1/8: LOST TRAGEDY LOST: The Long Reckoning: A Story of War, Peace, and Redemption in Vietnam Hardcover –by George Black (Author)

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🗓️ 4 July 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

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1920S Hanoi

1/8: LOST TRAGEDY LOST: The Long Reckoning: A Story of War, Peace, and Redemption in Vietnam Hardcover –by George Black (Author)

https://www.amazon.com/Long-Reckoning-Story-Redemption-Vietnam/dp/0593534107

The American war in Vietnam has left many long-lasting scars that have not yet been sufficiently examined. The worst of them were inflicted in a tiny area bounded by the demilitarized zone between North and South Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh Trail in neighboring Laos. That small region saw the most intense aerial bombing campaign in history, the massive use of toxic chemicals, and the heaviest casualties on both sides.

In The Long Reckoning, George Black recounts the inspirational story of the small cast of characters—veterans, scientists, and Quaker-inspired pacifists, and their Vietnamese partners—who used their moral authority, scientific and political ingenuity, and sheer persistence to attempt to heal the horrors that were left in the wake of the military engagement in Southeast Asia. Their intersecting story is one of reconciliation and personal redemption, embedded in a vivid portrait of Vietnam today, with all its startling collisions between past and present, in which one-time mortal enemies, in the endless shape-shifting of geopolitics, have been transformed into close allies and partners.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is CBS I On The World with John Bachelor.
0:10.0	Here's John Bachelor.
0:12.0	It is May of 1959, anoy, North Vietnam.
0:16.0	Critical meeting among the leadership at the time, the Vietnamese Communist Party and the Vietnamese,
0:24.0	the North Vietnam Army coming together to look to the future, influenced by events in the Cold War.
0:32.0	This moment begins the tale of the long reckoning, a new book from George Black, a story of war, peace, and redemption.
0:40.0	This is Vietnam.
0:42.0	It was not available for those of us old enough to have lived this period as young men watching it from university,
0:51.0	then watching it from the East Coast of the United States during the anti-war movement,
0:55.0	then watching it around the edges as the novels came out, as the Hollywood movies responded, as the story was told and retold.
1:02.0	But to my knowledge, not told the way George Black has presented,
1:07.0	George, a very good even to you.
1:09.0	Congratulations, May of 1959.
1:12.0	Gathered together as Ho Chi Minh, the inspiring figure of Vietnamese Communist Party, a Vin Wing Zepp,
1:20.0	the General Responsible, or Given Credit for, or generally credited with the victory at the NBN Fu over the French colonial masters in the early 1950s,
1:32.0	who lived toward the age of 102, dying in 2013.
1:36.0	But most importantly, you reveal information that was perhaps available at the time, but I don't remember hearing this, George.
1:44.0	A man named Leedson, head of the Vietnamese Communist Party in a rigorous and ideological fashion,
1:51.0	and the General in charge of the army, Wen Chi Pen, their identification now of the war going forward.
2:00.0	What was the contest? What was the debate and what was the decision? Good evening to you, George.
2:05.0	Good evening, John. It's very nice to be with you and thank you for the opportunity to talk.
2:10.0	1959, yes, major moment in history for many, many different reasons.
	...

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