Body count was their most important product the new york times. How accurate are the body count figures during the vietnam. During the vietnam war why was body count used as a. In combat, a body count is often based on the number of confirmed kills, but occasionally only an estimate. He is a vietnam veteran, attended the university of miami. The vietnam war opposition in america finds meaning dummies. In a war in which commanding generals rewarded american troops for generating high enemy body count and punished those slackers who didnt kill enough of the enemy, small wonder that vietnam became an american killing field and a breeding ground for atrocity.
Focusing on the politics of war memory and commemoration, this book retheorizes the connections among history, memory, and power and refashions the fields of american studies, asian american studies, and refugee studies not around. Body count by richter watkins book cover, description, publication history. One might therefore have expected his book to adopt a revisionist line on vietnam. Our books conditioned as good may have yellowing of pages due to age and may have very minimal under 5 pages worth, transparent highlighting but no writing or note taking. Herring explained, in a war without front lines and territorial objectives, where attriting the enemy was a major goal, the body count became the index of progress. Often, those bodies were not enemy soldiers, turse concludes. Us military intervention initially prioritized propping up the unstable south to create a strong buffer against reunification efforts from the north. Facebook is showing information to help you better understand the purpose of a page.
Oct 21, 1990 body count was their most important product. Vietnam body count by mushroom montoya vietnam veterans. This is an unknown and overlooked book about the marine corps in vietnam. We lost our humanity in vietnam history news network. Body counts and success in the vietnam and korean wars. A marine veteran of that war was kind enough to lend me his copy before i joined the army.
The vietnam war body count controversy centers on the counting of enemy dead by the united. In lewis sorleys book a better war, published in 1999 after studies of voluminous previouslysecret papers of creighton abrams, he writes body count may have been the most corrupt and corrupting measure of progress in the whole mess. Focusing on the politics of war memory and commemoration, this book. Back in the 1970s as the viet nam war was winding down for us. In the midst of a deteriorating war in 1967 a senior cia operative seekin. Oct 17, 2017 body count figures were grossly exaggerated throughout the vietnam war due to several factors. By the mid1960s, the mekong delta, with its verdant paddies and canalside hamlets, was the rice bowl of south vietnam and home to nearly 6 million vietnamese. The nightly body counts from vietnam on the evening news with.
Vietnams forgotten army is a powerful account of irony, coincidence and history as it traces the path of south vietnams army of the republic of vietnam arvn from beginning to end. Vietnam body count by mushroom montoya vietnam veterans of. There are issues around killing and counting unarmed civilians noncombatants as enemy combatants, as well as inflating the number of actual enemy who were killed in action kia. The body count was a measurement of adversarys manpower losses. By increasing enemy deaths and minimizing ones own, victory was assured. Every night was a body count of those who died in the battles. Certainly the consensus of senior army leaders, the generals who commanded in vietnam, strongly indicates that it was. I have read a lot of books that deal with the different ways we have been involved in. In two later sections, the good records of presidents and what if. Peoples democratic republic of ethiopia body count. A novel about the fears and obsessions of a lieutenant and his men fighting in vietnam in the sixties reveals the authors concern about the character of the united states marine corps. Fortyone years is a long time to hold a secret that haunts its keeper.
Is your subtitle the general who lost vietnam fair. Discussion of who besides the president is guilty of causing these atrocities, or who is often blamed. When it came to the conflict in vietnam, republican presidential cenidate barry goldwater made johnson look. If this second read of body count is any indication a return to webbs book should be refreshing and enjoyable. Focusing on the politics of war memory and commemoration, this book retheorizes the connections among history, memory, and power and. The vietnam war body count controversy centers on the counting of enemy dead by the united states armed forces during the vietnam war 19551975.
Which of the following best describes the significance of the body count method in the vietnam war. Drawing from traditional and nontraditional sources such as her personal often haunting memories of the vietnam war, oral interviews, archives, newspaper accounts, and sociological surveys, body counts pieces together what has been missing from dominant memories of the vietnam war. I constantly find myself drawn to the past that my father insists i forget about. Oddly enough, or perhaps fittingly, my seiko stopped working again after my book was published. In lewis sorleys book a better war, published in 1999 after studies of voluminous previouslysecret papers of creighton abrams, he writes. Body count in vietnam gary bray a second lieutenant assigned to lead the infamous platoon responsible for the my lai massacre recalls the bitter reality behind vietnam s measurement of combat success. He grew up in williamsport, pa where he played his share of little league baseball, and was the captain of his golf team. Personal narrative of a tour of duty with the usmc in vietnam. Its success triggers an explosive conflict between the cia backed buddhists and saigons special forces who are supported by the american military command led by colonel stennride, to put an end to the buddhist rebellion and continue with a strategy of body count. Readers weighed in on the best books about the vietnam war. Hue 1968 a turning point of the american war in vietnam by mark bowden. The vietnam war and militarized refugees pdf online. The vietnam war and militarized refugees examines how the vietnam war has continued to serve as a stage for the shoring up. The daily body count of killed and wounded north vietnamese soldiers was, in epsilon theoryspeak, a cartoon an abstraction of an abstraction in service to the creation of common knowledge.
He decided to conduct of a war of attrition, using search and destroy tactics, in which the measure of merit was body count. Ken burns never knew how wrong he was about the vietnam war. A lot of the veterans wrote of their experiences in the ill fated war. Nobody out there believes the body count, was the reportedly common response. How accurate are the body count figures during the vietnam war. Body count was an aspect of the attrition based war that took place in vietnam.
For those of you interested in books about vietnam, heres a list, along. The mcnamara fallacy originates from the vietnam war, in which enemy body counts were taken to be a precise and objective measure of success. The vietnam war and militarized refugeesexamines how the vietnam war has. It is a shame that this book was passed over or other books on the subject. The nightly body counts from vietnam on the evening news with walter cronkite as well as the extremely graphic footage of the ongoing combat, and the coverage of rfks and martin luther king, jr.
This book was one of the better efforts of these men. Of the casualties listed on the wall approximatley 1,300 remain missing in action still. General westmoreland had complete freedom of action in deciding how to prosecute the war within south vietnam. My watch worked well during the time i wrote the manuscript for viet nam body count. Civilians and the vietnam war in a new book, nick turse says the pressure on u.
A body count is the total number of people killed in a particular event. Body counts by yen le espiritu paperback university of. This book was so awesome and realistic that i felt the emotions of each. A helicopter gunship pulls out of an attack in the mekong delta during speedy express, january 1969. Every living room was placed into the heat of modern combat with its horrific images.
Start studying hist 102 chapter 28 multiple choice. Body count was their most important product the new york. Our homeland is the united states my father would say at every family dinner. The vietnam war and militarized refugees examines how the vietnam. The tet offensive was a coordinated series of north vietnamese attacks on more than 100 cities and outposts in south vietnam. Ken burns never knew how wrong he was about the vietnam. Sep 30, 2011 is your subtitle the general who lost vietnam fair. To invade the north risked involving stronger communist powers into play. A vietnam war thriller by richter watkins goodreads. There were 10 million americans under arms during the war. Accordingly, i use this very term, body counts, as the book s title in order to expose the wars costs borne by the vietnamese and to insist that bodiesvietnamese bodiesshould count. The vietnam war and militarized refugeesexamines how the vietnam war has continued to serve as a stage for the shoring up of american imperialist adventure and for the reproduction of american and vietnamese american identities. Hist 102 chapter 28 multiple choice flashcards quizlet.
Viet nam body count by mushroom montoya, paperback. Often used in reference to military combat, the term can also refer to any situation involving multiple killings, such as the actions of death squads or serial killers. Viet nam body count by mushroom montoya, paperback barnes. While i have always considered this one of the best novels on the vietnam war i suppose i should read it again. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools.
Firstly, the communist fighters vietcongnorth vietnamese army vcnva understood that body count was important to u. Oct 11, 20 woe unto any commander who did not have a consistently high count. The vietnam war and militarized refugees examines how the vietnam war has continued to serve as a stage for the shoring up of american imperialist adventure and for the reproduction of american and vietnamese american identities. Its a vietnam story not about the rights and wrongs of the war, but the marine corps itself. The vietnam war ranks among the most bizarre episodes of this century. The body count was the data point that defined an era.
The most controversial statistic in vietnam was the number of killed in action kia claimed by each side. Thats one of the more grisly aspects of the vietnam war that the u. Focusing on the politics of war memory and commemoration, this book retheorizes. Unparalleled and unequaled university of kentucky press, 195 pp. The united states had committed more than 365,000 troops to vietnam by the beginning of 1967, and the number of casualties had risen to more than 6,600 dead. If this second read of body count is any indication a return to webbs book. I watched the body counti would be so happy when there were fewer dead americans. Body count is a new tactical combat series game that covers five actions in vietnam starting with the earliest actions of the us operation starlite and lz xray through air cavalry actions operation pegagus, vietnamization duc lap and finally assaults on fortified areas hamburger hill. Didnt you see the body count numbers on cbs last night. Yoichi okamoto lbj library in this interview with al carroll, author of presidents body counts.
I first encountered the very well written body count back when i was a lad during the early 1980s when vietnam war message movies still werent quite the rage just yet, probably in my sophomore year in high school. I am grateful for this watch whose tictoc helped to remind me of events onboard the uss trippe in the gulf of tonkin. The united states had committed more than 365,000 troops to vietnam by the beginning of 1967, and the. Army employed body countsthe number of confirmed vietnamese killsto chart u. The body count was published daily in the newspapers. Woe unto any commander who did not have a consistently high count.
A closer look at the khe sanh body count, however, reveals anything but a straightforward matter of numbers. Army infantry division that was activated and trained stateside specifically to fight in vietnam. Popular vietnam war fiction books goodreads share book. A vietnam war thriller by richter watkins available from rakuten kobo. Viet nam body count is a slightly fictionalized story that reveals the secrets that sailor, mushroom montoya, has kept hidden, in a dark place in his heart. Lieutenant colonel tran ngoc hue served from 1963 until 1970, when he was captured. Richter watkins is the bestselling author of crime thrillers including the murder option series and the cool series. A good book describes the average used worn book that has all pages or leaves present. Aug 10, 2014 richard nixon at the white house, july 26, 1968. The nightly body counts from vietnam on the evening news with walter cronkite.
The nightly body counts from vietnam on the evening news. Try searching on jstor for other items related to this book. How many deaths, based on the best credible estimates. Life and death in vietnams television war consortiumnews. Browse the amazon editors picks for the best books of 2019, featuring our favorite. The vietnam war opposition in america finds meaning had the vietnam conflict in 1964 been a brushfire, the war in 1967, by comparison, was a raging inferno. Hey, everyone knows that everyone knows that were winning the war in vietnam. Recounting the casualties at the deadly battle of khe sanh.
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