Voices From the Vietnam War : Stories From American, Asian, and Russian Veterans

The Vietnam War's influence on politics, foreign policy, and subsequent military campaigns is the center of much debate and analysis. But the impact on veterans across the globe, as well as the war's effects on individual lives and communities, is a largely neglected issue. As a consequence of cultural and legal barriers, the oral histories of the Vietnam War currently available in English are predictably one-sided, providing limited insight into the inner workings of the Communist nations that participated in the war. Furthermore, many of these accounts focus on combat experiences rather than the backgrounds, belief systems, and social experiences of interviewees, resulting in an incomplete historiography of the war. Chinese native Xiaobing Li corrects this oversight in Voices from the Vietnam War: Stories from American, Asian, and Russian Veterans. Li spent seven years gathering hundreds of personal accounts from survivors of the war, accounts that span continents, nationalities, and political affiliations. The twenty-two intimate stories in the book feature the experiences of American, Chinese, Russian, Korean, and North and South Vietnamese veterans, representing the views of both anti-Communist and Communist participants, including Chinese officers of the PLA, a Russian missile-training instructor, and a KGB spy. These narratives humanize and contextualize the war's events while shedding light on aspects of the war previously unknown to Western scholars. Providing fresh perspectives on a long-discussed topic, Voices from the Vietnam War offers a thorough and unique understanding of America's longest war.

The Vietnam War's influence on politics, foreign policy, and subsequent military campaigns is the center of much debate and analysis. But the impact on veterans across the globe, as well as the war's effects on individual lives and communities, is a largely neglected issue. As a consequence of cultural and legal barriers, the oral histories of the Vietnam War currently available in English are predictably one-sided, providing limited insight into the inner workings of the Communist nations that participated in the war. Furthermore, many of these accounts focus on combat experiences rather than the backgrounds, belief systems, and social experiences of interviewees, resulting in an incomplete historiography of the war.

Chinese native Xiaobing Li corrects this oversight in Voices from the Vietnam War: Stories from American, Asian, and Russian Veterans. Li spent seven years gathering hundreds of personal accounts from survivors of the war, accounts that span continents, nationalities, and political affiliations. The twenty-two intimate stories in the book feature the experiences of American, Chinese, Russian, Korean, and North and South Vietnamese veterans, representing the views of both anti-Communist and Communist participants, including Chinese officers of the PLA, a Russian missile-training instructor, and a KGB spy. These narratives humanize and contextualize the war's events while shedding light on aspects of the war previously unknown to Western scholars. Providing fresh perspectives on a long-discussed topic, Voices from the Vietnam War offers a thorough and unique understanding of America's longest war.

The Vietnam War's influence on politics, foreign policy, and subsequent military campaigns is the center of much debate and analysis. But the impact on veterans across the globe, as well as the war's effects on individual lives and communities, is a largely neglected issue. As a consequence of cultural and legal barriers, the oral histories of the Vietnam War currently available in English are predictably one sided, providing limited insight into the inner workings of the Communist nations that participated in the war. Furthermore, many of these accounts focus on combat experiences rather than the backgrounds, belief systems, and social experiences of interviewees, resulting in an incomplete historiography of the war. The author, a Chinese native corrects this oversight in this work. He spent seven years gathering hundreds of personal accounts from survivors of the war, accounts that span continents, nationalities, and political affiliations. The twenty two intimate stories in the book feature the experiences of American, Chinese, Russian, Korean, and North and South Vietnamese veterans, representing the views of both anti-Communist and Communist participants, including Chinese officers of the PLA, a Russian missile training instructor, and a KGB spy. These narratives humanize and contextualize the war's events while shedding light on aspects of the war previously unknown to Western scholars. Providing fresh perspectives on a long-discussed topic, this work offers a thorough and unique understanding of America's longest war Copyright 5 Contents 8 List of Maps 10 List of Photographs 11 Abbreviations 12 Note on Transliteration 14 Acknowledgments 16 Introduction: The Long War 18 Part One: A Country Divided 30 1. A Buddhist Soldier Defends a Catholic Government 32 2. Surviving the Bloody Jungle 40 3. Electronic Reconnaissance vs. Guerrillas 48 4. Communist Regulars from the North 56 5. People's War against Americans 64 6. No Final Victory, No Family Life 72 Part Two: Hanoi's Comrades 80 7. Russian Missile Officers in Vietnam 82 8. The Dragon's Tale: Chinese Troops in the Jungle 90 9. Chinese Response to the U.S. Rolling Thunder Campaign 102 10. Russian Spies in Hanoi 110 Part Three: Saigon's Allies 116 11. Long Days and Endless Nights: An Artillery Story 118 12. And Then They're Gone... Just Like That 128 13. No John Wayne Movie: Real Bullets, Real Blood 140 14. More Than Meets the Eye: Supporting the Intelligence Effort 148 Part Four: Doctors and Nurses 158 15. Medevac and Medcap Missions and More 160 16. Drowning Tears with Laughter 170 17. Life and Death of an ARVN Doctor 182 18. A Korean Captain and His Hospital 194 Part Five: Logistics Support 206 19. "Loggie's" War: Napalm, Fuel, Bombs, and Sweat 208 20. Support and Survival in Thailand 216 21. Three Great Escapes 222 22. Chinese Railroad Engineering Operations 232 Conclusion: Perspectives on the War 240 Notes 246 Selected Bibliography 268 Index 286 0813125928,9780813125923 The University Press of Kentucky