Four Decades On: Vietnam, the United States, and the Legacies of the Second Indochina War

In Four Decades On, historians, anthropologists, and literary critics examine the legacies of the Second Indochina War, or what most Americans call the Vietnam War, nearly forty years after the United States finally left Vietnam. They address matters such as the daunting tasks facing the Vietnamese at the war's end-including rebuilding a nation and consolidating a socialist revolution while fending off China and the Khmer Rouge-and "the Vietnam syndrome," the cynical, frustrated, and pessimistic sense that colored America's views of the rest of the world after its humiliating defeat in Vietnam. The contributors provide unexpected perspectives on Agent Orange, the POW/MIA controversies, the commercial trade relationship between the United States and Vietnam, and representations of the war and its aftermath produced by artists, particularly writers. They show how the war has continued to affect not only international relations but also the everyday lives of millions of people around the world. Most of the contributors take up matters in the United States, Vietnam, or both nations, while several utilize transnational analytic frameworks, recognizing that the war's legacies shape and are shaped by dynamics that transcend the two countries.

Contributors. Alex Bloom, Diane Niblack Fox, H. Bruce Franklin, Walter Hixson, Heonik Kwon, Scott Laderman, Mariam B. Lam, Ngo Vinh Long, Edwin A. Martini, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Christina Schwenkel, Charles Waugh

Author: Scott Laderman
Publisher: Duke University Press
Published: 06/06/2013
Pages: 344
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.10w x 0.60d
ISBN: 9780822354741

Review Citation(s):
Choice 12/01/2013

About the Author

Scott Laderman is Associate Professor of History at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. He is the author of Tours of Vietnam: War, Travel Guides, and Memory, also published by Duke University Press.

Edwin A. Martini is Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor of History at Western Michigan University. He is the author of Agent Orange: History, Science, and the Politics of Uncertainty and Invisible Enemies: The American War on Vietnam, 1975-2000.