Notes from the Editors, May 2015

2015 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
The Editors
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Back Issue ◽  
Japanese Occupation ◽  
Monthly Review ◽  
Office Of Strategic Services ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Indochina War ◽  
The U.S

<div class="buynow"><a title="Back issue of Monthly Review, May 2015 (Volume 67, Number 1)" href="http://monthlyreview.org/back-issues/mr-067-01-2015-05/">buy this issue</a></div>As we write these notes in March 2015, the Pentagon's official Vietnam War Commemoration, conducted in cooperation with the U.S. media, is highlighting the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of the U.S. ground war in Vietnam, marked by the arrival of two Marine battalions in De Nang on March 8, 1965. This date, however, was far from constituting the beginning of the war. The first American to die of military causes in Vietnam, killed in 1945, was a member of the Office of Strategic Services (a precursor of the CIA). U.S. intelligence officers were there in support of the French war to recolonize Vietnam, following the end of the Japanese occupation in the Second World War and Vietnam's declaration of national independence as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The French recolonization effort is sometimes called the First Indochina War in order to distinguish it from the Second Indochina War, initiated by the United States. In reality, it was all one war against the Viet Minh (Vietnamese Independence League). By the time that the Vietnamese defeated the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the United States was paying for 80&ndash;90 percent of the cost of the war.<p class="mrlink"><p class="mrpurchaselink"><a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-67-number-1" title="Vol. 67, No. 1: May 2015" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the <em>Monthly Review</em> website.</a></p>

Notes from the Editors, December 2015

2015 ◽  
Vol 67 (7) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
The Editors
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Index Volume ◽  
The United States ◽  
Back Issue ◽  
Monthly Review ◽  
Military Equipment ◽  
Mass Killings ◽  
The U.S

<div class="buynow"><a title="Back issue of Monthly Review, December 2015 (Volume 67, Number 7)" href="http://monthlyreview.org/product/mr-067-07-2015-11/">buy this issue</a></div>In this issue we feature two articles on the 1965&ndash;1966 mass killings and imprisonments in Indonesia. The army-led bloodbath was aimed at the near-total extermination of members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), then a highly successful electoral party with a membership in the millions.&hellip; In all, an estimated 500,000 to a million (or more) people were murdered. Another 750,000 to a million-and-a-half people were imprisoned, many of whom were tortured. Untold thousands died in prison. Only around 800 people were given a trial&mdash;most brought before military tribunals that summarily condemned them to death.&hellip; The United States&hellip;was involved clandestinely in nearly every part of this mass extermination: compiling lists of individuals to be killed; dispatching military equipment specifically designated to aid the known perpetrators of the bloodletting; offering organizational and logistical help; sending covert operatives to aid in the "cleansing"; and providing political backing to the killers.&hellip; [T]he mass killings&hellip;[were carried out with the active] complicity of the U.S. media.<p class="mrlink"><p class="mrpurchaselink"><a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-67-number-7" title="Vol. 67, No. 7: December 2015" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the <em>Monthly Review</em> website.</a></p>

Notes from the Editors, January 2015

2014 ◽  
Vol 66 (8) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
The Editors
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
English Translation ◽  
Index Volume ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Publishing Firm ◽  
Back Issue ◽  
Monthly Review ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

<div class="buynow"><a title="Back issue of Monthly Review, January 2015 (Volume 66, Number 8)" href="http://monthlyreview.org/back-issues/mr-066-08-2015-01/">buy this issue</a></div>The publication of socialist books in the United States has always encountered serious institutional obstacles. This can be seen in the enormous hurdles that stood in the way of the successful publication 130 years ago of the English translation of Engels&rsquo;s <em>The Condition of the Working Class in England </em>(1845)&mdash;today recognized as the classic account of the impact of the Industrial Revolution on workers. In 1885 Florence Kelley (-Wischnewetzky), the daughter of William D. Kelley, a U.S. Congressman and supporter of Lincoln, translated Engels&rsquo;s book into English. Her initial plan was to publish the translation in the United States with the respected publishing firm of G.P. Putnam &amp; Co. However, Putnam declined to publish it on the grounds that the book was outdated&hellip;and did not apply to U.S. industrialization, where such conditions of class exploitation were supposedly absent.&hellip; It is owing to these difficulties, associated with the U.S. publication of his book, that we have the benefit of some of Engels&rsquo;s more important comments regarding the problem of publishing socialist works in a capitalist society.<p class="mrlink">This article can also be found at the <a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-66-number-7" title="Vol. 66, No. 7: January 2015" target="_blank"><em>Monthly Review</em> website</a>, where most recent articles are published in full.</p><p class="mrpurchaselink"><a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-66-number-7" title="Vol. 66, No. 7: January 2015" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the <em>Monthly Review</em> website.</a></p>

Covert Warriors for Hire

2018 ◽  
pp. 86-117
Author(s):  
Kyle Burke
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
Vietnam Veterans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Officers ◽  
Special Operations ◽  
High Ranking ◽  
The World ◽  
Reagan Era ◽  
The U.S

In the late 1970s, a new set of Americans took up the dream of a global anticommunist revolution. Many were high-ranking CIA and military officers who had been forced from their jobs by the Ford and Carter administrations in the wake of the Vietnam War. As Congress passed new laws constraining the United States’ clandestine services, these ex-soldiers and spies argued that the state’s deteriorating covert war-making abilities signaled a broader decline in U.S. power. To remedy that, retired covert warriors such as U.S. Army General John Singlaub, a thirty-year veteran of special operations, entered the world of conservative activism, which promised both steady pay and power in retirement. Working in the shadow of the state, they sought to revitalize a form of combat to which they had dedicated their lives. Some even started private military firms to fill in for the U.S. government. Meanwhile, hundreds of American men, mostly disgruntled Vietnam veterans, sought new lives as mercenaries, first in Southeast Asia and then in Rhodesia and Angola. In the late 1970s, these two camps of revanchist Americans—retired covert warriors and aspiring mercenaries—established patterns of paramilitarism that would transform the anticommunist international in the Reagan era.

Counterinsurgency in United States Army History, 1860 to 1975

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
United States Army ◽  
American History ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Indian Wars ◽  
Empire Building ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
The U.S

American history is replete with instances of counterinsurgency. An unsurprising reality considering the United States has always participated in empire building, thus the need to pacify resistance to expansion. For much of its existence, the U.S. has relied on its Army to pacify insurgents. While the U.S. Army used traditional military formations and use of technology to battle peer enemies, the same strategy did not succeed against opponents who relied on speed and surprise. Indeed, in several instances, insurgents sought to fight the U.S. Army on terms that rendered superior manpower and technology irrelevant. By introducing counterinsurgency as a strategy, the U.S. Army attempted to identify and neutralize insurgents and the infrastructure that supported them. Discussions of counterinsurgency include complex terms, thus readers are provided with simplified, yet accurate definitions and explanations. Moreover, understanding the relevant terms provided continuity between conflicts. While certain counterinsurgency measures worked during the American Civil War, the Indian Wars, and in the Philippines, the concept failed during the Vietnam War. The complexities of counterinsurgency require readers to familiarize themselves with its history, relevant scholarship, and terminology—in particular, counterinsurgency, pacification, and infrastructure.

“Mourning a Loss: Conservative Support for Ngo Dinh Diem”

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-284
Author(s):  
Seth Offenbach
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Conservative Movement ◽  
Great Hope ◽  
The Vietnam War ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Ngo Dinh Diem ◽  
The U.S

The U.S. conservative movement in the mid-20th Century argued that the United States needed to continuously get tougher in the fight against communism worldwide. It remained supportive of U.S. efforts throughout the Vietnam War. However, in the period immediately preceding Americanization of the war in 1965, conservatives were uncertain about the outcome of any fighting in Vietnam. Specifically, they claimed that optimism for the Republic of Vietnam was lost with the assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963. Without Diem, conservatives claimed, the Vietnam War was likely lost before it began. This article discusses how Diem went from a barely talked-about anti-Communist ally prior to his death to becoming posthumously the last great hope for Southeast Asia. Conservatives argued that without Diem, the only way the United States would be able to stop Communist expansion in Indochina would be to engage in a massive aerial bombing campaign and find a regional partner to deploy troops. Had he survived, this might not have been necessary. Learning why and how conservatives supported Diem after his death helps us better understand how conservatives reacted to the Vietnam War once Americanization began in 1965.

THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF OIL SPILL FINGERPRINTING1

1979 ◽  
Vol 1979 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-6
Author(s):  
Alan P. Bentz ◽  
Stanley L. Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Oil Spill ◽  
The United States ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Identification System ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Oil Spill Identification ◽  
Civil Penalty

ABSTRACT In several recent court cases, evidence of an oil “fingerprint” has been used to identify the source of an oil spill. As a result, those responsible for the spill have been required to pay a civil penalty and to reimburse the United States for the cost of cleaning up the oil. The use of such evidence in court supports the conclusion that the U.S. Coast Guard's oil spill identification system is both scientifically and legally sound.

Measuring Global Inequality

2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael D. Yates
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Global Inequality ◽  
Monthly Review ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Structures ◽  
The U.S

It is by now well known that significant and growing economic inequality is a central feature of the U.S. economy, as previous articles in Monthly Review have shown. However, the same is also the case for much of the rest of the world. Inequality arises in other countries for reasons similar to those in the United States, but each nation has its own history, along with widely divergent economic and political structures. Here we will look first at the most recent data on global inequality, and then at its causes and consequences.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

scholarly journals Military cooperation between the United States of America and the Republic of Vietnam (1969-1973)

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. first
Author(s):  
Le Thi Nhuong
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Military Cooperation ◽  
Internal Security ◽  
Military Forces ◽  
South Vietnam ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Military ◽  
The U.S

President M. Richard Nixon took office in the context that the United States was being crisis and deeply divided by the Vietnam war. Ending the war became the new administration's top priority. The top priority of the new government was to get the American out of the war. But if the American got out of the war and the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) fell, the honor and and prestige of the U.S will be effected. Nixon government wanted to conclude American involvement honorably. It means that the U.S forces could be returned to the U.S, but still maintaining the RVN government in South Vietnam. To accomplish this goal, Nixon government implemented linkage diplomacy, negotiated with the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) in Paris and implemented "Vietnamization" strategy. The aim of the Vietnamization was to train and provide equipments for the RVN's military forces that gradually replace the U.S. troops, take responsibility in self-guarantee for their own security. By analyzing the military cooperation between the United States and the RVN in the implementation of "Vietnamization", the paper aims to clarify the nature of the "allied relationship" between the U.S and the RVN. It also proves that the goal of Nixon's Vietnamization was not to help the RVN "reach to a strong government with a wealthy economy, a powerful internal security and military forces", served the policy of withdrawing American troops from the war that the U.S could not win militarily, solving internal problems but still preserving the honor of the United States.

Decoding Morris Janowitz: Limited War and Pragmatic Doctrine

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald S. Travis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Vietnam War ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The United States ◽  
Unconventional Warfare ◽  
Stability Operations ◽  
Low Intensity ◽  
Limited War ◽  
The U.S

The American sociologist Morris Janowitz presented two world views of security named “absolutist” and “pragmatist.” This dualistic paradigm endures into the 21st century and explains how complex and contentious security options are debated within the U.S. security establishment. His paradigm also reveals a condition called the “hegemon trap,” which means that the more powerful militarily that a state becomes relative to other states, the less likely it will fight a large-scale conventional war, resulting in frequent and perpetual limited, low-intensity, and unconventional wars. Based on experiences learned since the Vietnam War, the United States can improve global security by balancing resources between absolutist and pragmatist outlooks. This requires devoting a greater share of resources toward peacetime engagement, stability operations, and unconventional warfare.

With a Little Help from my Friends

2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 971-999 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Victoria Murillo ◽  
Andrew Schrank
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Labor Laws ◽  
The Cost ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The U.S

Why did Latin American governments adopt potentially costly, union-friendly labor reforms in the cost-sensitive 1980s and 1990s? The authors answer the question by exploring the relationship between trade unions and two of their most important allies: labor-backed parties at home and labor rights activists overseas. While labor-backed parties in Latin America have locked in the support of their core constituencies by adopting relatively union-friendly labor laws in an otherwise uncertain political and economic environment, labor rights activists in the United States have demonstrated their support for their Latin American allies by asking the U.S. government to treat the protection of labor rights as the price of access to the U.S. market. The former trajectory is the norm in traditionally labor-mobilizing polities, where industrialization encouraged the growth of labor-backed parties in the postwar era; the latter is more common in more labor-repressive environments, where vulnerable unions tend to look for allies overseas.

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