Ghosts of War in Vietnam
Ghosts of War in Vietnam

Author: Heonik Kwon

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-08-22

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 9781107659421

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This is a fascinating study of the Vietnamese experience and memory of the Vietnam War through the lens of popular imaginings about the wandering souls of the war dead. These ghosts of war play an important part in postwar Vietnamese historical narrative and imagination and Heonik Kwon explores the intimate ritual ties with these unsettled identities which still survive in Vietnam today as well as the actions of those who hope to liberate these hidden but vital historical presences from their uprooted social existence. Taking a unique approach to the cultural history of war, he introduces gripping stories about spirits claiming social justice and about his own efforts to wrestle with the physical and spiritual presence of ghosts. Although these actions are fantastical, this book shows how examining their stories can illuminate critical issues of war and collective memory in Vietnam and the modern world more generally.

Vietnam Shadows
Vietnam Shadows

Author: Arnold R. Isaacs

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2000-04-14

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 9780801863448

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Isaacs talks to the veterans unable to forget the war no one wanted to talk about. He explores the class divisions deepened by a conflict in which the privileged avoided service that an earlier generation had embraced as a duty. And he shows how the "Vietnam Syndrome" continues to affect nearly every major U.S. foreign policy decision, from the Persion Gulf to Somalia, Bosnia, and Haiti.

Grey Ghosts
Grey Ghosts

Author: Deborah Challinor

Publisher: HarperCollins Australia

Published: 2010-02-01

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 0730443310

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'We were known to the enemy as "grey ghosts". We could be here, and we could be there.' - 'Sniper' "We were known to the enemy as 'grey ghosts'. We could be here, and we could be there . . . " the Grey Ghosts were New Zealand's Vietnam veterans. their powerful story includes chilling accounts of death, injuries and emotional breakdown, along with the intense comradeship of soldiering, and a pervasive sense of humour that is uniquely our own. Acclaimed writer and historian Deborah Challinor interviewed 50 men who served in Vietnam, who speak out about 'fragging' (killing superior officers), the New Zealand Government's role in Agent Orange and chemical exposure, and their hostile reception when they returned. the result is compelling, reliving the Vietnam experience in vivid detail. First published in 1998, this updated edition includes new material on the subsequent handling of veterans' claims, and the reconciliation parade on Queen's Birthday weekend in 2008, when the men were finally welcomed home.

Ghosts and Shadows
Ghosts and Shadows

Author: Phil Ball

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2012-11-19

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 0786472774

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The author arrived at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego ill-prepared for the training and abuse that awaited him in boot camp. At the time, he would have done anything to escape; only upon reflection years later did he realize that the self-confidence instilled in him by his drill instructors had probably saved his life in Vietnam. A few months after boot camp, Private Ball was shipped out to Vietnam, joining F Company, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Marines, near Khe Sanh. As a grunt, in the vernacular of the Corps, Ball, like the other youths of F Company, did a difficult and deadly job in such places as the A Shau Valley, Leatherneck Square, the DMZ and other obscure but critical I Corps locales. His--their--fear of death mingled with homesickness. Little did they realize that the horrors of the Vietnam War--horrors that while in-country they often claimed did not even exist--would haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Lost at Khe Sanh (Ghosts of War #2)
Lost at Khe Sanh (Ghosts of War #2)

Author: Steve Watkins

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Published: 2015-03-31

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 0545665884

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History comes alive -- with ghosts! Anderson finds himself drawn to the old trunk of military relics in the basement of his family's junk shop again. His friends Greg and Julie warn him to stay away from it, but he can't help himself. This time Anderson discovers an old grenade with a strange message scratched into it. But an old grenade is dangerous . . . especially when the ghost of a soldier appears, claiming that it's his lucky grenade from during his service in the Vietnam War. What does this ghost want from Anderson, Greg, and Julie? Is he here for their help - or for something more sinister? It's a race against time as the friends work to solve the mystery!

The Secret of Midway (Ghosts of War #1)
The Secret of Midway (Ghosts of War #1)

Author: Steve Watkins

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Published: 2014-12-30

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 0545665868

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History comes alive -- with ghosts! In the basement of his family's junk shop, Anderson and his friends Greg and Julie discover a trunk full of old military stuff, including a battered navy peacoat from World War II with a mysterious letter in the pocket. Curious, Anderson takes both home. Only that's not all he brings home . . .Later that night, the owner of the coat and letter appears in Anderson's room - the ghost of a World War II sailor.But who is the ghost and why hasn't he crossed over? And what does he want with Anderson?Soon Anderson, Julie, and Greg are wrapped up in a mystery that's over seventy years old. Can the friends figure out what happened to the ghost before it's too late?

The Ghosts of Thua Thien
The Ghosts of Thua Thien

Author: John A. Nesser

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2015-02-18

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 078648134X

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Drafted in October 1968, John A. Nesser left behind his wife and young son to fight in the controversial Vietnam War. Like many in his generation, he was deeply at odds with himself over the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, instilled with a strong sense of duty to his country but uncertain about its mission and his role in it. Nesser was deployed to the Ashau Valley, site of some of the war's heaviest fighting, and served eight months as an infantry rifleman before transferring to become a door gunner for a Chinook helicopter. In this stirring memoir, he recalls in detail the exhausting missions in the mountainous jungle, the terror of walking into an ambush, the dull-edged anxiety that filled quiet days, and the steady fear of being shot out of the sky. The accounts are richly illustrated with Nesser's own photographs of the military firebases and aircraft, the landscapes, and the people he encountered.

War and Shadows
War and Shadows

Author: Mai Lan Gustafsson

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2010-12-15

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 0801457459

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Vietnamese culture and religious traditions place the utmost importance on dying well: in old age, body unblemished, with surviving children, and properly buried and mourned. More than five million people were killed in the Vietnam War, many of them young, many of them dying far from home. Another 300,000 are still missing. Having died badly, they are thought to have become angry ghosts, doomed to spend eternity in a kind of spirit hell. Decades after the war ended, many survivors believe that the spirits of those dead and missing have returned to haunt their loved ones. In War and Shadows, the anthropologist Mai Lan Gustafsson tells the story of the anger of these spirits and the torments of their kin. Gustafsson's rich ethnographic research allows her to bring readers into the world of spirit possession, focusing on the source of the pain, the physical and mental anguish the spirits bring, and various attempts to ameliorate their anger through ritual offerings and the intervention of mediums. Through a series of personal life histories, she chronicles the variety of ailments brought about by the spirits' wrath, from headaches and aching limbs (often the same limb lost by a loved one in battle) to self-mutilation. In Gustafsson's view, the Communist suppression of spirit-based religion after the fall of Saigon has intensified anxieties about the well-being of the spirit world. While shrines and mourning are still allowed, spirit mediums were outlawed and driven underground, along with many of the other practices that might have provided some comfort. Despite these restrictions, she finds, victims of these hauntings do as much as possible to try to lay their ghosts to rest.

Ghosts in the Landscape
Ghosts in the Landscape

Author: Alison Devine Nordström

Publisher: Umbrage Editions

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 120

ISBN-13: 1884167535

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"After serving in Vietnam as a U.S. Marine, photographer Craig Barber returns twenty-eight years later to a country that he first saw through the eyes of combat. Haunted by the deaths he witnessed, Barber carries his memories of being eighteen with a taunting bull's-eye painted on his helmet, the smell of smoldering bombs, and the cries of the dying back to Vietnam in order to put his ghosts to rest. In the Vietnamese countryside, he captures the healing landscapes with bomb craters turned into fish-rearing ponds and watering reservoirs, metal sections from former airstrip runways transformed into window grates, and shell casings functioning as fence posts. An essay by Alison Devine Nordstrom, Curator of Photographs at the George Eastman House, Rochester, offers insight into photography's role in unlayering the past."--BOOK JACKET.

Haunting Legacy
Haunting Legacy

Author: Marvin Kalb

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 081572389X

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The United States had never lost a war —that is, until 1975, when it was forced to flee Saigon in humiliation after losing to what Lyndon Johnson called a "raggedy-ass little fourth-rate country." The legacy of this first defeat has haunted every president since, especially on the decision of whether to put "boots on the ground" and commit troops to war. In Haunting Legacy, the father-daughter journalist team of Marvin Kalb and Deborah Kalb presents a compelling, accessible, and hugely important history of presidential decisionmaking on one crucial issue: in light of the Vietnam debacle, under what circumstances should the United States go to war? The sobering lesson of Vietnam is that the United States is not invincible —it can lose a war —and thus it must be more discriminating about the use of American power. Every president has faced the ghosts of Vietnam in his own way, though each has been wary of being sucked into another unpopular war. Ford (during the Mayaguez crisis) and both Bushes (Persian Gulf, Iraq, Afghanistan) deployed massive force, as if to say, "Vietnam, be damned." On the other hand, Carter, Clinton, and Reagan (to the surprise of many) acted with extreme caution, mindful of the Vietnam experience. Obama has also wrestled with the Vietnam legacy, using doses of American firepower in Libya while still engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan. The authors spent five years interviewing hundreds of officials from every post war administration and conducting extensive research in presidential libraries and archives, and they've produced insight and information never before published. Equal parts taut history, revealing biography, and cautionary tale, Haunting Legacy is must reading for anyone trying to understand the power of the past to influence war-and-peace decisions of the present, and of the future.