 | Vietnam
Availability: Your first issue should arrive in 12-16 weeks. Average customer review: (3 customer reviews) |
Product Description
The only magazine exclusively devoted to telling the full story of this controversial and divisive conflict. Gripping firsthand accounts and carefully researched articles by both veterans and historians will broaden your understanding of what really happened, beyond the misconceptions.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1661 in Magazine Subscriptions
- Format: Magazine Subscription
Most helpful customer reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
TRUTH IN IT'S PUREST FORM-TOO HARSH FOR SOME?
By Antonio De La Cruz
This is not the pop culture version of the Vietnam War. Pop culture stops at the cover of VIETNAM magazine and serious,tought provoking,fresh,original examination and discovery of what the Vietnam War was all about begins,sorry!
Why is it that the only truth that needs to be handled are negatives? Some people can't quite handle positive truths. The past reviews are examples of people that have to surrender to the misconception that Vietnam War US/South Vietnamese and allied troops/military effort can't or shouldn't be equal to any such effort from ,say, World War Two. VIETNAM magazine doesn't differ in coverage or emphasis from World War Two magazine, but, you know, we are talking about the Vietnam War and surely it HAS to be different.
That is the attitude problem that VIETNAM magazine strives to correct.
VIETNAM magazine is the only magazine in it's genre that deals with the Vietnam War exclusively. Every two months it come with articles and regular features which provide insights, information, testimony and historical narrative into the war that because of decades of political axes to grind and popular misconceptions would make some people feel kind of "shell shocked" by the historical data which fills its pages.
The magazine was founded in 1988 by military historian,US War College graduate,and Korean War and Vietnam War veteran the late Harry G Summers. The effort was started because all the misinformation that plagued( and still does) the understanding of the Vietnam War.This magazine gives what many other sources fail to do: give a military history perspective of the Vietnam War. If you do not know what was the battle of Minh Than Road, Da Krong Valley in Operation Dewey Canyon, Hue(not the USMC part-that's too well known,or not?- but the 1st Cavalry Division side of the Hue campaign) or the battle at Firebase Burt but know what was Gettysburg, the Battle of The Bulge or Chosin Resevoir...see my point? The omission whether involuntary or not of the MILITARY narrative of a WAR is apalling. Make your own mind as to what purpose one can ommit or downplay the battle record while telling the story of the Vietnam WAR. Without it there is no context, and VIETNAM gives you historical context of te war.
VIETNAM in fact has given voice to 2.8 million Vietnams since there is not a VIETNAM experience,but many, since it varied depending of time, place or type of unit. It have given voice to Australians and Canadian as well as former South Vietnamese and North Vietnamese Army members, rescently a former Vietnam War protester gave his perspective in the "Perspectives" department of the magazine as well those that differed from his point of view.
**IMPORTANT**The Communist side is naturally restricted in availability because the nature of the regime in place in the re unified Vietnam under the Hanoi goverment. Do you think that if Nazi Germany were still in place we could get our hands in so many documents and testimonies as we do today? Please put this in perspective.Nonetheless, very time someone from "the other side" has the chance, the mood and the time to speak up, VIETNAM has given space for what they have to say. Besides, there is plenty of historically reliable information to recount the Communist war effort: captured documents, interviews and on the ground research made at that time or after the war as well as Socialist Republic of Vietnam data. Ever heard of Douglass Pike, Michael Lee Lanning or Bernard Fall's works?
VIETNAM is divided betwen Features and Departments. There is about four or five features to every issue dealing from Armored warfare to The Public Safety Program. Departments are Editorial, Letters/Glossary of terms, Fighting Forces, Arsenal, Personality, Reviews ( books, documentaries, movies), Perpectives ( one of the most important features , VIETNAM Marketplace and VIETNAM events. Interviews( oral history),air,land and naval battles,book extracts,weaponry, fighting units,personalities and perspectives that are not ignored any longer.
Fresh perspectives from B-52 crewmembers telling thir perspective on the alleged carpet bombing of Hanoi or a "grunt" contesting the negative characterization of his unit by Hollywood, Canadians in Vietnam, a US cop in Vietnam, an anti war activist that grudginly admits he was wrong in some aspects of his activism, former NVA and what they fought for vs. what happened after April 1975 and former ARVN placing the South Vietanamese role in perspective...IS THIS A PROBLEM?
There is duty, honor,country and there are other things such as My Lai whicha rea dealed with...but what irks many is both the mere existence of Duty Honor Country regarding the Vietnam War and the knowledging of Duty Honor Country while telling the story of the war. If the overwhelming majority of veterans did not do drugs or committed crimes the American experience in Vietnam will be naturally slanted to that...one can not say that about, for example, the experience of former Gestapo members. What do the critics propose, muzzle some more decades the Vietnam veteran unless he is politically correct,ie," I saw ears and heads cut off, rape and murder"? LET THEM TALK THEIR TRUTH...or is it that many interests do not want that truth,those perspectives,that context be given to the world?
If this magazine is not about baby killers,dope smokers and enbittered renegades nor about how the US military was doing what someone testified before the senate,if this magazine doesn't ignore the contribution of Australian/New Zealander, South Korean and the South Vietnamese forces,if this magazine is not about the willy Cong toying with bumbling hippies in uniform but places in propper perspective the Communist war effort using testimony from people like former North Vietamese Army colonel Nuy Bui Tin,if this magazine doesn't square with what you were told about Nam by some politicians,authors,professors/teachers or have seen in movies like "Platoon"....and you see B-52 crewmembers telling thir perspective on the alleged carpet bombing of Hanoi or a "grunt" contesting the negative characterization of his unit by Hollywood to an anti war activist that grudginly admits he was wrong in some aspects of his activism...well sorry but, again, pop culture stops at the cover of VIETNAM magazine
BUY IT ON THE NEWS STAND OR SUBSCRIBE TO VIETNAM MAGAZINE...can you handle the truth?
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
Finally we got it
By A Customer
I'm a student of military history and I was glad to see a whole magazine devoted to this argument, on which fiction has often covered historical truth.
The magazine covers all the aspects of the war and it is very useful to get an idea of topics which can't be found in the amount of books written on it.The photos and drawings are very interesting and the tales of veterans and people involved in the operation convey an excellent picture of the atmosphere of those days.
The only note is that sometimes the tone tends to be too much patriotic, which can be very dangerous for the purpose of providing a sincere historical analysis.
5 of 9 people found the following review helpful.History from one perspective
By A Customer
History from one perspective
Reviewer: tiptoprog from Danforth, ME USA
An excellent magazine. A great way for Vietnam Vets to come to terms with the past effects of the war. Only wish that more information was forthcoming from North and South Vietnamese sources. After all, the war is over. No more need to keep up the act of patriotism and prove we were righteous, or more able than the other side. What would an American Civil War history be like if it only interviewed and told the story of the Union troops? Pretty one sided and boring, I would say. This magazine would improve if they truly became military historians, and did more interviews with the opposing forces. That's my opinion. Still a good magazine to put on your gift list this year. WELCOME HOME to all Vietnam Vets!
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