The United States, Southeast Asia, and Historical Memory

This book sheds crucial new light on the epochal US interventions in Southeast Asia after World War II. Antiwar activist Fred Branfman describes the tragic lives of Laotian peasants under US bombing. Cambodia scholar Ben Kiernan and colleague Owen Taylor illuminate the course of Cambodia history after unprecedented US bombing. The book also includes classic works by Noam Chomsky, Nick Turse, and Edward Herman.Mark Pavlick is an independent editor. He was active in the US movement against the Indochina wars in volunteer work with the Indochina Mobile Education Project and the Indochina Resource Center in Washington, DC. CONTENTSIntroduction 1Richard Falk1. War Crimes in Indochina and Our Troubled National Soul 5Fred Branfman2. Excerpts from Voices from the Plain of Jars 19Collected by Fred Branfman3. Legacies of War: Cluster Bombs in Laos 23Channapha Khamvongsa and Elaine Russell4. Agent Orange in Vietnam 53Tuan V. Nguyen5. Iraq, Another Vietnam? Consider Cambodia 75Ben Kiernan and Taylor Owen6. My Lai and the American Way of War Crimes 85Gareth Porter7. The Indonesian Domino 101Clinton Fernandes8. “So Many People Died”: The American System of Suffering, 1965–2014 119Nick Turse9. Bloodbaths in Indochina: Constructive, Nefarious, and Mythical (1979) 125Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman10. From Mad Jack to Mad Henry: The United States in Vietnam (1975) 173Noam Chomsky11. After “Mad Henry”: US Policy Toward Indochina Since 1975 201Ngô V˜ınh Long12. My Experiences with Laos and the Indochina Wars 221Interview with Fred Branfman13. Interview with Noam Chomsky 251Glossary of Selected Terms 261Further Action 267Recommended Reading 273Acknowledgments 281Permissions 283Notes 285Index 333Contributors 351