Wars in Vietnam and Cambodia 1968-1993
Vietnam
Key issues
The role of the US military in Vietnam; the Vietcong and guerrilla warfare; the Tet Offensive (1968); continuation of bombing campaigns; Nixon’s policies in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, his relations with China, Paris peace talks (1967–1973); victory of North Vietnam and the fall of Saigon (1975) and the reasons why the USA failed to win the war
The role of the US military in Vietnam; the Vietcong and guerrilla warfare; the Tet Offensive (1968); continuation of bombing campaigns; Nixon’s policies in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, his relations with China, Paris peace talks (1967–1973); victory of North Vietnam and the fall of Saigon (1975) and the reasons why the USA failed to win the war
Selected topics
Tet
Communist involvement
CIA in Vietnam Although the CIA ceded control of military intelligence to the U.S Army after the Bay of Pigs incident, its involvement in Vietnam continued to be notoriously extensive.
Nixson's 'Vietnamisation' of the war and reduced US involvement ARVN Airborne repel Vietcong attack, Saigon (1968) James Lawton Collins, The Development and Training of the South Vietnamese Army, 1950-1972. Nathalie Nguyen, South Vietnamese Soldiers: Memories of the Vietnam War and After (2016), and its book launch with author's talk and Q&A. |
Notable documentaries (also relevant for the previous section: Indochina)
non-US productions
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International troops in Vietnam (due to SEATO)
The fall of Saigon and its aftermath
- David McCraw, “Reluctant Ally: New Zealand’s Entry into the Vietnam War,” New Zealand Journal of History 15.1 (1981).
- Glen St. John Barclay, A Very Small Insurance Policy: The Politics of Australian Involvement in Vietnam, 1954-1967 (1988).
- Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, “In the Service of Pharaoh? The United States and the Employment of Korean Troops in Vietnam, 1965-1968,” Pacific Historical Review 68 (1999): pp. 425-449.
The fall of Saigon and its aftermath
- News, Fall of Saigon (1975)
- William, E. LeGro, Vietnam from Cease-Fire to Capitulation.
- Nguyen Tien Hung, The Palace File (1989) with South Vietnam documents
Some primary source documents
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China and Southeast Asia, near the end of the war
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Movies with non-US perspectives
(also for the previous section: Indochina)
The Story of Woo Viet (1981) and Boat People (1981) are two Hong Kong films in response to the large number of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong in the late 70s and early 80s.
Journey from the Fall (2007) is again, about the Vietnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon.
BFI suggests 10 Great Vietnam War films, including many US classics.
For a critical engagement with Vietnam cinema, see: Framing "the Other", A critical review of Vietnam War movies and their representation of Asians and Vietnamese (J. G. G. M. Kleinen, 2004).
(also for the previous section: Indochina)
The Story of Woo Viet (1981) and Boat People (1981) are two Hong Kong films in response to the large number of Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong in the late 70s and early 80s.
Journey from the Fall (2007) is again, about the Vietnamese refugees after the fall of Saigon.
BFI suggests 10 Great Vietnam War films, including many US classics.
For a critical engagement with Vietnam cinema, see: Framing "the Other", A critical review of Vietnam War movies and their representation of Asians and Vietnamese (J. G. G. M. Kleinen, 2004).
Journalism about the war
Literature and non-fictions (also for the previous section: Indochina)
Also check this list of Must-Read Books on the Vietnam War from Not Even Past. |
Cambodia
Key issues
Cambodia: Sihanouk 1955–1970, reasons for civil war and North Vietnamese intervention; US bombing and the fall of the Khmer Republic 1970–1975; Pol Pot and Democratic Kampuchea (the Khmer Rouge 1975–1978, Chinese Models, evacuation to the rural areas, anti-intellectualism, the Killing Fields and ethnicity); Vietnamese invasion 1978 and its consequences (a People’s Republic); the role of the UN; Paris Peace settlement (1991–1993) and the creation of a Cambodian Kingdom.
Cambodia: Sihanouk 1955–1970, reasons for civil war and North Vietnamese intervention; US bombing and the fall of the Khmer Republic 1970–1975; Pol Pot and Democratic Kampuchea (the Khmer Rouge 1975–1978, Chinese Models, evacuation to the rural areas, anti-intellectualism, the Killing Fields and ethnicity); Vietnamese invasion 1978 and its consequences (a People’s Republic); the role of the UN; Paris Peace settlement (1991–1993) and the creation of a Cambodian Kingdom.
Teaching resources Education About Asia: search the EAA articles by country: Cambodia, it returns with following articles among others.
The Documentation Center of Cambodia collects invaluable materials on the Khmer Rouge regime and the genocide, and runs active educational and community programmes. Check its excellent Genocide Education programme, with a multi-language textbook, A History of Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979), and many materials for teachers and students (in and outside of Cambodia). |
US military involvement in Cambodia
Taylor Owen and Ben Kiernan, “Bombs Over Cambodia,” from the Walrus Magazine (2006). Recently declassified information reveals the scope of US bombing in Cambodia before and during the war. It started in 1965, much earlier than many had previously thought. CIA Intelligence Report, “Communism and Cambodia,” (May, 1972) Cambodia – this Week – Prince Sihanouk, a 1969 Thames documentary. Within a year of appearing in this video, Sihanouk would be overthrown and US and South Vietnamese forces would invade Cambodia to attack Viet Cong bases. The civil war escalated, the Khmer Rouge was pushed further into the hinterlands, and eventually took control of the country after the war. |
Genocide
Some notable works on the genocide under the Khmer Rouge:
- John Barron and Anthony Paul, Murder of a Gentle Land: The Untold Story of Communist Genocide in Cambodia (1977). One of the first books to dig deep into what happened at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.
- Daniel Bultmann, “Irrigating a Socialist Utopia: Disciplinary Space and Population Control under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-1979” (2012).
- Ben Kiernan, “The Cambodian Genocide, 1975-1979” in Samuel Totten (ed.)., Century of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts (2004). A good primer on the Khmer Rouge.
The international tribunal on the Khmer Rouge with United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT) and
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) is still under going.
Books
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First-person accounts and primary sources Norodom Sihanouk, My War with the CIA: The Memoirs of Prince Norodom Sihanouk (1973); War and Hope: The Case for Cambodia (1980) (and a review of these two Sihanouk books) Sak Sutsakhan, The Khmer Republic at War and the Final Collapse. Written in 1978, Sutsakhan was the Chief of the General Staff of the Khmer Armed Forces, and the last chief of state of the Khmer Republic before it fell in 1975 (downloadable in four parts) http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/239/2390505001A.pdf http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/239/2390505001B.pdf http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/239/2390505001C.pdf http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/239/2390505001D.pdf Selected documents of the Khmer Rouge, with extremely valuable primary sources. |
One of the most eminent and prolific historians on Cambodia's history is David P. Chandler, whose books cover the entire history of the country.
- A History of Cambodia (1983)
- The Tragedy of Cambodian History: Politics, War, and Revolution since 1945 (1991)
- Brother Number One (1992)
- Facing the Cambodian Past (1996)
- Voices from S-21: Terror and History in Pol Pot's Secret Prison (1999)
Documentaries and films
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Literature
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