Vietnam: A Portrait of Its People at War

by David Chanoff (Author), Doan Van Toai (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  1996

  $3.45

  The American experience of the Vietnam War is universally known, and much has been written about the brutalization of the US fighting men, the widespread atrocities committed and the use of Agent Orange. Too often Vietnam is used to refer to the conflict (and specifically to the American perception of it) rather than to the country and its people. The view from the other side - the Vietcong and North Vietnamese - has been virtually ignored. This work attempts to tell the story of the ordinary people of both North and South Vietnam, of the Vietcong guerrilla fighters and terrorists, North Vietnamese soldiers and cadres, monks, opposition leaders, propaganda chiefs and village secretaries. Constructed as a series of interviews, this book provides an account of dedication and heroism at all levels, but also of brutality and social control, and of the traumatization of a people in the grip of revolution and a terrifying war. Those featured in the book describe aspects of the war: the murderous trek down the Ho Chi Minh trail, the self-immolation of Buddhist monks, the methods of Vietcong assassinatin teams and life under attack from American bombs and napalm. Taken as a whole, the accounts provide a rare insight into the experience of the war from the other side . There is an afterword by David Chanoff, as well as a list of important dates and events.