Krigslitteratur: Vietnamkrigen

Norske Max Hansen ligger søvnløs i det amerikanske midtvesten. Han er teaterinstruktør på turne tværs gennem USA. Måske er han faktisk blevet amerikaner. Han har ikke været hjemme i tyve år.Han ville ønske, at han var blevet i den forstad til Stavanger, hvor han kommer fra. Hvor man måtte slås, til man ikke orkede mere, mens fædrene var ude på borreplatformene i Nordsøen, og hvor stilheden lagde sig tungt over husene, når de kom tilbage. Men ingen får helt, hvad de ønsker sig.Den sommer Max fylder tretten, emigrerer han modfaldent til USA med sin familie. På Long Island tvinges han til at finde sin vej på gaden, at gøre kvarteret til sit eget, mens hans familie går i opløsning. Her møder han Mordecai og siden Mischa, en canadisk pige med en lovende karriere som kunstner foran sig.Og så er der Ove, Max’ onkel, som nu hedder Owen og bor på Manhattans Upper West Side. Han forlod Oslo i tresserne for at blive jazzmusiker, men endte som Vietnam-soldat, tabt for sin familie. Max, Mischa & Tet-offensiven er en roman om dem, der har været i krig og dem, som demonstrerede imod den; om hyperrealisme i kunsten og piger, som ligner Shelley Duvall; om solen på Fire Island og et eftertragtet arbejdseksemplar af en roman om brugbarheden af vietnamesisk guerillateknik i hverdagen. Men frem for alt er det en roman om det spørgsmål, alle der er rejst hjemmefra har stillet sig selv:Hvor længe kan man blive væk, før det er for sent at tage hjem?

Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize, a startling debut novel from a powerful new voice featuring one of the most remarkable narrators of recent fiction: a conflicted subversive and idealist working as a double agent in the aftermath of the Vietnam War

Den danske ambassadør i Bangkok, Franz Heimann, bliver fundet myrdet på et tvivlsomt sidegadehotel. Det thailandske politi afskriver mordet som et jalousi-drab, begået af Heimanns thailandske elskerinde, og det danske Udenrigsministerium skynder sig at feje den pinlige sag ind under gulvtæppet. En forsumpet dansk freelancejournalist i Bangkok opdager, at sagen forholder sig anderledes. Ambassadørens død viser sig at være en central brik i et terrorkomplot, der både implicerer den danske kongefamilie og USA's præsident. En hævnaktion der har sin egentlige årsag i vietnamkrigens grusomheder.Fortællingen giver også læseren et unikt indblik i Udenrigstjenesten på godt og ondt, sådan som forfatteren selv har oplevet det som diplomat for Danmark.

I 1967 rejste den danske journalist Jørgen Skakke til Vietnam. Her dækkede han – som den eneste danske reporter med fast akkreditering hos den amerikanske militære overkommando i Saigon – to af de blodigste år i Vietnamkrigen. I hele den vestlige verden herskede der en splittelse om synet på krigen, og i Danmark krævede en voksende venstrefløj, at USA skulle trække sig ud af Vietnam, og at Danmark burde forlade NATO-alliancen. Jørgen Skakke delte ikke det synspunkt, da han drog til Vietnam. Han var tidligere officer af reserven og ville med egne øjne se, hvad der foregik derude for at kunne deltage med større vægt i den hjemlige debat. Under sit ophold gik det imidlertid op for Jørgen Skakke, hvor håbløs krigen tegnede sig for vores amerikanske allierede, og han følte sig hurtigt forpligtet til at følge begivenhederne til dørs og sende krigsrapporter hjem til medierne i Danmark. Jørgen Skakke skulle kun have været i Vietnam i tre måneder, men han endte med at være der ad to omgange fra marts 1967 til august 1968 og igen fra september 1970 til marts 1971. I Vietnamkrigen med egne øjne beskriver han levende og detaljeret om sine oplevelser, hvor han i kraft af sit amerikanske pressekort fik adgang til alle lokaliteter i Sydvietnam og tilmed fik lov til at flyve med i USA’s nyeste jagerbomber under et angreb, tilbringe to døgn på et amerikansk hangarskib, mens dets fly bombede i Nordvietnam, følge amerikanske og sydvietnamesiske tropper i junglen og floddeltaet samt besøge en lang række byer og områder, som krigen havde ramt. Efter sin hjemkomst fra Vietnam fortsatte Jørgen Skakke med at holde den danske befolkning orienteret om Vietnamkrigen som medarbejder i Danmarks Radio.

...Ben Het has tanks in the wire!"Hawk Claw is engaging," the pilot reports firing the first TOW missile ever from a helicopter in combat.Fire Base Delta had already been over run and Fire Base Charlie was fighting for its life. How much would fall before the North Vietnamese army was knocking on the doors of the key city of Kontum?This was the third phase of the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive Campaign of 1972. Standing across the country between them and the fall of Saigon was a poorly led South Vietnamese Army, brave South Vietnamese soldiers, and US Advisors. How much ground would be lost before they could stop the flow of men and tanks coming across the borders?This is their story as related to the author by those who were there.Follow Major Steinhauer as he withdraws with the fleeing South Vietnamese soldiers from the long-forgotten battlefields of Ben Het, Dak To and Pleng Klung. Ride with the crews that were the first to engage enemy forces with the aerial TOW weapon system in combat. Comprehend the bravery of the South Vietnamese soldier when properly led, and the defeated cowardice of the South Vietnamese senior officers. Examine how an American civilian was serving in the capacity of a two-star general commanding all the forces opposed to the North Vietnamese invasion in the Kontum region. Serve with the civilian volunteer nurses that remained in the besieged city of Kontum to care for the wounded during the battle.The events are all true, as are most of the characters who are still alive, who retold their tales of what it was like to be under siege for so many days against overwhelming odds.The courage, dedication, and loyalty of US advisors towards their South Vietnamese counterparts as well as the bravery of the South Vietnamese soldiers when properly led will astound you. The determination of Army Aviators to curtail the enemy and save the advisors is nothing short of miraculous.Get your copy of this sixth volume, Battle of Kontum, 1972 in the Undaunted Valor series.

Én familie, to generationer af kvinder og en krig der vil forandre deres liv for evigt.Hanoi, 1972. De amerikanske bomber regner ned over Vietnam og tolvårige Hương og hendes bedstemor Diệu Lan er nødsaget til at søge dækning. For Diệu Lan føles krigen alt for velkendt. Hun har tidligere måttet ofre alt for at holde sammen på familien, mens landet faldt fra hinanden. Nu må Hương gøre det samme.Når bjergene synger er en episk slægtsroman, hvor Trần-familiens prøvelser fortæller historien om de grusomheder Vietnam har været vidne til som nation. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai har skrevet en kærlighedserklæring til sit hjemland, hvor vietnamesisk kultur og traditioner får lov at berige siderne. En smuk og gribende roman der udfolder Vietnams smertefulde historie, men samtidig giver håb for fremtiden. "... en fængende, rørende roman (...) en roman der, i mere end en forstand, heler historien"- New York Times"En lysende fortælling, der giver genlyd på tværs af generationer"- O, the Oprah Magazine

...Ben Het has tanks in the wire!"Hawk Claw is engaging," the pilot reports firing the first TOW missile ever from a helicopter in combat.Fire Base Delta had already been over run and Fire Base Charlie was fighting for its life. How much would fall before the North Vietnamese army was knocking on the doors of the key city of Kontum?This was the third phase of the North Vietnamese Easter Offensive Campaign of 1972. Standing across the country between them and the fall of Saigon was a poorly led South Vietnamese Army, brave South Vietnamese soldiers, and US Advisors. How much ground would be lost before they could stop the flow of men and tanks coming across the borders?This is their story as related to the author by those who were there.Follow Major Steinhauer as he withdraws with the fleeing South Vietnamese soldiers from the long-forgotten battlefields of Ben Het, Dak To and Pleng Klung. Ride with the crews that were the first to engage enemy forces with the aerial TOW weapon system in combat. Comprehend the bravery of the South Vietnamese soldier when properly led, and the defeated cowardice of the South Vietnamese senior officers. Examine how an American civilian was serving in the capacity of a two-star general commanding all the forces opposed to the North Vietnamese invasion in the Kontum region. Serve with the civilian volunteer nurses that remained in the besieged city of Kontum to care for the wounded during the battle.The events are all true, as are most of the characters who are still alive, who retold their tales of what it was like to be under siege for so many days against overwhelming odds.The courage, dedication, and loyalty of US advisors towards their South Vietnamese counterparts as well as the bravery of the South Vietnamese soldiers when properly led will astound you. The determination of Army Aviators to curtail the enemy and save the advisors is nothing short of miraculous.Get your copy of this sixth volume, Battle of Kontum, 1972 in the Undaunted Valor series.

In the simmering heat of August 1967, a kaleidoscopic minivan carrying a band of hippies - adorned with long hair, beards, beads, sandals, and granny dresses - pulls up at the gates of Ft. Gordon, Augusta, GA, then the heartland of the Military Police. Their mission is unconventional: to instruct the 25th Infantry Division, 60th Mine Scout Dog Platoon in harnessing the keen senses of dogs to detect landmines, trip wires, and hidden tunnels.The air crackles with animosity as two worlds collide: the free-spirited and the regimented. Yet amidst the discord, Charlie Fasanaro, a young man with wisdom flowing through his veins, recognizes the crucial necessity of forging a bridge across the chasm of enmity that separates them. Their common cause is as clear as it is noble: saving lives in a theatre of war. Unbeknownst to Charlie, he is on the precipice of a spiritual catharsis that will redefine his very essence.Volunteering to journey to the harsh landscapes of Vietnam alongside the 60th, Charlie is plunged into the visceral cruelties of war. Amidst the chaos, he witnesses acts of heroism and self-sacrifice that cast a new light on the soldiers he stands beside; a nobility and honor scarcely seen amidst the peace-loving circles of his civilian life. This revelation propels Charlie into a tumultuous voyage of self-discovery, as he grapples with his identity amidst a whirlwind of contrasting ideologies.Bridge of Stones navigates through the turbulent waters of a time where ideologies clashed and the essence of humanity was put to the test. As Charlie endeavors to find his footing on the battlefield of conflicting beliefs, readers are ushered through a rich narrative that explores the profound essence of camaraderie, the unyielding spirit of sacrifice, and the indelible marks etched upon souls in times of war and peace.

Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter was met with both critical and commercial success upon its release in 1978. However, it was also highly controversial and came to be seen as a powerful statement on the human cost of America's longest war and as a colonialist glorification of anti-Asian violence. Brad Prager's study of the film considers its significance as a war movie and contextualizes its critical reception. Drawing on an archive of contemporaneous materials, as well as an in-depth analysis of the film's lighting, mise-en-scène, multiple cameras and shifting depths of field, Prager examines how the film simultaneously presents itself as a work of cinematic realism, while problematically blurring the lines between fact and fiction. While Cimino felt he had no responsibility to historical truth, depicting a highly stylized version of his own fantasies about the Vietnam War, Prager argues that The Deer Hunter's formal elements were used to bolster his troubling depictions of war and race.Finally, comparing the film with later depictions of US-led intervention such as Albert and Allen Hughes's Dead Presidents (1995) and Spike Lee's Da Five Bloods (2020), Prager illuminates The Deer Hunter's major presumptions, blind spots and omissions, while also presenting a case for its classic status.

Seminar paper from the year 2001 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 5,5 (Schweiz), University of Zurich (Englisches Seminar), course: Seminar: «From Disneyland to Da Nang», language: English, abstract: The myth of the United States was that they are invincible, and this was also reflected in the war movies and westerns during and after World War II. When the US entered the Vietnam War the experience of the soldiers proved to be different from the representations of war they had witnessed in movies. The traditional combat films were unable to adapt the new signifiers of the Vietnam war and the genre was abandoned for a while. Rejecting the notion of invincibility, directors after the Vietnam War depicted the horror and madness of the conflict and, indeed, rebuilt a new myth. One of the directors who decided to craft a new combat film was Oliver Stone. While he received critical praise for «Platoon» (1986) and his depiction of the Vietnam War was confirmed by many veterans, he was publicly denounced as a traitor and attacked for the representation of the war in «Born on the Fourth of July» (1989). Although his most hostile critics chose to attack the alternation of facts, Stone was ¿ and still is ¿ criticized or applauded for debunking old myths and creating new ones. For an investigation of Oliver Stone's technique of creating new myths, this essay analyzes his films «Born on the Fourth of July» and «Heaven & Earth» (1993).

Seminar paper from the year 2013 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,3, University of Kassel (Anglistik/Amerikanistik Landes- und Kulturwissenschaften), course: The Vietnam War and America: Politics, Society, and Culture, language: English, abstract: In the comic series ¿Our Fighting Forces¿, the American Soldier Captain Hunter is featured in ¿Cold Steel for a Hot War!¿. The issue was published in August 1966, during the Vietnam War. Of course, you can read the comic from the perspective of young readers who desire to be entertained, but it is immensely interesting to look at the picture of American Soldiers which is conveyed by the comic, especially taking its effect on the readers into consideration.Thus, this paper focuses on the question: How is the American Soldier in the Vietnam War portrayed in the comic? In the course of this paper I will attempt to point out why the American Society as readers should be influenced by the heroic portrayal of Captain Hunter and the positive representation of American involvement in the Vietnam War.In order to find out how the American Soldiers are portrayed in the comic, the comic will be analyzed. The analysis focuses on the principal character Captain Hunter, but I will also take a look at the portrayal of the Vietnam War and the Vietnamese, intending to have a general idea of the entire comic and the world of Captain Hunter. A comparison to another comic follows after the analysis. The `Nam is a different type of war comic, the portrayal of the Vietnam War is very close to the reality. The editor Larry Hama points out in the introduction, that the comic even received an award for being the ¿best media portrayal of the Vietnam War¿.Every medium tries to deliver a message, which is also valid for comic books. For this reason, I will have a closer look at the possible influences of the comic in the next step. Here, it is essential to look at the addressees of the comic and explain the effect on the target group.

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Literature, Works, grade: 2,0, University of Rostock (Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik), course: Seminar Literaturwissenschaft, language: English, abstract: In film and in literature there are narratives that are portrayed in a special way. Their events seem to be told in the wrong order. The first contact with this kind of narrative technique can evoke an unsatisfied feeling, because a non-chronological order of happenings in the first chapters of a book can lead to incomprehension. The novels Going After Cacciato by Tim O¿Brien and Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, we dealt with in the seminar ¿Between the Lines: American War Novels¿, are narrated with this complex technique. They are called nonlinear narratives. I decided to write a paper about how Tim O¿Brien accomplished to portray the trauma of war with his novel Going after Cacciato. This is one of six novels he published, dealing with Vietnam War.In the second chapter I start to divide the novel into its three parts that could function as stories on their own and I analyse the narrative communication and its function within these parts. The third chapter deals with the major themes of the novel. The theme of control and its loss is discussed in a subchapter, because it is a central one and can be associated with the special narrative technique. In chapter four I analyse how structure and narrative communication assemble the content and main themes in Going After Cacciato harmonious. It creates the feeling of reading about traumatic experiences at Vietnam War. The novel contains a mythical, fictional story within the story and therefore distinct ambiguities that are discussed in this chapter.