Footprints of War: Militarized Landscapes in Vietnam (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books)

When American forces arrived in Vietnam, they found themselves embedded in historic village and frontier spaces already shaped by many past conflicts. American bases and bombing targets followed spatial and political logics influenced by the footprints of past wars in central Vietnam. The militarized landscapes here, like many in the world's historic conflict zones, continue to shape post-war land-use politics. Footprints of War traces the long history of conflict-produced spaces in Vietnam, beginning with early modern wars and the French colonial invasion in 1885 and continuing through the collapse of the Saigon government in 1975. The result is a richly textured history of militarized landscapes that reveals the spatial logic of key battles such as the Tet Offensive. Drawing on extensive archival work and years of interviews and fieldwork in the hills and villages around the city of Hue to illuminate war's footprints, David Biggs also integrates historical Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data, using aerial, high-altitude, and satellite imagery to render otherwise placeless sites into living, multidimensional spaces. This personal and multilayered approach yields an innovative history of the lasting traces of war in Vietnam and a model for understanding other militarized landscapes. For more information visit the author's website: http: //davidbiggs.net "Weaving together environmental and social history, David Biggs offers an innovative history of the impact of war on central Vietnam in the long twentieth century, from the imposition of French colonial rule in 1885 to the end of American military involvement in 1973. The long history of conflict around the city of Huế produced belts of degraded lands and village societies deeply marred by the demands of war or periods of conflict. Once military units occupy a space, they change it in physical, legal, and cultural terms so that even long after the troopers leave, their footprints continue to shape patterns of land use and local memories of place. There are tombs, cemeteries, and war monuments; and there are the spaces in between, the subterrains of "wilderness" haunted by ghostlike presences of suspected chemical or munitions hazards. Digging below the surface, one risks being maimed by unexploded ordnance, getting ill from toxic chemical residues, or perhaps worst of all, being haunted by the ghosts of war dead who died violently or did not receive proper burials. Critical to this study are previously little used archives of maps and images created by technologies developed at the same time as the Indochinese wars, 1945 to 1975: aerial photography, high-altitude photography, satellite photography, and satellite-based, multi-band scanning. In this richly illustrated book, author David Biggs uses these new kinds of imagery to reveal the impact of war in the land"-- Provided by publisher When American forces arrived in Vietnam, they found themselves embedded in historic village and frontier spaces already shaped by many past conflicts. American bases and bombing targets followed spatial and political logics influenced by the footprints of past wars in central Vietnam. The militarized landscapes here, like many in the world's historic conflict zones, continue to shape post-war land-use politics.__Footprints of War__traces the long history of conflict-produced spaces in Vietnam, beginning with early modern wars and the French colonial invasion in 1885 and continuing through the collapse of the Saigon government in 1975. The result is a richly textured history of militarized landscapes that reveals the spatial logic of key battles such as the Tet Offensive.Drawing on extensive archival work and years of interviews and fieldwork in the hills and villages around the city of Hue to illuminate war's footprints, David Biggs also integrates historical Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data, using aerial, high-altitude, and satellite imagery to render otherwise placeless sites into living, multidimensional spaces. This personal and multilayered approach yields an innovative history of the lasting traces of war in Vietnam and a model for understanding other militarized landscapes.For more information visit the author's website: http: //davidbiggs.net

When American forces arrived in Vietnam, they found themselves embedded in historic village and frontier spaces already shaped by many past conflicts. American bases and bombing targets followed spatial and political logics influenced by the footprints of past wars in central Vietnam. The militarized landscapes here, like many in the world�s historic conflict zones, continue to shape post-war land-use politics.

Footprints of War traces the long history of conflict-produced spaces in Vietnam, beginning with early modern wars and the French colonial invasion in 1885 and continuing through the collapse of the Saigon government in 1975. The result is a richly textured history of militarized landscapes that reveals the spatial logic of key battles such as the Tet Offensive.

Drawing on extensive archival work and years of interviews and fieldwork in the hills and villages around the city of Hue to illuminate war�s footprints, David Biggs also integrates historical Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data, using aerial, high-altitude, and satellite imagery to render otherwise placeless sites into living, multidimensional spaces. This personal and multilayered approach yields an innovative history of the lasting traces of war in Vietnam and a model for understanding other militarized landscapes.