Traveling to Vietnam: American Peace Activists and the War (Syracuse Studies on Peace and Conflict Resolution) | 
 enlarge | Author: Mary Hershberger
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $18.34
You Save: $11.61 (39%)
New (6) Used (14) from $12.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 2324059
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 081560517X
Dewey Decimal Number: 959.7043
EAN: 9780815605171
ASIN: 081560517X
Publication Date: October 1998
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: I plop your item into a cozy, cushiony bubble mailer as soon as I receive your order and shlep them to the post office every weekday afternoon
|
| Customer Reviews:
Traveling to Viet Nam during the American War Years April 23, 2000
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Traveling to Vietnam: American Peace Activists and the War is a well-researched study, detailing trips made by Americans to Viet Nam during the American War. Over two hundred people went to Ha Noi and the north from 1965 to the end of the war. They usually traveled in small groups of three to four people. Some groups were made up of individuals traveling on their own; and other groups traveled as representatives of international peace organizations, civil rights groups, religious organizations, and academic institutions. Most travelers to North Vietnam opposed United States involvement in the war. Initially, the U.S. government tried to restrict travel to North Vietnam by confiscating or refusing to issue passports. Visitors to Ha Noi from 1965 on, who met with North Vietnamese officials, often brought back messages to U.S. government officials, who refused to meet with them. The messages from the North Vietnamese reiterated the North's position for negotiating an end to the conflict--that the U.S. would cease bombing and withdraw their troops. Travelers to Viet Nam also brought back eyewitness accounts of the damages to civilian life and property by American bombing raids. Early travelers would often face negative consequences when they returned to the U.S., legally, personally, and professionally, but they continued to tell their stories. By 1971, travel restrictions were less severe, although public criticism of their travels continued. Many of the visitors requested and were able to talk with American prisoners of war in North Vietnam. They were able to deliver letters and packages between families and prisoners. They urged officials in Ha Noi to release the prisoners, and eventually twelve were released. Other visitors delivered medical supplies, which were desperately needed in the bomb-ravaged north. The American Friends Service Committee was especially involved in developing a relationship with the medical establishment of North Vietnam, arranging donations of medical equipment, penicillin, and other medicines. The humanitarian efforts begun during the war endured after the war, in helping to rebuild structures destroyed by bombs and in helping to normalize relations between Viet Nam and the U.S. Mary Hershberger has relied on primary source information, interviews, and letters written by the travelers to Viet Nam, as well as news articles written by them and about them at the time of their trips. Her book is a fascinating, in-depth view of the war years from another perspective.
|
|
|
