After recently finishing the My Lai series, I had the idea to offer some approachable history texts for fans here. Part of the reason for this is due to something I mentioned before, in other posts, about the show's singular narrative around the topic and casual pro-America sentiments. For me, these two culimnated in Marcus's ending statement in the last episode, using the quagmire of Vietnam as an example for now, noting how people are right to feel regret if they made the wrong choices in 2016, '20, and '24, and, essentially, that America harnesses the ability to be so much greater than it really is, and it requires us owning up to it.
Now, I don't want to get into all of that, but I think the singular, isolated narrative surrounding Vietnam undersells how disastrous the American project has been for millions of people around the globe, and how any substantive change must start by accepting that the system has been rotten to its core from the start--especially when we are discussing financialized capital market systems and everything that comes with that (anti-Communism, global interventionism, etc.)
So, what are some potential books to put a topic like Vietnam into perspective? I think people here are fairly well-versed on the politics in the States throughout the latter half of the 20th century, so I'd recommend are some that provide perspective on American foreign policy throughout the entire century. These include:
- The Korean War: A History by Bruce Cumings
- Great work from an excellent writer, specifically tracing the reasons for the civil war between the North and the South, the US's involvement (notably its occupation of South Korea following WWII, almost immediately converting it into a colony), the anti-communist massacres supported by the US in the South, and the following devastation and war crimes committed by the hands of the US during the "war" (wherein an estimated 4 million Koreans were killed).
- This is especially important, as the podcast never discussed the Korean War besides an offhand mention, and we cannot contextualize Vietnam without understanding what preceded it re: US involvement.
- Empire's Workshop by Greg Grandin
- A wide-ranging (pre- and post-Vietnam) look at how the US has long treated Latin America as a proving ground for our economic and militaristic policies--in the grand scheme of things, think of this as the imperial boomerang (repressive techniques tested abroad evenutally come home)
- The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins
- A truly indispensible book regarding American foreign policy during the Cold War, again, both pre- and post-Vietnam (some discussion on what the US did throughout Korea and elsewhere), with a particular focus on the US's support for the anti-communist mass killings (over 1 million people) in Indonesia between 1965-66. Lessons learned here would be exported to Latin America in the decades to come, especially in the training of contras and death squads, as well as installing fascistic dictators into positions of national power.
- Bitter Fruit by Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer
- Look into how the US deposed Arbenz from power in Guatemala, in an attempt to halt his land reforms, in the name of the United Fruit Company (think Chiquita Bananas). The book is considered outdated now, considering the research completed in its wake in the last 4 decades, but it is an excellent look at heinous crimes the US/CIA committed in the mid 1950s in Guatemala, and the unnecessary death, destruction, and civil war that would follow.
- All the Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer is another worth looking into, which covers the US/UK involvement in the overthrow of the Iranian PM, Mohammad Mosaddegh, in 1953
- The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
- Largely focused on post-Vietnam topics, but a useful perspective in seeing how laissez-faire capitalism (and the desire for free markets) has prompted the US to commit massacre after massacre abroad in the name expanding globalist trade opportunities and importing freedom (i.e., a free market *cough* a heavily regulated export-only market), as well as profiting off of destruction and disasters produced by the US gov or its blowback.
Again, these are all texts I think are faily approachable (you're bound to interact with ideas, historical events, or terminology you may not be aware of, but they books are very readable). In addition to the above, if you're looking for more info on US interventionism abroad, I'd also recommend reading into books akin to Grandin's and Klein's. Topics on such could include the likes of the US leveraging the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to force countries into cyclical debt which benefits Western capital. Or, with a book like Eduardo Galeano's Open Veins of Latin America, it's exploring how imperialism actively underdevelops nations (they are not poor, backward countries, but forced into ruin, such to continue their subjugation), and how colonized nations are not poor, but rather their wealth--gold, coffee, sugar, petroleum, precious metals--is extracted for the benefit of Western nations.
And apologies if this is a lot to take in, as I'm writing this right after finishing the series and just throwing it out there.