Download or read book Inside Out Back Again written by Thanhha Lai and published by Univ. of Queensland Press. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moving to America turns H&à's life inside out. For all the 10 years of her life, H&à has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by, and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. H&à and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, H&à discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape, and the strength of her very own family. This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next.
Download or read book Nam written by Mark Baker and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Interviews the men and women who served in the Vietnam War, the war that tore America apart.
Download or read book From Harlem to Viet Nam and Back written by Enoch Buckery and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2016-06-18 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the time, I was a twenty-year-old, wholesome, part-time business administration student of six credits at City University of New York, and also employed at the American Iron and Steel Institute as a sales expeditor, when my draft notice came from the U.S. Army. Twelve credits were necessary for a student's full deferment from the United States Military Draft. I was also newly married at the time, but I was mandated to report to Whitehall Street for induction. Three other draftees were also chosen with me, and we were directed to a separate room and given a test. Upon completion of the test we were then sworn in and congratulated, however, we were welcomed into the United States Marine Corps instead of the Army. The following morning, we reported to Paris Island, South Carolina for boot camp training and then on to chemical and jungle training at Camp Lejune, North Carolina. I was allowed a brief visit back home in New York before my transfer to the Marine Corps based at Camp Pendleton, California for advanced jungle training, where I received west pack orders in route to Viet Nam. The most feared orders a soldier could receive at the time were west pack orders, because that meant the soldier was headed to Viet Nam. Upon entering the Republic of Viet Nam--shortly after the Marine Corps boot camp training at Paris Island's extensive jungle training at Camp Pendleton, California--our orientation left us Marines with a somewhat superior mental complex that trained us to look down on the Viet Namese people, whether military or civilian. We were instructed to call them Gooks, which is equivalent to calling an African American the N word. So we called them Gooks or Charlie as we entered combat with the Viet Cong people. However, after the many humbling, eye-opening experiences in combat, those of us who remained alive elevated the name "Charlie" to Mr. Charlie, out of a much deserved and commanded respect towards the Viet Namese people. Unlike anything written thus far on combat experiences in Viet Nam, you will travel side by side with me, Enoch Buckery, with this book from the vantage point of my personal, African American combat experience. You will experience my journey from high school, to one year of college, to military training, and then on to real combat. I was a Marine Corps grunt machine gunner, then a machine gun team leader, and then promoted to the position of machine gun section leader. I present my accounts of the combat operations, ambushes, and fire fights in this book. So many books have been written and so many stories have been told, yet this is my personal Marine Corps combat experience in that Republic. I still believe that the real truth has not been fully told, especially by an African American who has fought in Americas war in the Republic of Viet Nam. I fought on the front line daily; days as well as nights. Back in the sometimes oblivious realm of the United States of America--oblivious to the war's on-the-ground harsh and devastating realities for the soldiers and the Viet Namese people--I assumed the position of an advocate and an activist for combat-wounded Marines and other combat veterans for now more than thirty years. I have witnessed the death of so many veterans who survived the battlegrounds of Viet Nam, only to succumb to deaths due to side effects of prescribed medications, or misdiagnoses, or lack of much-needed support. One major conspiracy faced by so many Viet Nam veterans was, and still is, related to the treatments for exposure to dioxin, better known as Agent Orange, for American frontline combat veterans of America's war in that country. I, Enoch Buckery, am one of those veterans.
Download or read book Flashbacks written by Morley Safer and published by Random House (NY). This book was released on 1990 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: CBS reporter Morley Safer brought Vietnam into our living rooms. Twenty-five years later, Safer returns to Vietnam for a compelling look back at the war and the legacy it left in that fateful land. Vivid and powerfully written, Flashbacks is Morley Safer's unique exploration of Vietnam, past and present. It is a seasoned newsman's moving portrait of a time and place none of us can forget.
Download or read book To Nam and Back written by Randall Juge and published by Llumina Press. This book was released on 2004-05-01 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pilots live by a code of honor and help other soldiers in the midst of combat. This book offers compelling accounts of an aviator during the Vietnam War and uses humor to soothe the indelible scars that hold these memories.
Download or read book The Spitting Image written by Jerry Lembcke and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2000-05 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the startling image of an anti-war protested spitting on a uniformed veteran misrepresented the narrative of Vietnam War political debate One of the most resilient images of the Vietnam era is that of the anti-war protester — often a woman — spitting on the uniformed veteran just off the plane. The lingering potency of this icon was evident during the Gulf War, when war supporters invoked it to discredit their opposition. In this startling book, Jerry Lembcke demonstrates that not a single incident of this sort has been convincingly documented. Rather, the anti-war Left saw in veterans a natural ally, and the relationship between anti-war forces and most veterans was defined by mutual support. Indeed one soldier wrote angrily to Vice President Spiro Agnew that the only Americans who seemed concerned about the soldier's welfare were the anti-war activists. While the veterans were sometimes made to feel uncomfortable about their service, this sense of unease was, Lembcke argues, more often rooted in the political practices of the Right. Tracing a range of conflicts in the twentieth century, the book illustrates how regimes engaged in unpopular conflicts often vilify their domestic opponents for "stabbing the boys in the back." Concluding with an account of the powerful role played by Hollywood in cementing the myth of the betrayed veteran through such films as Coming Home, Taxi Driver, and Rambo, Jerry Lembcke's book stands as one of the most important, original, and controversial works of cultural history in recent years.
Download or read book In the Lake of the Woods written by Tim O'Brien and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2006-09-01 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A politician’s past war crimes are revealed in this psychologically haunting novel by the National Book Award–winning author of The Things They Carried. Vietnam veteran John Wade is running for senate when long-hidden secrets about his involvement in wartime atrocities come to light. But the loss of his political fortunes is only the beginning of John’s downfall. A retreat with his wife, Kathy, to a lakeside cabin in northern Minnesota only exacerbates the tensions rising between them. Then, within days of their arrival, Kathy mysteriously vanishes into the watery wilderness. When a police search fails to locate her, suspicion falls on the disgraced politician with a violent past. But when John himself disappears, the questions mount—with no answers in sight. In this contemplative thriller, acclaimed author Tim O’Brien examines America’s legacy of violence and warfare and its lasting impact both at home and abroad.
Download or read book Understanding Vietnam written by Neil L. Jamieson and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-11-10 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The American experience in Vietnam divided us as a nation and eroded our confidence in both the morality and the effectiveness of our foreign policy. Yet our understanding of this tragic episode remains superficial because, then and now, we have never grasped the passionate commitment with which the Vietnamese clung to and fought over their own competing visions of what Vietnam was and what it might become. To understand the war, we must understand the Vietnamese, their culture, and their ways of looking at the world. Neil L. Jamieson, after many years of living and working in Vietnam, has written the book that provides this understanding. Jamieson paints a portrait of twentieth-century Vietnam. Against the background of traditional Vietnamese culture, he takes us through the saga of modern Vietnamese history and Western involvement in the country, from the coming of the French in 1858 through the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Throughout his analysis, he allows the Vietnamese—both our friends and foes, and those who wished to be neither—to speak for themselves through poetry, fiction, essays, newspaper editorials and reports of interviews and personal experiences. By putting our old and partial perceptions into this new and broader context, Jamieson provides positive insights that may perhaps ease the lingering pain and doubt resulting from our involvement in Vietnam. As the United States and Vietnam appear poised to embark on a new phase in their relationship, Jamieson's book is particularly timely.
Download or read book Dispatches written by Michael Herr and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The best book to have been written about the Vietnam War" (The New York Times Book Review); an instant classic straight from the front lines. From its terrifying opening pages to its final eloquent words, Dispatches makes us see, in unforgettable and unflinching detail, the chaos and fervor of the war and the surreal insanity of life in that singular combat zone. Michael Herr’s unsparing, unorthodox retellings of the day-to-day events in Vietnam take on the force of poetry, rendering clarity from one of the most incomprehensible and nightmarish events of our time. Dispatches is among the most blistering and compassionate accounts of war in our literature.
Download or read book Welcome to Nam written by Richard Andrews and published by Page Publishing Inc. This book was released on 2022-06-30 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After returning from Vietnam, I had a lot of nightmares. They started getting so bad that I went to the Veterans Affairs to get help. After a few months, my psychiatrist mentioned for me to start writing them down as soon as I woke up. He then asked if I was getting any competition for my ears from the land mine? In order to do that I had to tell the Board why I thought I had PTSD. But, to do that, I pretty much had to describe my whole year in Nam! So, I started from the beginning, circling Cam Rahn Bay, and seeing Vietnam for the very first time. I was excited and scared at the same time! I mean. It's not every day you get to war! I just couldn't picture someone actually wanting to kill me! I found out in a hurry just how wrong I was!
Download or read book Return to Viet Nam written by Linda G. Myers and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2011 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Art Myers is a Viet Nam veteran with memories. In 2005 he and his wife Linda traveled to Viet Nam with a group led by a psychotherapist who works with veterans affected by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). From the Mekong Delta in the south, to Hanoi in the north, it was a life-changing journey. Art's story is not unusual. He was a sergeant in the Marine Corps in 1968, a radio repairman stationed at Da Nang during the Tet offensive. He saw only one day of combat, but that day affected every aspect of his life for 35 years. Many veterans suffer from their memories of their time at war. They may bury them, or deny them, or run from them, or act out in other areas of their lives. Alcoholism, drug addiction and suicide rates are higher than average, as are failed relationships and chronic unemployment. Art decided to return to Viet Nam, to overlay the memories of the young man during a terrible time with those of a man in late middle age. It was a good choice for him - and for his family. About the book Art says, "I hope that talking about this journey of healing - and how it has changed me - will help other veterans and their families. The idea of helping even one other veteran stop the nightmares and gain some peace made my story worth sharing."
Download or read book Nam A Rama written by Phillip Jennings and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-03-06 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unpredictable novel of Vietnam offers a not-so-longing look at the absurdity of a war in which the damned and the innocent share the same hootch, the same Commander-in-Chief, and sometimes even the same body-bag.
Download or read book Bloods written by Wallace Terry and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 1985-07-12 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • The national bestseller that tells the truth about the Vietnam War from the black soldiers’ perspective. An oral history unlike any other, Bloods features twenty black men who tell the story of how members of their race were sent off to Vietnam in disproportionate numbers, and of the special test of patriotism they faced. Told in voices no reader will soon forget, Bloods is a must-read for anyone who wants to put the Vietnam experience in historical, cultural, and political perspective. Praise for Bloods “Superb . . . a portrait not just of warfare and warriors but of beleaguered patriotism and pride. The violence recalled in Bloods is chilling. . . . On most of its pages hope prevails. Some of these men have witnessed the very worst that people can inflict on one another. . . . Their experience finally transcends race; their dramatic monologues bear witness to humanity.”—Time “[Wallace] Terry’s oral history captures the very essence of war, at both its best and worst. . . . [He] has done a great service for all Americans with Bloods. Future historians will find his case studies extremely useful, and they will be hard pressed to ignore the role of blacks, as too often has been the case in past wars.”—The Washington Post Book World “Terry set out to write an oral history of American blacks who fought for their country in Vietnam, but he did better than that. He wrote a compelling portrait of Americans in combat, and used his words so that the reader—black or white—knows the soldiers as men and Americans, their race overshadowed by the larger humanity Terry conveys. . . . This is not light reading, but it is literature with the ring of truth that shows the reader worlds through the eyes of others. You can’t ask much more from a book than that.”—Associated Press “Bloods is a major contribution to the literature of this war. For the first time a book has detailed the inequities blacks faced at home and on the battlefield. Their war stories involve not only Vietnam, but Harlem, Watts, Washington D.C. and small-town America.”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution “I wish Bloods were longer, and I hope it makes the start of a comprehensive oral and analytic history of blacks in Vietnam. . . . They see their experiences as Americans, and as blacks who live in, but are sometimes at odds with, America. The results are sometimes stirring, sometimes appalling, but this three-tiered perspective heightens and shadows every tale.”—The Village Voice “Terry was in Vietnam from 1967 through 1969. . . . In this book he has backtracked, Studs Terkel–like, and found twenty black veterans of the Vietnam War and let them spill their guts. And they do; oh, how they do. The language is raw, naked, a brick through a window on a still night. At the height of tension a sweet story, a soft story, drops into view. The veterans talk about fighting two wars: Vietnam and racism. They talk about fighting alongside the Ku Klux Klan.”—The Boston Globe
Download or read book Nam Sense written by Arthur Wiknik and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2005-07-19 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A candid memoir of being sent to Vietnam at age nineteen, witnessing the carnage of Hamburger Hill, and returning to an America in turmoil. Arthur Wiknik was a teenager from New England when he was drafted into the US Army in 1968, shipping out to Vietnam early the following year. Shortly after his arrival on the far side of the world, he was assigned to Camp Evans near the northern village of Phong Dien, only thirty miles from Laos and North Vietnam. On his first jungle patrol, his squad killed a female Viet Cong who turned out to have been the local prostitute. It was the first dead person he had ever seen. Wiknik's account of life and death in Vietnam includes everything from heavy combat to faking insanity to get some R & R. He was the first in his unit to reach the top of Hamburger Hill, and between sporadic episodes of combat, he mingled with the locals; tricked unwitting US suppliers into providing his platoon with hard-to-get food; defied a superior and was punished with a dangerous mission; and struggled with himself and his fellow soldiers as the antiwar movement began to affect them. Written with honesty and sharp wit by a soldier who was featured on a recent History Channel documentary about Vietnam, Nam Sense spares nothing and no one in its attempt to convey what really transpired for the combat soldier during this unpopular war. It is not about glory, mental breakdowns, flashbacks, or self-pity. The GIs Wiknik lived and fought with during his yearlong tour were not drug addicts or war criminals or gung-ho killers. They were there to do their duty as they were trained, support their comrades—and get home alive. Recipient of an Honorable Mention from the Military Writers Society of America.
Download or read book Looking Back on the Vietnam War written by Brenda M. Boyle and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-17 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than forty years have passed since the official end of the Vietnam War, yet the war’s legacies endure. Its history and iconography still provide fodder for film and fiction, communities of war refugees have spawned a wide Vietnamese diaspora, and the United States military remains embroiled in unwinnable wars with eerie echoes of Vietnam. Looking Back on the Vietnam War brings together scholars from a broad variety of disciplines, who offer fresh insights on the war’s psychological, economic, artistic, political, and environmental impacts. Each essay examines a different facet of the war, from its representation in Marvel comic books to the experiences of Vietnamese soldiers exposed to Agent Orange. By putting these pieces together, the contributors assemble an expansive yet nuanced composite portrait of the war and its global legacies. Though they come from diverse scholarly backgrounds, ranging from anthropology to film studies, the contributors are united in their commitment to original research. Whether exploring rare archives or engaging in extensive interviews, they voice perspectives that have been excluded from standard historical accounts. Looking Back on the Vietnam War thus embarks on an interdisciplinary and international investigation to discover what we remember about the war, how we remember it, and why.
Download or read book Shadows and Wind written by Robert Templer and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1999-09-01 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Shadows and Wind, Robert Templer paints a fascinating and fresh picture of a country usually viewed with hazy nostalgia or deep suspicion. Here is Hanoi, an increasingly tense and troubled city approaching its millennium but uncertain of its direction. Here are people emerging from a long wilderness of malnutrition, discovering a new lifestyle of leisure and luxury. And everywhere are the anomalies that burst the bubble of optimism: a vastly expensive luxury hotel sitting empty in an unknown town six hours from an international airport; museums crammed with fake exhibits. And there remains the one-party Communist state, still wrapped in secrecy and corruption, and making for an uneasy bedfellow with the rapacious capitalism it now encourages.Drawing on hundreds of interviews in Vietnam and years of research, Robert Templer has produced the first in-depth examination of the problems facing modern Vietnam. Shadows and Wind is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the Vietnam that now has emerged from a century of conflict with both foreign powers and with itself.
Download or read book We Are Soldiers Still written by Harold G. Moore and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Powerful. . . . A candid, highly informative, and heartfelt tale of forgiveness between former fierce enemies in the Vietnam War.” —St. Petersburg Times The #1 New York Times bestseller We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young brought to life one of the most pivotal and heartbreaking battles of the Vietnam War. In this powerful sequel, Lt. Gen Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway bring us up to date on the cadre of soldiers introduced in their first memoir. Returning to Vietnam’s Ia Drang Valley more than four decades after the battle, Moore and Galloway renew their relationships with ten American veterans of the fabled conflict—and with former adversaries—exploring how the war changed them all, as well as their two countries. We Are Soldiers Still is an emotional journey back to hallowed ground, putting a human face on warfare as the authors reflect on war’s devastating cost. The book includes an Introduction by Gen H. Norman Schwarzkopf.
