For many Americans in the early 1960s, Vietnam was a far-away place of which they had little knowledge. Soon, thousands of young American men and women would find themselves on the other side of the globe, fighting and, in many cases, living side by side with the Vietnamese. To lessen the culture shock, the US Department of Defense prepared a publication along the lines of the instructions for servicemen issued in the Second World War.This rather unassuming Pocket Guide was designed to instil in the soldier an understanding of and respect for the Vietnamese, so as to gain their support. In less than 8,000 words, the author of the Pocket Guide creates a highly sympathetic account of Vietnam's history, culture, politics, infrastructure, geography, and people. The author stresses shared values common to both the United States and Vietnam.Viewed from the intervening distance of four decades, this is a fascinating comment on the political aspirations of a former age. It remains a compelling introduction to the enduring qualities of Vietnamese culture.
The latest version of the "stranded behind enemy lines" manual included in the survival kits of all branches of the U.S. military. A distillation of the information contained in the survival "bible," the USAF's enormous tome on Survival Training, AFR 64-4 and updated from the previous version which contained a significant amount of outmoded information. Now a multiservice publication used by all branches of the U.S. military (FM 21-76-1, MCRP 3-02H, NWP 3-50.3, AFTTP(I) 3-2-2.6).
In Tours of Vietnam, Scott Laderman demonstrates how tourist literature has shaped Americans’ understanding of Vietnam and projections of United States power since the mid-twentieth century. Laderman analyzes portrayals of Vietnam’s land, history, culture, economy, and people in travel narratives, U.S. military guides, and tourist guidebooks, pamphlets, and brochures. Whether implying that Vietnamese women were in need of saving by “manly” American military power or celebrating the neoliberal reforms Vietnam implemented in the 1980s, ostensibly neutral guides have repeatedly represented events, particularly those related to the Vietnam War, in ways that favor the global ambitions of the United States. Tracing a history of ideological assertions embedded in travel discourse, Laderman analyzes the use of tourism in the Republic of Vietnam as a form of Cold War cultural diplomacy by a fledgling state that, according to one pamphlet published by the Vietnamese tourism authorities, was joining the “family of free nations.” He chronicles the evolution of the Defense Department pocket guides to Vietnam, the first of which, published in 1963, promoted military service in Southeast Asia by touting the exciting opportunities offered by Vietnam to sightsee, swim, hunt, and water-ski. Laderman points out that, despite historians’ ongoing and well-documented uncertainty about the facts of the 1968 “Hue Massacre” during the National Liberation Front’s occupation of the former imperial capital, the incident often appears in English-language guidebooks as a settled narrative of revolutionary Vietnamese atrocity. And turning to the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, he notes that, while most contemporary accounts concede that the United States perpetrated gruesome acts of violence in Vietnam, many tourists and travel writers still dismiss the museum’s display of that record as little more than “propaganda.”
Practical handbook ideal for ease of identification at air shows and in operation; Describes and illustrates every major military aircraft in service; Types include fighters, fighter/ bombers, helicopters, transports and trainers; Each aircraft illustrated with colour side view and black and white three-view line drawing; Technical information on armament, engines, weight, performance and dimensions; Briefings on the world's air arms and an inventory of aircraft in service; World air force insignias in colour
For decades the U.S. Army has produced the most knowledge-filled and practical guides to wilderness survival. Now, this pocket edition, based on current Army doctrine, has been thoroughly reedited, reformatted, its illustrations remastered, and improved in every way so that you the reader can have the information you need with you when you need it.
Americans eat more processed foods than anyone else in the world. We also spend more on military research. These two seemingly unrelated facts are inextricably linked. If you ever wondered how ready-to-eat foods infiltrated your kitchen, you’ll love this entertaining romp through the secret military history of practically everything you buy at the supermarket. In a nondescript Boston suburb, in a handful of low buildings buffered by trees and a lake, a group of men and women spend their days researching, testing, tasting, and producing the foods that form the bedrock of the American diet. If you stumbled into the facility, you might think the technicians dressed in lab coats and the shiny kitchen equipment belonged to one of the giant food conglomerates responsible for your favorite brand of frozen pizza or microwavable breakfast burritos. So you’d be surprised to learn that you’ve just entered the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center, ground zero for the processed food industry. Ever since Napoleon, armies have sought better ways to preserve, store, and transport food for battle. As part of this quest, although most people don’t realize it, the U.S. military spearheaded the invention of energy bars, restructured meat, extended-life bread, instant coffee, and much more. But there’s been an insidious mission creep: because the military enlisted industry—huge corporations such as ADM, ConAgra, General Mills, Hershey, Hormel, Mars, Nabisco, Reynolds, Smithfield, Swift, Tyson, and Unilever—to help develop and manufacture food for soldiers on the front line, over the years combat rations, or the key technologies used in engineering them, have ended up dominating grocery store shelves and refrigerator cases. TV dinners, the cheese powder in snack foods, cling wrap . . . The list is almost endless. Now food writer Anastacia Marx de Salcedo scrutinizes the world of processed food and its long relationship with the military—unveiling the twists, turns, successes, failures, and products that have found their way from the armed forces’ and contractors’ laboratories into our kitchens. In developing these rations, the army was looking for some of the very same qualities as we do in our hectic, fast-paced twenty-first-century lives: portability, ease of preparation, extended shelf life at room temperature, affordability, and appeal to even the least adventurous eaters. In other words, the military has us chowing down like special ops. What is the effect of such a diet, eaten—as it is by soldiers and most consumers—day in and day out, year after year? We don’t really know. We’re the guinea pigs in a giant public health experiment, one in which science and technology, at the beck and call of the military, have taken over our kitchens.
