opportunities to become a star on the London stage if he hadn't been white -- never occurs to the author.
Granted, the "Miss Saigon" controversy also raised the issue of Cameron Mackintosh's right of free speech. But this could have been negotiated with the actors' equal-opportunity rights in the arbitration process, an option that Mackintosh *chose* not to exercise. And while it's important to protect a producer's right to free expression, the entertainment industry is also a business, and as a business, it has the responsibility to make sure that arbitrary obstacles do not keep any particular group (in this case, Asian Americans) beneath a glass ceiling. "The Story of 'Miss Saigon'" twists itself into knots in an effort to obscure such issues. A few months after the dispute was settled -- and it was decided that Pryce would open the role of the Engineer on Broadway -- the New York City Commission on Human Rights held hearings on the subject of racism in casting and concluded that there was "widespread discrimination" in the entertainment industry. These hearings were held in direct response to the "Miss Saigon" controversy and its outcome, but Behr doesn't acknowledge their existence. To do so would have undermined his highly biased, circumscribed argument.
Discussing the "Miss Saigon" dispute in the New York Times on August 26, 1990, African American actress Ellen Holly talked about the times when she was forced to surrender roles because of *her* race, but no one stood up for her. She wrote: "Racism in America today is nothing so crass as mere hatred of another person's skin color. It is rather an affliction of so many centuries duration that it permeates institutions to the point of becoming indivisible from them. Only when the darker races attempt to break out of the bind -- and inconvenience whites in the process -- do whites even perceive racism as an issue. Only when a white is asked to vacate a role on racial grounds does the matter become a front-page issue....That, of course, is the blatant hypocrisy that infects this whole issue. Nonwhites are forced to give up parts on racial grounds in the back alleys, behind the barn and inside the closet, and no one could care less."
I'm glad that "The Story of 'Miss Saigon'" is now out of print. For a more accurate picture of the casting controversy, see the chapter "Gangsters, Gooks, Geishas, and Geeks" in "Asian American Dreams" by Helen Zia.
A standing ovation!.......1997-11-14
Miss Saigon fans will not be disappointed by this pictured-packed, thoroughly written work. (And this is a keeper for Lea Salonga fans, too.) The format is akin to the more accessible "Phantom of the Opera" books -- in fact, I cannot understand why the publisher doesn't have stacks of "The Story of Miss Saigon" sitting beside the coffee mugs and T-shirts at theater gift shops in London, on Broadway and at the tour stops. Amazon's Out of Print Search Service also rates a "10" -- quick, helpful and very reliable.
The Story Of Miss Saigon, A Great Book........1997-10-17
This is a very good book, which tells you everything about the making of Miss Saigon, started from Madam Butterfly, then the created team, casting session, rehearsing, the Broadway opening..etc...This book is out of print and very hard to find. I recommend this book to all musical fans out there, expecially Miss Saigon fans, you must read this book.
Great for theatre buffs.......1996-11-16
Of the many theatre books I own, this is by far one of the
more interesting and informative. Great sections on how
the cast was picked and of the early writing process!
A must for actors or anyone who loves MS!
If it is by Behr it will be correct.......1996-05-26
Behr's finest work is Anyone here been raped and speaks English. It is a journey through time with Behr as a Foreign Correspondent in Africa, The Far East etc. A must for any budding journalist. Add it to your list. It was first published by Viking in 1978. It is not in your file. The best on offer since 'Scoop'
Book Description
"The first full-length and scholarly account of why we got into Vietnam in the first place, why we fought as barbarously as the Japanese in Manchuria or the Germans in Poland, and why we deserved to lose it -- indeed why we did have to lose it if we were to find any kind of ultimate peace." -- Henry Steele Commager, Amherst College
"A provocative and informative book written in the easy style of a seasoned teacher. One must wonder what might have been had Backfire been written two decades earlier." -- Paul Bucha, Medal of Honor, Vietnam
"This remarkable book provides a way of looking at the Vietnam War that is both intellectually complex and extremely moving." -- Susan Sontag
In a probing look at the myths of American culture that led us into the Vietnam quagmire, Loren Baritz exposes our national illusions: the conviction of our moral supremacy, our assumption that Americans are more idealistic than other people, and our faith in a technology that supposedly makes us invincible. He also reveals how Vietnam changed American culture today, from the successes and failures of the Washington bureaucracy to the destruction of the traditional military code of honor.
"Baritz reminds us of how confident we were in America's invincibility during those pre-Vietnam War days. He looks closely into 'the invention of South Vietnam' during the Kennedy years, and he examines the body counting war at home--the bureaucratic and psychological effort to convince ourselves that we were winning, and would surely win. Backfire reveals brilliantly why the lessons of Vietnam are so difficult to learn," -- Martin J. Sherwin, History Book Club
Customer Reviews:
Backfire.......2006-01-21
John Sweet
Book review #3
Baritz, Loren. Back Fire: A History of How American Culture Led Us into Vietnam and Made Us Fight the Way We Did. Baltimore: The John's Hopkins University Press, 1985.
Loren Baritz takes a look at the Vietnam War in a way that lets us understand why we decided to fight and why we fought the way we did. Unlike most surveys of the war that focus on the logistical elements and command decisions which explain what the war was Baritz explains why it was. "To understand our present role in the world" Baritz explains, "we must understand the Vietnam debacle." (p.9) Indeed, if we are to learn anything from our mistakes, and virtually everyone now agrees that Vietnam was a mistake, it is essential to know why something happened and not just what happened. To explain why Vietnam happened the way it did Baritz proposes that there is "an inherent connection between war and culture [that is] present in all nations." In our case, Vietnam was fought the way it was because our culture left us no other way to fight it.
Baritz divides the book up into three parts. The first part, Tinder, explains why America decided to fight in Vietnam and the myths that forced us to make war half way around the globe with a people that we did not understand. The second part, Fire, explains how we fell into an ever deeper war in Vietnam and how our means of fighting determined how we fought and why we were unable to effectively combat a vastly inferior military force. The third part, Backfire, is the most telling part of the book for it presents an explanation of how our culture forced us to fight the way we did, why we ultimately lost, and why we are still making the same mistakes today.
In Tinder, Baritz convinces us that Americans firmly believe that we are the best. We are a "chosen people" inhabiting a "city on a hill" doing "Gods work" bringing a "Great Society to Asia." Such blatant solipsism is part of our entrenched American dogma. So ingrained is this self righteousness that we truly can not comprehend someone who does not wish to be like us. One GI put it simply "The Vietnamese are so stupid that they can't understand a great people were trying to help a weak people." So it was, as Baritz explains, that Gods Country went to Vietnam to save them.
Our almost total ignorance of the Vietnamese culture is now legendary but at the time it did not seem important. Our sense of righteousness and invincibility was so complete that we never even considered the possibility that we were the real enemy to the South Vietnamese. One of the greatest blunders of the Vietnam War was the refusal to see the indigenous forces of the South as the main target. Instead, we assumed that the North was behind our failures to win the hearts and minds of the "backwards" South Vietnamese. Baritz is careful to explain that all nations have myths about their own greatness, but it is when these myths of inherent superiority are combined with power that terrible things happen. As was the case for us in Vietnam. Indeed, Baritz's book is now routinely quoted to expose the similarities between Vietnam and Iraq in an attempt to put the brakes on what is turning out to be a similar debacle.
Our moral superiority has often been derived by our technical superiority according to Baritz. Our obsession with the power of technology is absolute. It has been, and is today, the firm belief of most Americans that technology is the answer for most problems. This dependency on technological solutions, according to Baritz, blinded us to the proper response in Vietnam which was counterinsurgency. To truly win the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese, intelligence and human interaction, practiced on a national scale might have handed the US a victory. But such a strategy offered no stage to display our superior technology. Even when our use of technology was obviously not working the Army responded in a typically American way. "When something failed to work we did more of it."(p.233) While such insanity is self-evident today, at the time it was perversely logical to the American generals who were so caught up in their own myths that to do otherwise would be tantamount to admitting the entire American way of life was wrong. After reading Backfire the belief in American military strategy as an extension of what is essential about America is not such a slippery slope. Baritz is very convincing connecting American culture to the way we fight. We are a technological nation and, more than anyone, dream of winning wars by the push of a button. "Shock and Awe," "smart bombs," and "stealth" are all extensions of our desire to separate us from harm and have the wonders of American ingenuity save the day. In Vietnam, as well as in the war on terror, where there is no front line intelligence gained from good foot soldiers and not bigger and better missiles are the deciding factors in achieving victory.
If all of this is so clear now why do we continue to make the same mistakes? In the third part, Backfire, Baritz explains that we have no choice. We fight the way we do because our culture defines who we are and how we fight. As long as our culture remains the same we will continue to be more efficient in our fighting but no more effective. This is because we are prisoners of our faith in technology. In order to maintain a high tech society the functioning of government, business, and the military must reside in a bureaucracy. As Baritz explains "when the technological mind is turned to the problem of organizing human activity, the result is bureaucracy." (p.48)
Baritz demonetization of the effects of bureaucracy on the military is total. With clarity and logic he explains how the fighting of such a technological war necessitated the bureaucisation of the military and its tragic consequences. The most damning of the outcomes is the development of careerism within the officer corps. The shift of officers from "leaders to managers" created such hazards as a drop in morale, insubordination, lack of responsibility, lack of experience, and unimaginative tactics. When officers are working to "get ahead" the job takes precedence over the mission and the mission suffers as it did in Vietnam.
The combination of bureaucracy and technology in Vietnam led to the eventual, extreme conclusion in strategy, that of having no strategy; the body count. When killing becomes and end unto itself the morality of war breaks down quickly. War becomes cold and passionless. Baritz correctly finds fault with such thinking claiming that "passion is an appropriate response to war." Without passion and debate the bureaucratic ship will be on autopilot. Incidences such as My Lai are the tragic results.
Did we learn from Vietnam? Baritz claims that "one antidote for folly is experience" and the experiences of Vietnam should have cast our invincibility myth into the ashcan as well as our reliance on technology as a panacea. Yet, it seems that the lessons of history are nothing in comparison to the American Myth that we are a city on a hill. Ronald Reagan against the Soviets, Clinton against the third world and the Bush Doctrine of preventive strikes and the forced spread of democracy all have repeated some of the mistakes that we made in Vietnam.
Baritz concludes that "our power, complacency, rigidity, and ignorance have kept us from incorporating our Vietnam experience into the way we think about ourselves and the world." (p.349) To fight a different, more humane, more effective war, will require more than a change in the military structure but a change in American cultural thinking. Looking at the current global policy of the United States, this does seem likely to happen any time soon and so we will continue to fight the way we do: with a national myth that shows us that we are good, with technology that makes us strong, and a bureaucracy that gives us standard operating procedures. Unfortunately, it has proven not to be a winning combination.
Too bad it didn't get read by our leaders.......2004-11-10
I can't add to the description of the book, except to say that it's too bad more people haven't read it. Especially our leadership. It's horrendously important to recognize the failures that we're repeating in Iraq.
Hard book to put down.......2004-01-27
This is a remarkable book that I found very hard to put down. If you are interested in discovering why we went to war, and how we lost it, Backfire if for you. The author avoids the usual mantra of both the left and the right and gives us what may be the most comprehensive analysis of this war written to date. Although I will take issue with some of the authors assumptions, this book should be must reading for the politicians and military who wage war, and for parents who send their children to fight wars.
It is difficult to find fault with the author's contentions that we fought the wrong war. Our enemy fought a political and psychological war, a war against American culture; whereas we fought a conventional war and were trapped by our own cultural assumptions of American invincibility. It is the author premise that American foreign policy was, and is, driven by our cultural myth of America as the City on a Hill. Baritz observes that as Americans we see ourselves as the new Israel, God's chosen people. The author contends that because of this myth the American people see themselves as a moral example to the world, Baritz wrote: It means that we are a Chosen People, each of whom, because of Gods favor and presence, can smite one hundred of our heathen enemies hip and thigh. . . . We believe that the people of the world really want to be like us, regardless of what they or their political leaders say. So Baritz takes the Ugly American approach to our foreign policy.
In a sense, he is right. Our belief in our own invincibility, and that the Vietnamese people wanted to be like us and welcome us drove the war. It was inconceivable to us that they would not share our values, applaud our intentions or embrace our presence. It led us to trust in our guns and to our failure to state our national objectives for this war.
Here are a few of the remarkable insights the author gives us:
There was a tendency for American war planners and policy makers to think the job was done when their plans and policies were approved, leaving no one to monitor whether or not what they decided was effective. He points out that we supported a regime that had little popular support and our conventional military tactics made the problem worse because bombing, artillery, napalm and Agent Orange would wound and kill the very people whose support we needed. After Tet, the Viet Cong insurgency was defeated and the Phoenix program of the assassination of Viet Cong leaders had decimated the leadership of the Viet Cong. By 1970 General Giap had concluded the only way the North could win the war was through regular war, the very kind of big-unit engagement American Generals had hoped for. But by this time, the political war at home was lost. Yes, the press was partially to blame for our defeat. The constant stream of defeatism by the Press, especially during and after the Tet offensive cannot be underestimated in turning American opinion against the war.
Baritz takes issue with the claim that the war could have been won if the military had been allowed to fight it differently. Not because we could not win, but because the American culture at the time precluded such a victory. Vietnam was not perceived as a threat to American, there was no anger in the American public to support such a war. In the end, the North Vietnamese understood American culture, they believed they could win if they did not lose. All they had to do was to outlast American patience. The Americans war leaders believed that they would lose if they did not win. The failure to achieve quick and decisive victory doomed the American war effort.
Has the America changed? Are we now willing to do what we were incapable of doing in the 1960's? that is to wage an effective war? Or has the American public, like that of ancient Rome as the barbarians gathered on their frontiers, grown tired of defending its freedom? Only time will tell.
Excellent critque of US imperialism.......2001-08-05
NATO's assault on Yugoslavia is remarkably similar to the USA's war of aggression against Vietnam. Loren Baritz's excellent book Backfire: a history of how American culture led us into Vietnam and made us fight the way we did, (Morrow, 1985) presents the US Government's pattern of thought, in some detail. The McGeorge Bundy report of February 1965 "concluded by informing the president that if he kept his focus on what the NLF was doing in the South as the cause of our bombing in the north, the world's criticism of the bombing could be dealt with. If the American players would continually emphasize the atrocities of the guerrillas, `the international pressures for negotiation should be quite manageable.' America must not get sucked into negotiations for peace except for what amounted to an unconditional surrender of the guerrillas." "While he (President Johnson) was destroying the country with bombing, defoliation and napalm, he could without cynicism speak of peace and progress. He believed that the destruction was unfortunately necessary before the construction could occur. That was Ho Chi Minh's fault." "During the debate about whether the United States should send its bombers to help the French at Dien Bien Phu, the Chief of Staff of the army, General Matthew B. Ridgway, recalled that in Korea, where he had been in command, `We had learned that air and naval power alone cannot win a war ... It was incredible to me that we had forgotten that bitter lesson so soon - that we were on the verge of making that same tragic error.' The lesson we had learned in World War II was forgotten before it was relearned in Korea, and was forgotten again in Vietnam. Old myths apparently neither die nor fade away. Before America withdrew from Vietnam, we dropped four times more bombs on Vietnam than all the bombs we dropped all over the world during World War II. It did not work, as the CIA regularly said it would not." "LBJ had received the advice to start the air war to prevent the ground war." But a failed air war provoked pressure for a ground war. "The decision to send in the marines was based on the assumption that they would serve only `security', not combat, objectives. The war planners did not have to admit to themselves that they were in an Asian ground war. The President did not inform the American public about the decision to send the marines when he had the opportunity to do so. America soon learned what was happening, and Secretary Rusk explained, if that is the right word, that the marines were ordered to avoid combat, only to return enemy fire." Paul Warnke, the appropriately-named Pentagon hack, said, "There is no question of the fact that we can keep on winning the war forever. We always win and we always will, and it won't ever make any difference. Our wins won't make a clear dent because there is no way in which we can bring about political progress in South Vietnam. ... The more of an American occupation you engage in the longer you're going to stay." "Guerrillas do not need to win; they simply must avoid losing. Conventional forces must win. Guerrillas can wait for the expense of foreign expeditionary forces to wear down the enemy's economy, and for the accumulating casualties to enrage the home front. Guerrillas are at home to start with. They never need to fight set battles unless they choose to. Because they can wait, time is on their side and is therefore a test of the enemy's patience and will in a distant land." "General Westmoreland's `strategy' was to fight a `war of attrition', to kill as many guerrillas and North Vietnamese troops as possible. Then they would quit. Then we would win. The killing became the objective. General Westmoreland did not know what else to do: `What alternative was there to a war of attrition?'" But, as a standard military textbook said, "Attrition is not a strategy."
Powerful and provocative analysis of the U.S. role in Vietna.......2000-05-13
The subtitle of "Backfire" - "A History of How American Culture Led Us into Vietnam and Made Us Fight the Way We did" - sums up the contents well. But it fails to suggest the great evil and ignorance which Baritz's scholarly analysis reveals. Example: G.I.s spent a full year in Vietnam; officers were rotated in and out every six months. Reason: Officers needed to "punch their tickets" (i.e. serve in Vietnam) if they wanted to rise up the ladder of promotion. So military policy was formulated based on that priority, not on the obvious fact that just as officers were becoming really experienced combat leaders, they were sent home and replaced by inexperienced officers. The resulting cost of American lives amounts to a war crime on the part of senior military leaders who put the policy into effect, a war crime against their own men! Another example: U.S. soldiers derided Vietnamese men as "fags" because they saw them holding hands. They were ignorant of Vietnamese culture in which such conduct has nothing to do with sexual preference. Thus, "why fight for a bunch of fags" became a prevalent attitude. Baritz's book is different than almost any other on Vietnam - and more thoughtful and thought-provoking.
Book Description
A dramatic memoir that tells the story of a young boys life in South Vietnam and his escape to America ten years later. Kien Nguyen watched the last U.S. Army helicopter leave without him. Kien was more at risk than most because of his odd blond hair and his light eyes. He was the most unwanted. Told with stark and poetic brilliance, this is a story of survival and hope.
Customer Reviews:
Hard to put down............2007-10-11
This story was fantastic...It was hard to stop reading. Both my husband and I read the book while on vacation and really enjoyed.
Kien Nguyen does a wonderful job telling his life. I would love a sequel...to know the how his life was after arriving in the U.S.
Gone With The Wind for the Vietnam Conflict.......2007-07-16
Book Review by John J. Fitzgerald
The Unwanted: A Memoir
Kien Nguyen
New York and Boston: Little Brown, 2001
This is a compelling read. It held my attention and I finished it in two readings. Perhaps, because I am a Vietnam veteran, the book's theme held my attention. What happens to the people that we leave behind after an American invasion is repulsed and eventually comes to an end? Many of those who worked with and for the Americans will be viewed as collaborators. French women who dated German soldiers in Paris during WW2 were regarded as trash. What happens to the children of these women and their "foreign affairs", after the invader departs or flees? There have been a lot of these American invasions over the last century or so, and the story told here probably echoes in other lands. In a few years, we will probably get a similar tale based on Iraq.
Kien Nguyen seems to have written an honest tale. Parts of it do not ring true. Not all of the Communist officials are corrupt. Some of the corrupt officials in his tale are actually placed on trial by other Communist officials. He seems to have a very puritanical view of sexual relations and some of his sex scenes are quite sadistic. He does not treat a loving, young, girl friend very well. In fact the "hero," our narrator, is quite self-centered and depicts himself as the innocent victim of all of the activity swirling around him. He seems to dislike, if not hate, his mentally challenged sister. There are some scenes of torture that strain credibility, unless you buy the notion that the Vietnamese people are generally cruel. He has a scene where his cousins kick a dog to death. This strikes me as strange when they could have killed and cooked the animal. Captured "boat people" are first rescued and then "tortured" for no clear reason.
Escape from Hell, Vietnam, is the main goal of the story. The United States is described as the Heavenly City where all truth, goodness and beauty are thought to reside. It is also "air conditioned." The story is heavily shaped by ideology. Americans are good and Vietnamese are not good, for the most part.
The theme of the "Wizard of Oz" is part of this story. If Dorothy can just get to the Emerald City everything will be all right. Kien is our Vietnamese Dorothy.
He can't be happy, or even half happy, living in Vietnam. His real home is America! Dorothy would have settled for Kansas!
I read this book as the product of a South Vietnamese, Republic of Vietnam, "take" on the events of the Vietnam War. The narrator's family members were collaborationists and were quite well off and during their reign of power they treated their countrymen as simply their servants and their inferiors. The one strong character in the tale is the grand-father, and in the best Confucian tradition he is always wise and judicious. He was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and it was one of the most corrupt armies the world has ever seen. But he was a hero. (The narrator does not dwell on that fact of life.)
At times, I found myself thinking of Scarlet O'Hara in "Gone With The Wind." Fighting to maintain her ante-bellum lifestyle in a post Civil War Georgia, Scarlet feels no responsibility for slavery. She struggles to hold on to a world that no longer exists. Kien's mother is a lot like Scarlet and so is Kien. Narcissistic and egotistical, they have no sense of obligation to society and act surprised that the society that they reject, rejects them.
Aristocrats after the French Revolution of 1789 acted the same way. They hated the new regime and dreamed of the golden days of the "Ancien Regime."
At times the book seems a bit surreal. But then, the world of Kien is not quite real. He is a half-breed, part Caucasian-American and part Vietnamese. His identity is not anchored in either culture. Some of his narration reveals this when he prays to Buddha and then to God. His words contain some American slang and you have to wonder where he learned it. Was it from his mother?
The book seems to contain a measure of truth. The treatment of the children born of American fathers and Vietnamese women was not kind or humane. Children of colored Americans and Vietnamese women are treated the worst of all. Women get the worse treatment of all. Vietnam is a very sexist society.
The fact that the Vietnamese government allows Kien and his family to leave is not explained. It happens "out of the blue." (There is not much history in this memoir. During the period of the memoir, the big issue in the USA was where are our MIA's and our POW's? Sylvester Stallone was making his fantasy films about the war. The U.S. kept an embargo in place against Vietnam until the 1990's. The Vietnamese never received any of the promised compensation that Nixon/Kissinger promised in their peace treaty of 1973.) Nor is there any serious mention of the damage done to the country and the people of Vietnam by the American war effort. After the American Revolution, those who sided with the British, the "Tories" were regarded as traitors and many of them fled from the states back to England. They were not wanted by their neighbors. These were some of the original "boat people" of American history.
This book might do some harm. It contributes to the notion that the Americans (who invaded Vietnam) were the ones who suffered the most from the Vietnam War. It seems to support the Ronald Reagan claim that the war was a "Noble Cause." In American history, if you believe that the Confederate South's fight against the Union Army was a "Noble Cause," you will probably never get to a clear understanding of the American Civil War. There are some people who do not want us to come to a clear understanding of either the American Civil War or the War in Vietnam. They prefer that we endorse myth over history.
This memoir/book reads too much like a novel to be a significant contribution to history. I predict that it will soon be a Hollywood movie. Right up there with, "Gone With The Wind." It will make the same kind of lasting "contribution" to our understanding of the American past.
-----
See below for an idea of what Ronald Reagan considered the history of the Vietnam War to be.
Source: http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1982/21882b.htm
Public Papers of Ronald Reagan
February 1982
The President's News Conference
February 18, 1982
- - - - - -opening statement- - - - - -
And now, Jim [Jim Gerstenzang, Associated Press], I can't think of anything else to say, so you can ask the first question.
El Salvador
Q. Thank you.
Mr. President, the Secretary of State has said that the United States will do whatever is necessary to head off a guerrilla victory in El Salvador and that the mood of the American people should not necessarily determine our course there. Do you agree with those statements, and under what conditions would you send combat troops to El Salvador?
The President. Well, once again, Jim, we get into an area -- there are all kinds of options -- economic, political, security, and so forth -- that can be used in situations of this kind. And as I've said so often, I just don't believe that you discuss those options or what you may or may not do in advance of doing any of those things -- except that I will say, lest there be some misunderstanding, there are no plans to send American combat troops into action anyplace in the world.
Q. If I could follow that up. Can you just envision any circumstances under which we would be sending U.S. combat troops to El Salvador?
The President. Well, maybe if they dropped a bomb on the White House, I might get mad.
- - - - - - other questions - - - - -
Lou [Lou Cannon, Washington Post]?
Nicaragua
Q. Mr. President, have you approved of covert activity to destabilize the present Government of Nicaragua?
The President. Well, no, we're supporting them. Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm sorry. I was thinking El Salvador, because of the previous -- when you said that. Nicaragua. Here again, this is something upon which the national security interest -- I will not comment.
But let me say something about all of Central America right now, and questions on that subject. Next week I will be addressing the Organization of American States on that entire subject, and therefore, I'll save any answers to any questions on that subject.
Q. If I could follow up, do you approve or reject -- or do you care to state what your policy is as far as having American covert operations to destabilize any existing government without specific reference to Nicaragua?
The President. No, again I'm going to say this is like discussing the options. No comment on this.
Yes, George [George Skelton, Los Angeles Times].
El Salvador
Q. Mr. President, although you have no plans to send combat troops to El Salvador, plans can be developed quickly. I'd like to hear some expression of your commitment, if there is one, not to use American combat forces in El Salvador. And, again, just how far will your administration go to keep the Duarte government from falling?
The President. Well, George, your question again gets to that thing that I have always said I think has been wrong in the past, when our government has done it -- and I will not do it -- and that is to put down specific do's and don't's [sic] with regard to some situation that deals with not only security matters but even such things as trying to influence a situation such as the one in Poland. I think that to do so is just giving away things that reduce your leverage.
- - - - - - - - other questions - - - - - -
Now, Lesley [Lesley Stahl, CBS News], you were -- --
U.S. Foreign Covert Operations
Q. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm sorry, but I'd like to go back to Latin America and El Salvador for a minute.
In the 1960's the CIA came up with a secret plan to get us involved in Vietnam in a surreptitious, covert manner. Is it possible that you can tell us that there is no secret plan now devised by the CIA or any other agency in government to surreptitiously involve Americans in similar activities in Latin America? And can you also assure the American people that we will not go in there secretly without you and this Government giving us some pre-warning?
The President. Well, Lesley, you know there's a law by which things of this kind have to be cleared with congressional committees before anything is done.
But again, if I may point to something -- I'm not in total agreement with the premise about Vietnam. If I recall correctly, when France gave up Indochina as a colony, the leading nations of the world met in Geneva with regard to helping those colonies become independent nations. And since North and South Vietnam had been, previous to colonization, two separate countries, provisions were made that these two countries could, by a vote of all their people together, decide whether they wanted to be one country or not.
And there wasn't anything surreptitious about it, that when Ho Chi Minh refused to participate in such an election -- and there was provision that people of both countries could cross the border and live in the other country if they wanted to. And when they began leaving by the thousands and thousands from North Vietnam to live in South Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh closed the border and again violated that part of the agreement.
And openly, our country sent military advisers there to help a country which had been a colony have such things as a national security force, an army, you might say, or a military to defend itself. And they were doing this, if I recall correctly, also in civilian clothes, no weapons, until they began being blown up where they lived and walking down the street by people riding by on bicycles and throwing pipe-bombs at them. And then they were permitted to carry sidearms or wear uniforms.
But it was totally a program until John F. Kennedy -- when these attacks and forays became so great that John F. Kennedy authorized the sending in of a division of Marines. And that was the first move toward combat troops in Vietnam.
So, I don't think there's any parallel there between covert activities or anything -- --
Q. Will you tell me that there will not be secret plan that you will not tell the American people about?
The President. I can't answer your question for the same reason that I couldn't answer George's. I just can't answer on that.
There's a lady in the very back row.
- - - - - - - other questions - - - - -
And so it goes!
Excellent! Very Well Written.......2007-06-25
I could not put this book down. It was that good! Every chapter was so vivid and intense.
evocative.......2007-06-09
This book is a distressing and fascinating story and also one of courage. In clear language devoid of bitterness the author tells of the years following the Vietnam War. Both insightful and inspiring.
A wanted reading.......2007-04-04
It's amazing that one person can go through such repeated tragedies in one lifetime. I hope Kien writes a follow up book to document his new life in the United States.
Book Description
Vietnam is increasingly opening up to the West, and society is in flux between tradition and modernity, and capitalism and socialism. Americans have distanced themselves from the Vietnam War now, and Culture and Customs of Vietnam fills a need to learn about the country, which has also evolved. Readers will find that this is the only general book on Vietnamese culture in English written by specialists. McLeod and Nguyen, historians specializing in Vietnam engagingly show the various forces of Vietnamese culture in narrative chapters on the land, people, and language; history and institutions; thought and religion; literature; art and architecture; cuisine; family, marriage, gender, and youth culture; festivals and leisure activities, and performing arts. Culture and Customs of Vietnam is a comprehensive, one-stop source, providing the most useful and intriguing information for students and general readers. Some of the highlights include the discussion of the Chinese influence in writing, thought, and religion; eating habits; the changing family; and water puppetry. A chronology, glossary, and numerous photos complement the text.
Customer Reviews:
Rif-off.......2007-07-23
The history was fine, but the illustrations were horrible. Since the little book was $55, I assumed the inflated price was because it contained some beautiful, colored pictures. They were so dark that I couldn't even see what the picture was about. I had intended to buy the whole series, but I couldn't even see how that book went through the publisher, the quality was so inferior.
Great overview of Vietnamese history and culture........2006-06-02
Written by a husband and wife team, with years of experience in Vietnam and its culture, this well developed text provides a detailed look at most of the major areas of Vietnamese culture and customs. Topic areas covered include Vietnamese history, cultural impacts of war and occupation, religion, literature, architecture, food and cuisine, family culture, festivals, and the arts. I would heartily recommend this book to families who have adopted from Vietnam - AdoptVietnam.org - or for anyone who is interested in a more complete understanding of Vietnam and its people.
Average customer rating:
- Great Book On Little Known Subject
- Superbly researched and carefully argued
- Many assumed 'facts' went uncheck
- Many assumed 'facts' went uncheck
- Well-documented history followed by a bold assessment.
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Why Vietnam Invaded Cambodia: Political Culture and the Causes of War
Stephen J. Morris
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
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The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79
ASIN: 0804730504 |
Customer Reviews:
Great Book On Little Known Subject.......2003-11-14
Steven Morris's work on this book is amazing. I have such a better understanding of the conflict between Cambodia and Vietnam from the early '70s to 1989. North Vietnam, China and the USSR are culpable regarding the victory of Pol Pot in 1975, and not American bombing as so many Stalinists try to claim. N. Vietnam had their eyes on Cambodia all along, but had to buy their time during the conflict with the U.S.
Superbly researched and carefully argued.......2000-04-19
This book is undoubtedly one of the few "must have" books on Vietnam and Cambodia. The author has produced a very carefully argued and superbly researched analysis of the Vietnamese relationship with Cambodia and the Vietnamese relationships with the Soviet Union and China. It shows how our conventional thinking in terms of states only pursuing their national security or economic interests doesn't explain why the Vietnamese and the Khmers Rouges each provoked their larger neighbors (The Khmers Rouges provoked Vietnam and Vietnam provoked China). The idea that the weak can provoke the stronger goes against our "common sense" understanding of how states behave, but it obviously did happen in these cases. Morris also has a very good writing style (I even found the more abstract conceptual discussion in the introduction and conclusion quite easy to follow) and the narrative flows quite nicely. He has also introduced the concept of "hyperMaoism" to explain the outlook of the Khmers Rouges, which is something that I find quite insightful. His research in Soviet archives also brought forth some fascinating revelations, regarding how little the Vietnamese leadership knew and understood about the motives of the Khmers Rouges leaders. And the Soviet documents also bring completely new information on how Vietnam's relations with China broke down during the 1970s. I had read every book published on the Vietnamese communists and the Khmers Rouges, but this book has taught me a lot that I didn't know. The tone of the work is quite dispassionate, and its approach completely objective, as Morris tries to get inside the thinking of all of the parties to the conflict. Highly recommended.
Many assumed 'facts' went uncheck.......2000-04-07
After so many years of digging through the Soviet archives, Mr. Morris forgot to double and triple check his supposedly 'facts' and got carried away with believing everything he read from the basements in Moscow.
The problem with Morris analysis is that it left out the Beijing angle. The Vietnam-Cambodian war was driven more from China than from Vietnam and the Soviet. The CCP has a lot of influence and control over this war which was barely accounted for in this book.
There's also another problem with an analysis based solely on ideological ground i.e. communist regime wages war because they can, because they are evil, warlike and undemocratic. Besides being not very useful in pedagogical terms, this of course left out the more important historical analysis that Vietnam and Cambodia has a long history of many small wars. And the Vietnam-Cambodian war could be viewed as an attempt to continue Vietnam's territorial expansion that began from the 17th century.
Mr. Morris assessments in the book should be read in light of his other 'hysterical' pronouncement of having found a document in Soviet archives showing that Hanoi had deceived on POWs. The timing of his finding was also perfectly coincide with an impending congressional vote on improving US-Vietnam relationship.
T.N.
Many assumed 'facts' went uncheck.......2000-04-07
After so many years of digging through the Soviet archives, Mr. Morris forgot to double and triple check his supposedly 'facts' and got carried away with believing everything he read from the basements in Moscow.
The problem with Morris analysis is that it left out the Beijing angle. The Vietnam-Cambodian war was driven more from China than from Vietnam and the Soviet. The CCP has a lot of influence and control over this war which was barely accounted for in this book.
There's also another problem with an analysis based solely on ideological ground i.e. communist regime wages war because they can, because they are evil, warlike and undemocratic. Besides being not very useful in pedagogical terms, this of course left out the more important historical analysis that Vietnam and Cambodia has a long history of many small wars. And the Vietnam-Cambodian war could be viewed as an attempt to continue Vietnam's territorial expansion that began from the 17th century.
Mr. Morris assessments in the book should be read in light of his other 'hysterical' pronouncement of having found a document in Soviet archives showing that Hanoi had deceived on POWs.
T.N.
Well-documented history followed by a bold assessment........2000-01-04
A scholarly analysis of the history behind the 1978-89 Vietnamese invasion and occupation of Cambodia, followed by the author's brutally frank assessment of the consequences. As the author states, a final assessment is premature, but recent events do indeed cause the reader to wonder how long the Vietnamese will continue to be pleased with the tactics of its "clients". Readers will also want to review "Falling Out of Touch" by Goscha and Engelbert for another look at historical relations between the Vietnamese and Cambodian communists.
Customer Reviews:
Vietnam on Film.......2004-06-11
These film essays look at documentary filmmaking and news reporting on the Vietnam War. I read this book as part of a film class at in college. This book is best for a person interested in the representation of war, especially this particularily divisive war will be moved by reading this book.
Sleepless in Heaven!.......2000-02-24
This book was amazing! It was very insightful and deep. I learned more about this era from this book than i ever did in high school!
Book Description
Whether you travel for business, pleasure, or a combination of the two, the ever-popular "Culture Shock!" series belongs in your backpack or briefcase. Get the nuts-and-bolts information you need to survive and thrive wherever you go. "Culture Shock!" country guides are easy-to-read, accurate, and entertaining crash courses in local customs and etiquette. "Culture Shock!" practical guides offer the inside information you need whether you're a student, a parent, a globetrotter, or a working traveler. "Culture Shock!" at your Door guides equip you for daily life in some of the world's most cosmopolitan cities. And "Culture Shock!" Success Secrets guides offer relevant, practical information with the real-life insights and cultural know-how that can make the difference between business success and failure.
Each "Culture Shock!" title is written by someone who's lived and worked in the country, and each book is packed with practical, accurate, and enjoyable information to help you find your way and feel at home.
Customer Reviews:
excellent introduction to business in Vietnam.......1999-07-17
This is a well written and informative guide. It is much better written, and much more insightful, than most books of its kind. It is very useful for any person thinking of doing business in Vietnam...in fact, I would call it "essential".
Best book on business in Vietnam.......1999-04-10
Who'd have thought some guy from Oklahoma would write this pithy discussion of business in Vietnam? Few books exist on this topic but Mr. Chambers has written the kind of honest, straightforward business book we need more of.
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