BOMBING MADE THE NVA AND VIET CONG MORE DETERMINED: 7/8: The Long Reckoning: A Story of War, Peace, and Redemption in Vietnam Hardcover – Deckle Edge, March 28, 2023 by George Black (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2024
⏱️ 12 minutes
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Summary
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.
1965 VIETNAM
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Bachelor. This is CBSi in the world. |
| 0:09.0 | Craig Simons is the author of the new book Nimitz at War, command leadership from Pearl Harbor to |
| 0:15.2 | Tokyo Bay. A dramatic moment that is replayed again and again in debate at the US Naval Academy |
| 0:21.2 | and everywhere you read the book about the Pacific War. |
| 0:25.0 | It Halsey's decision-making at the Battle of Lady Gulf, but it doesn't stop there. |
| 0:29.8 | This is a war. |
| 0:31.2 | And in that war, the Fifth fleet is going to again take over and they're going to be |
| 0:35.8 | landings at Guam, they're going to be land, they're going, not Guam, they're going to |
| 0:39.6 | be landings at Iwo Jim and O'aughey are coming up in the new year. |
| 0:44.0 | We turn into the new, we're going to turn into 45, but before that there's something that isn't |
| 0:48.8 | about the Japanese, that isn't about the Americans, it's about nature. |
| 0:52.8 | There's a typhoon in the middle of December, |
| 0:54.8 | 1944. |
| 0:56.4 | And Bill Halsey again, who's given a chance again and again |
| 0:59.7 | by Chester Nimitz to explain his excesses, again makes a decision that leads to the deaths of 800 |
| 1:08.4 | sailors, the loss of three ships, damage to the fleet, this |
| 1:13.2 | an invincible task force 58. |
| 1:16.0 | And the review board vaults Halsey afterwards, |
| 1:21.6 | and Nimitz travels out to meet Halsey and to talk about this at the time. |
| 1:27.0 | Again, this gets complicated, Professor. |
| 1:29.6 | It becomes almost as if Nimitz doesn't have a way of disciplining Halsey. |
| 1:34.4 | Did Halzy take advantage of that? |
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