Tag Archives: Vietnam War

Cultural Logic CFP: Learning Vietnam, Again

Cultural Logic

Call for Manuscripts
Learning Vietnam, Again

Edited by:
Rich Gibson, San Diego State University
E. Wayne Ross, University of British Columbia

January 2018, marks the 50th anniversary of the Tet uprising in Vietnam.

While American elites belittled Tet as a military failure (if they noted it at all—General Westmoreland insisted the Battle of Hue was really nothing), their myopic view of the many Tet battles reflected their past and current inability to connect all the factors of modern warfare: the political, economic, military, international, and cultural matters that the National Liberation Front always tied as one.

To recognize the courage, perseverance, and later victory of the Vietnamese over the many invading empires, we plan a special issue of Cultural Logic, “Learning Vietnam, Again.”

We also hope to contend with the false narratives built up since the US fled Vietnam in April, 1975. These would include the fairly well known myths such as the “spat upon veteran,” and the “stabbed in the back” stories, as well as the Obama administration’s more recent whitewash, neatly exposed by Nick Turse, and the Ken Burns/Lynn Novick PBS documentary “The Vietnam War.”

We seek essays that address any aspect of the Vietnam war, but are especially interested in pieces that link the war and education—in any way you can imagine.

After all, the core project of the Vietnamese revolutionaries was education, while on the US side, the effort was either military propaganda, or promoting ignorance. Essays might also relate the United States’ contemporary problems with insurgencies to the history of the wars on Vietnam—and the national education programs of today.

Submissions may include essays, interviews, reviews (books, films, and other media) or poetry. Please use any one of the commonly accepted scholarly formats (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, Humanities, etc.).

Deadline: February 1, 2018.

For more information or to submit manuscripts email the editors:

rg [at] richgibson.com
wayne.ross [at] ubc.ca

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Cultural Logic, which has been on-line since 1997, is a non-profit, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal that publishes essays, interviews, poetry, reviews (books, films, other media), etc. by writers working within the Marxist tradition. The editors will also print responses to work published in earlier issues. Texts may be of varying length and may conform to any of the commonly accepted scholarly formats (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago, Humanities, etc.). Because this is an interdisciplinary journal, we do not demand that contributors adhere to one particular format, with which they might be unfamiliar. Copyright on texts appearing in Cultural Logic remains with the author. These texts may be republished by the author provided that Cultural Logic is acknowledged as the original place of publication.

Texts appearing in Cultural Logic are indexed in MLA Bibliography, EBSCO Databases, MLA International Directory of Periodicals, International Progressive Publications Network (ippn). Cultural Logic is archived by universities participating in the LOCKSS project initiated by Stanford University. Direct correspondence to E. Wayne Ross, Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, University of British Columbia, 2125 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada. Email: wayne.ross@ubc.ca

Historians Against the War: Links to Recent Articles of Interest

Historians Against the War: Links to Recent Articles of Interest

“Serial Catastrophes in Afghanistan Threaten Obama Policy”
By Juan Cole, Informed Comment web site, posted January 4

The $30bn Pair of Underpants
By Mark LeVine, Aljazeera.net, posted January 4

“Obama’s Post-Modern War of Attrition”
By Andrew Bacevich, CounterPunch, January 1-3 edition, originally published in New York Daily News

“Catcher’s Mitt: Obama, Pakistan and the Afghan Wars to Come”
By Graham Usher, Middle East Report Online, posted December 31

“The Moment That Changed Afghanistan”
By Stephen Kinzer, The Guardian, posted December 28

“The Revolution Will Be Mercantilized”
By Ali Ansari, The National Interest online, Posted December 21
on the Revolutionary Guard in Iran; the author teaches history at St. Andrews University

“The Best Argument for the Afghan War – and What’s Wrong with It”
By Jon Wiener, The Nation blog, posted December 17

“Obama’s Indecent Interval: Despite the U.S. President’s Pleas to the Contrary, the War in Afghanistan Looks More Like Vietnam than Ever”
By Thomas H. Johnson and M. Chris Mason, Foreign Policy, December 10

“Was Kosovo the Good War?”
By David Gibbs, Tikkun, July-August 2009
The author teaches history and government at the University of Arizona

HAW (Historians Against The War) recommended articles on torture, Afghanistan/Vietnam, Honduras, My Lai/Lockerbie, and the drug war in Latin America

Below are a collection of current articles available on the web that provide historical background on issues relevant to concerns taken up by Historians Against the War, as recommended by the HAW Steering Committee.

“Our Laws Condone Torture”

By Juan Cole in Salon.com, posted September 8

“The Phoenix Program Was a Disaster in Vietnam and Would Be in Afghanistan–And the NYT Should Know That”

By Jeremy Kuzmarov, History News Network, posted September 7

“These Colors Run Red!: The U.S. Follows the Soviet Union into Afghanistan”
By Andrew J. Bacevic, The American Conservative, October 1, 2009 issue

“Battle for Honduras—and the Region”
By Greg Grandin, The Nation, August 31 issue

“From My Lai to Lockerbie”
By Nick Turse, TomDispatch.com, posted August 30

“Saigon 2009: Afghanistan Is Today’s Vietnam. No Question Mark Needed.”
By Thomas H. Johnson and M. Chris Mason, foreignpolicy.com, posted August 20

“Lesson of Vietnam Lost in Afghanistan”
By Stanley Kutler, Truthdig, posted August 20

“Is Obama Aware of the History of Failure that Marks Our Drug War in Latin America?”
By Jeremy Kuzmarov, History News Network, posted August 17

In addition, this week’s “Life during Wartime” cartoon by Josh Brown, posted on the HAW home page, offers a chilling parallel between Afghanistan and Vietnam.