Vietnam War Politics

The cover of darkness was pulled back by the NODS scopes in their hands. The enemy had no idea what was about to befall them. With the rush of wings of dragons, the sounds of M-14s, M-870 shotguns, M-16s, and grenades spoke the finality of death. This gave the human pack mules a taste of what would continue to reign upon them in the House of the Dragon. North and South Vietnam were at war. Indeed, all of Southeast Asia was at war. Due to national commitments, the US military was drawn into the fray.

Dereliction of Duty is a stunning analysis of how and why the United States became involved in an all-out and disastrous war in Southeast Asia. Fully and convincingly researched, based on transcripts and personal accounts of crucial meetings, confrontations and decisions, it is the only book that fully re-creates what happened and why.

En 1967, en la iglesia Riverside de la Ciudad de Nueva York, el Dr. King se paró frente a una audiencia entusiasmada y criticó la guerra de Vietnam como un acto de fuerza destructivo y una cruel manipulación de los pobres por parte de ambos bandos. Instó a los ciudadanos a confrontar la dura realidad de la guerra y a seguir un camino en el que todo se nos presente como una elección; en sus palabras: «una elección de coexistencia no violeta en vez de una coaniquilación violenta».

Among the famines of the Second World War, the Great Famine of Vietnam (1944-1945) remains little known outside of Vietnam, especially compared to its contemporaries in Bengal, Henan, and the Soviet Union. Though natural disasters catalyzed the famine, the scope of the famine was exacerbated by the brutal French extraction of resources in northern Vietnam at the command of the Japanese military. However, the famine's seeds were sown long before the disaster, with the arrival of the French in the Mekong Delta and their subsequent colonization of Dai Viet.