Main page -- Latest Vietnam War news and articles
Lost John Ford documentary "Viet Nam! Viet Nam!" discovered vnagency.com.vn :: 2009-10-20
A long lost film by American director John Ford, called "Viet Nam! Viet Nam!" about the American War, has been released online after 37 years of storage at the US National Archives. The 58min documentary produced in 1971 is divided into 2 parts. The first section depicts the country and the people involved in the war, and the second part covers discussions and images of the anti-war movement in the US. Ford and the film crew sought to expose the peaceful life enjoyed by the Vietnamese people before the conflict started, in contrast to how much it changed during the war. The documentary reveals how misery and horror became part of everyday life for the Vietnamese. [ Vietnam War Films, Movies, Documentaries ]
US army officer William Calley's first public apology for the My Lai massacre bbc.co.uk :: 2009-09-08
The US army officer - convicted to a short house arrest for his part in the notorious My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War - has made his first public apology. Platoon commander Lt William Calley, who maintains that he was just following orders from his superior, took part in the 1968 massacre of 500 men, women and children. The US soldiers were on a "search and destroy" mission to destroy communist fighters in Viet Cong territory. Although the enemy was nowhere to be seen, the American soldiers of Charlie Company rounded up unarmed women and children and gunned them down. [ Death & Horror of Vietnam War ]
War Without Fronts: The USA in Vietnam by Bernd Greiner [book review] newstatesman.com :: 2009-09-08
The rape, torture and murder of Vietnamese civilians went on before and after the My Lai massacre - e.g. Task Force Oregon and Operation Speedy Express. "War Without Fronts" casts a ruthless light on that most controversial of American wars - and on Robert McNamara and his associates. They knew about the excessive violence and that civilians were targeted - and they knew that the policy was doomed to failure. Their crime was to allow it to go on. Bernd Greiner's book is a well-documented attack on the war's criminal reality and the failure of American society to come to terms with that. Inevitably a comparison between American and Nazi war crimes grows in the reader's mind. [Buy from Amazon: US, UK, CA, DE, FR] [ Vietnam War Books ]
Vietnam War re-enactments are on the rise kansascity.com :: 2009-09-08
The paths to Alpha Company's field headquarters are lined with overgrown grass. A canvas tent is protected by machine guns, sandbags and Army-green storage boxes. And waiting somewhere outside is the Viet Cong. But these aren't the jungles of Vietnam, just the woods of Pennsylvania, where history buffs are beginning to re-enact the Vietnam War. For decades re-enactors have played out key battles in the Revolutionary War or Civil War. Now they are bringing alive one of the most controversial conflicts in American history. Vietnam re-enactors have no national organization yet, but Vietnam War re-enactment groups are popping up around the country. [ Vietnam War Re-enactment ]
Over 35% of central Vietnam still tainted by unexploded ordnance thanhniennews.com :: 2009-08-04
Over 35% of the land in 6 central provinces in Vietnam is still contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO), which still kills scores of innocent people every year. Since the end of the war in 1975, unexploded bombs, artillery shells, mortar bombs, rockets and landmines have killed 10,529 and wounded 12,231 people in the 6 provinces alone. In Vietnam over 40,000 have been killed by UXO after the war ended. The US-funded study, by the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF) and the Vietnamese Ministry of Defense's Technology Center for Bomb and Mine Disposal (BOMICEN), combined data of American bombing missions with interviews of over 33,000 people. [ Vietnam Today - After the Vietnam War ]
The remains of the last Australian servicemen missing from the Vietnam War discovered theage.com.au :: 2009-08-04
39-year search for the remains of the last Australian servicemen missing from the Vietnam War has ended - with the help of the former enemies. The remains of pilot Michael Herbert and navigator Robert Carver have been discovered on a remote hillside in Quang Nam province, where they have remained since their plane went missing after a bombing raid on Nov. 3, 1970. The search, by an air force investigation team, used scientific modelling, archival records and the memories of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers and villagers, who had seen the plane and corrected American records, which incorrectly stated the plane was downed at a site to the north. [ Australia and Vietnam War ]
Report by Institute of Medicine links Agent Orange with more illnesses injuryboard.com :: 2009-08-04
A report by the Institute of Medicine suggests more diseases may be linked to exposure to Agent Orange, a defoliant used by American forces to clear jungles during the Vietnam War. The people exposed to the chemical are more likely to have ischemic heart disease and Parkinson's disease. The results are an important step for veterans groups, who intend to write a letter to the secretary of Veterans Affairs, calling for extended benefits. The findings add to a growing list of conditions linked to the defoliants. The IOM committee has linked 17 conditions to exposure of the Agent Orange since 1994, of those 13 qualify veterans for service-connected disability benefits. [ Agent Orange: Chemical Warfare ]
Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was primary architect of the Vietnam War washingtonpost.com :: 2009-08-04
Robert S. McNamara - whose record as a leading executive of industry was all but erased from public memory by his reputation as the architect of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war - has passed away at 93. He was secretary of defense during the presidencies of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. McNamara led a military buildup in Asia during the early years of a conflict that escalated into one of the most bitter wars in American history. When the war was over, 58,000 Americans were dead and the social fabric had been torn apart. Many Americans held him responsible for the futile military adventure in Vietnam - a responsibility he accepted in a 1995 memoir. [ Vietnam War Politics & Leaders ]