U.S. Conduct in the Vietnam War: Commentaries on Bernd Greiner's War without Fronts

2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Bacevich ◽  
Edwin Moïse ◽  
Mark Atwood Lawrence ◽  
Bernd Greiner

Three leading experts on the Vietnam War and U.S. foreign policy offer separate evaluations of Bernd Greiner's book War without Fronts: The USA in Vietnam. The book presents a harsh and controversial appraisal of the conduct of U.S. troops in Vietnam, depicting the My Lai massacre not as an aberration but as one of a long series of atrocities committed by U.S. personnel. The three commentators diverge in their assessments of the book. Andrew Bacevich and Edwin Moïse sharply criticize the book, which they see as one-sided and often tendentious, selective, and inaccurate in its use of evidence. Bacevich argues that the book is intended in part, if only subconsciously, to bolster revisionist German claims about the conduct of Germany during the Second World War, and Moïse casts doubt on Greiner's use of key sources. Mark Lawrence, by contrast, praises the book and believes that it will help to refocus study of U.S. conduct in Vietnam. The forum concludes with a reply by Greiner to the three commentaries.

2009 ◽  
pp. 5-44
Author(s):  
Francesco Varriale

- According to the author, after the Second World War, Italy was too weak to build an autonomous foreign policy in China or to influence the conflict between Communists and Nationalists. However, Italian diplomacy, especially the Italian ambassador in China Sergio Fenoaltea, tried to have his own vision of the Chinese Civil War and to take advantage of the weakness of Italy to establish a good relationship with the Kuomintang government: China was a great power, especially at the United Nations, and it could be very important for the future of Italy. Furthermore, Fenoaltea criticized Marshall's mediation between the Communists and the Nationalists along with the American endorsement of Jiang Jieshi. From the perspective of the Italian ambassador, the USA was not able to understand the situation in China or to support a really democratic force. Finally, Italian diplomats in China tried to be equidistant between the two parties acting during the Civil War to protect the little Italian community in China and to not impair the possibility of a pacific and positive relationship with the future winner of the Civil War. Key words: Italy-China relationship, Italian foreign policy, ambassador Fenoaltea, Chinese Civil War, international politics, Communists and Kuomintang.


2017 ◽  
pp. 16-19
Author(s):  
Elena Kryukova

The article deals with the foreign policy and domestic policy of Spain in the first years after the end of the Second World War. The author analyzes the relationships between the Francoist Spain and the USA, England, France and the USSR during the difficult period of entry of the country into the new system of the international relations.


Author(s):  
Alexander Sukhodolov ◽  
Tuvd Dorj ◽  
Yuriy Kuzmin ◽  
Mikhail Rachkov

For the first time in Russian historiography, the article draws attention to the connection of the War of Khalkhin Gol in 1939 and the conclusion of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939. For a long time, historical science considered these two major events in the history of the USSR and history of the world individually, without their historic relationship. The authors made an attempt to provide evidence of this relationship, showing the role that surrounding and defeating the Japanese army at Khalkhin Gol in August 1939 and signing in Moscow of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact played in the history of the world. The study analyzes the foreign policy of the USSR in Europe, the reasons for the failure in the conclusion of the Anglo-Franco-Soviet military union in 1939 and the circumstances of the Pact. It shows the interrelation between the defeat of the Japanese troops at Khalkhin Gol and the need for the Soviet-German treaty. The authors describe the historic consequences of the conclusion of the pact for the further development of the Japanese-German relations and the course of the Second World War. They also present the characteristics of the views of these historical events in the Russian historiography.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross D. Petty

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the debate about brand marketing that occurred as part of the 1930s consumer movement and continued after the Second World War in academic and regulatory circles. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents an historical account of the anti-brand marketing movement using a qualitative approach. It examines both primary and secondary historical sources as well as legal statutes, regulatory agency actions, judicial cases and newspaper and trade journal stories. Findings In response to the rise of brand marketing in the latter 1800s and early 1900s, the USA experienced an anti-brand marketing movement that lasted half a century. The first stage was public as part of the consumer movement but was overshadowed by the product safety and truth-in-advertising concerns. The consumer movement stalled when the USA entered the Second World War, but brand marketing continued to raise questions during the war as the US government attempted to regulate the provisions of goods during the war. After the war, the public accepted brand marketing. Continuing anti-brand marketing criticism was largely confined to academic writings and regulatory activities. Ultimately, many of the stage-two challenges to brand marketing went nowhere, but a few led to regulations that continue today. Originality/value This paper is the first to recognize a two-stage anti-brand marketing movement in the USA from 1929 to 1980 that has left a small but significant modern-day regulatory legacy.


2020 ◽  

The historical consciousness of the peoples of Europe is still being shaped by their own national histories. The question of the political order that prevailed during the interwar years has remained a perennial issue among historians. The dominant hallmark of this prelude to the Second World War was the rise of dictatorships and the question of whether we can characterise this period as one of uninterrupted crisis. This collection of studies examines the quest for a new European order and the interconnections between domestic and foreign policy during the 1920s and 1930s. It collates different national perspectives in a single volume and asks searching questions about the consequences of the decisions made during the period under examination. With contributions by Dragan Bakić, Maciej Górny, Kurt Hager, János Hóvári, Georg Kastner, Miklos Lojko, Markus Meckel, Ulrich Schlie, Christian Schmidt, Thomas Weber and Werner Weidenfeld.


Author(s):  
Dayna L. Barnes

This chapter focuses on the wartime congressional experience, which reflected an important shift in American foreign policy. During the Second World War, support for deep American engagement with the world, once confined to a narrow circle of internationalist elites, replaced isolationism as the dominant paradigm in American political discourse. The long debates and introduction of bills on postwar foreign policy in Congress during the summer and fall of 1943 revealed a sea change toward congressional support for an active postwar foreign policy and extensive commitments around the world. This change in Congress reflected the shift in American opinion as the isolationists and noninterventionists lost the national debate on the country's future.


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