More than forty years have passed since the official end of the Vietnam War, yet the war’s legacies endure. Its history and iconography still provide fodder for film and fiction, communities of war refugees have spawned a wide Vietnamese diaspora, and the United States military remains embroiled in unwinnable wars with eerie echoes of Vietnam. Looking Back on the Vietnam War brings together scholars from a broad variety of disciplines, who offer fresh insights on the war’s psychological, economic, artistic, political, and environmental impacts. Each essay examines a different facet of the war, from its representation in Marvel comic books to the experiences of Vietnamese soldiers exposed to Agent Orange. By putting these pieces together, the contributors assemble an expansive yet nuanced composite portrait of the war and its global legacies. Though they come from diverse scholarly backgrounds, ranging from anthropology to film studies, the contributors are united in their commitment to original research. Whether exploring rare archives or engaging in extensive interviews, they voice perspectives that have been excluded from standard historical accounts. Looking Back on the Vietnam War thus embarks on an interdisciplinary and international investigation to discover what we remember about the war, how we remember it, and why.

A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene, The Things They Carried is a ground-breaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling. The Things They Carried depicts the men of Alpha Company: Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who has survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three. Taught everywhere—from high school classrooms to graduate seminars in creative writing—it has become required reading for any American and continues to challenge readers in their perceptions of fact and fiction, war and peace, courage and fear and longing. The Things They Carried won France's prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger and the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize; it was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

A portrait of the American recon platoon of the 101st Airborne Division describes their sixty-day fight for survival during the 1968 Tet Offensive, tracing their postwar difficulties with acclimating into a peacetime America that did not want to hear their story.

The purpose of the Vietnam Veterans Memorials is to honor members of the United States Armed Forces who fought and died during the Vietnam War. The memorial consists of a roughly 250-foot long series of polished black gabbros walls sunk into the surrounding countryside The author was one of the veterans who dedicated himself to making the Vietnam Memorial Wall a reality and visited it regularly where he would sit in his wheelchair with his reflection looking back at him from the black burnished granite. He always left behind a long-stemmed red rose in memory of the names on the wall and he never forgot the suffering that misguided war had inflicted on his Vietnam vet comrades, his generation of Americans, and on the people of Vietnam. This book is a story of the cruelty, destruction, and insanity of war, but it is also a moving story of the powerful bond of love between a father and his son.

Two brothers--Chuck and Tom Hagel--who went to war in Vietnam, fought in the same unit, and saved each other's life. They disagreed about the war, but they fought it together. 1968. America was divided. Flag-draped caskets came home by the thousands. Riots ravaged our cities. Assassins shot our political leaders. Black fought white, young fought old, fathers fought sons. And it was the year that two brothers from Nebraska went to war. In Vietnam, Chuck and Tom Hagel served side by side in the same rifle platoon. Together they fought in the Mekong Delta, battled snipers in Saigon, chased the enemy through the jungle, and each saved the other's life under fire. But when their one-year tour was over, these two brothers came home side-by-side but no longer in step--one supporting the war, the other hating it. Former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and his brother Tom epitomized the best, and withstood the worst, of the most tumultuous, shocking, and consequential year in the last half-century. Following the brothers' paths from the prairie heartland through a war on the far side of the world and back to a divided America, Our Year of War tells the story of two brothers at war--a gritty, poignant, and resonant story of a family and a nation divided yet still united.

Just two months after my 20th birthday, I was drafted into the US Army. Before my next birthday I arrived in the former Republic of South Vietnam; it was February 1969. I have been asked countless times over the last five decades: "What was Vietnam like?" For decades I could never give much of an answer. If one is to give an answer, one must first confront their past. Going Off The Beach is the account of a conscripted, "boots on the ground" soldier and his experiences in the US Army during the Vietnam War. These experiences included twelve months in Vietnam, serving in Binh Dinh Province. The book explores the contrasts between a peaceful tropical beach overlooking the vast Pacific Ocean with the monotony, drudgery and dangers of being a foot soldier in an unpopular war. It describes the endless struggle for survival while constantly dealing with the "inner conflicts" of the US Military fighting a war they were not even trying to win. And finding love in the midst of it all. "What was Vietnam like?" It's the story of what happened to 20-year-old me. It's my story of love, war, and courage. Book Review: "going off the beach" is a compelling, factual account of a conscripted Army soldier's trip through Hell and back during the Vietnam War. For anyone who wondered what serving in South Vietnam was like; this book answers that question from the perspective of an unwilling participant. It contrasts the everyday monotony and drudgery of war with its ever-present dangers. The author's descriptive and straightforward writing style holds the reader's full attention from first sentence to the final word. -- Joseph J. Bains, Bread Crust Productions, Author, Scientist, Veteran

Two wars defined the men and women of Southport Island and the Boothbay Region-the Korean War (1950-1953) and the Vietnam War (1964-1975). Join these veterans as they tell their stories in their own words through their remembrances, letters, and photographs.Fight Communist expansion in Korea; learn how a petrol supply company was run in Inchon; withstand freezing cold and searing heat on a desolate landscape; sweep for land mines in the Khumwha Valley and learn how the 8208 MASH saved a local man's life. Fly missions with a helicopter crew chief over Loc Ninh, Song Be, and Tay Ninh; patrol the Mekong Delta in a Patrol Boat, River (PBR); live the Vietnam experience through a mortar platoon soldier's letters home; ride on convoy duty with the Marines Rolling 11th Rough Riders from Chu Lai to Quang Tri; help evacuate Saigon aboard the USS Midway; rescue the crew of the merchant ship with the Coast Guard, and deliver supplies to Vietnam with a Merchant Mariner. This is a rare opportunity to explore the real-life experiences of service men and women over the course of two wars and the time in between, with many of their histories being told for the very first time. Join us in admiration of these amazing Korean and Vietnam War veterans as we start Looking Back.