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The John Batchelor Show

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

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

News, Arts, Books, Society & Culture

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 1 October 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

COLONIAL FAILURE LIKE FRANCAFRIQUE: 1/8: 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.
1912 France

Transcript

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0:00.0

Sarah, where's the car? It's gone.

0:02.2

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0:06.8

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0:10.8

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0:13.2

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0:16.8

service is included. So since that's all handled, how about you take a look at that leaky tab,

0:20.8

or do you need me to fix that too? For easy car maintenance, head to fixter.co.uk.

0:25.6

We'll pick up your car and take care of all the rest. Fixter, then your back on track.

0:29.9

This is CBS Eye on the World with John Bachelor. Here's John Bachelor.

0:42.1

It is May of 1959, an eye in North Vietnam, a critical meeting among the leadership at the time.

0:50.0

The Vietnamese Communist Party and the Vietnamese, the North Vietnam Army coming together

0:56.8

to look to the future, influenced by events in the Cold War.

1:01.5

This moment begins the tale of the Long Racketing, a new book from George Black,

1:07.6

a story of war, peace, and redemption. This is Vietnam. At the beginning of Vietnam war,

1:13.6

it was not available for those of us old enough to have lived this period.

1:18.0

As young men, watching it from university, then watching it from the East Coast

1:22.4

to the United States during the anti-war movement, then watching it around the edges,

1:26.7

as the novels came out, as the Hollywood movies responded, as the story was told and retold.

1:32.3

But to my knowledge, not told the way George Black has presented,

1:37.6

George, a very good even to you. Congratulations, May of 1959.

1:42.5

Gathered together as Ho Chi Minh, the inspiring figure of the Vietnamese Communist Party,

1:48.8

a Vin Wang Zep, the General Responsible or Given Credit for, or generally credited with the

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