Conflict in Indo-China
Extras:
Evidence::
1. Medical photographs of Napalm Burns
2. My Lai Massacre - over one hundred unarmed Vietnamese civilians
à Official army photographer - hidden camera
3. Secret Bombing of Cambodia - America uninformed
à Richard Nixon's November 1969 speech conceals illegal 8 month long bombing of neutral Cambodia
4. Deep revulsion felt by majority of Western intellectuals @ atrocities + manipulation of public opinion
= highly critical of US motives + strategy
5. Australia's role in Vietnam à refer to Terry Burstall
6. Internal politics of NVA/ NV Ã refer to Bui Tin
Historiography:
Right Wing Interpretations
1. Conservative
2. See as war waged in defence of democratic values
à US intervened to prevent communist oppression - authoritarian government
3. Blame war on North aggression
4. Argue war must be seen in context of communist attempt at global domination
à part of the cold war
5. Blame media and anti-war movements for US defeat
6. See Pol Pot's excessive brutality as an expression of communist ideology
à Argue continued US intervention could have prevented such genocide
7. some concede US miliary strategies:
1. terrible consequences for civilian populations
2. counter productive to gaining support
à à general implication that ends justified the means
Historians: 1. General William Westmoreland
2. W. W. Rostow
3. Michael Lind Vietnam: The Necessary War (1999)
Left Wing Interpretations
1. RADICAL LEFT
à NVA conducting a genuine national liberation struggle against US imperialism
à Gabriel Kolko Anatomy of a war
2. LIBERAL LEFT
à War = tragic mistake of US policy
à Stanley Karnow Vietnam: A history
3. Civil war - US no right to intervene
4. Not defending democracy - forcing despotic, unpopular dictatorship on SV
5. suffering caused by US tactics = unjustifiable
à Allied civilians all too frequently treated as the enemy
à Ben Tre
6. Ease with which communist won after US...
Something wrong?!?!
<Tab/><Tab/>&a grave; constantly this stuff. could be my browser. please rre submit this essay
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