Brother Enemy: The War After the War [Paperback]

Nayan Chanda (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Chanda, Washington bureau chief for Far Eastern Economic Review, traces the steps by which the Third Indochina War became intertwined with the Soviet-American rivalry and the Sino-American alliance. The book reveals in detail how close Washington came in 1977 to establishing ties with Hanoi and why President Carter shelved the issue. Chanda presents a startling and well-supported explanation for the Cambodian massacres: a Khmer Rouge decision that Cambodian revolutionary power had to be built at breakneck speed by means of ideological "purification" to prepare for the inevitable life-or-death struggle against the Vietnamese. He goes on to show that the Khmer Rouge sought to preempt the invasion by taking the war to Vietnam itself, upsetting not only Hanoi's timetable but that of Peking as well. Chanda notes that Vietnam, once a hero of the Third World, has become an international pariah, largely due to Hanoi's policy toward Cambodia.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Chanda, long-time Southeast Asia correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review , now stationed in Washington, stayed on in Indochina after the Americans turned away from what once seemed worth dying for. With the fall of Saigon in 1976, the socialist brothers (China and Vietnam) began the "war after the war," while Cambodia began a crazed battle against history, preferring for a while to commit suicide rather than submit to Vietnamese control. Chanda knew most of the people who mattered on all sides, and presents their struggle with clarity and affecting energy. He also analyzes American and Russian attempts to fish in these troubled waters. Essential reading for all who want to understand the state of play in this still strategic part of the world and therefore recommended for all current events collections. Charles W. Hayford, History Dept., Northwestern Univ., Evanston, Ill.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 479 pages
• Publisher: Free Pr (April 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0020493614
• ISBN-13: 978-0020493617
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #358,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The time in between, June 27, 2000

By 

David M. Katz (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brother Enemy: The War After the War (Paperback)

Most westerners know about the Vietnam War and, thanks to the movie The Killing Fields, the story of the Khmer Rouge. But very few of us have much of a clue what happened in Indochina between these events and the region's reopening to the west in the 90s.

Brother Enemy is a rich, compelling chronicle of the struggles that shaped the entire region, but primarily Cambodia and Vietnam, during that "in between time." It's a wonderful read because it manages to both detail the politics that shaped events while communicating how those events impacted real people. Nayan Chanda does this by weaving the experiences of individuals, including utterly common folk living day to day lives, into the larger story of regional power politics. It makes for great reading and a book that is both moving and informative. And, it's a great, page turner too.

Highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating like a thriller novel, July 8, 2002

By 

D. Tran "dongson" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brother Enemy: The War After the War (Paperback)

While on a trip visiting Cambodia's Angkor wonder, I picked up this book out of curiosity from the Central Market in PhnomPenh. It is an amazing piece of historical reporting, thoroughly researched and extremely readable. The author puts together the pieces of the puzzle to explain the wars between Vietnam-Cambodia and Vietnam-China, after the American retreat in 1975. The rise and fall of the notorious, murderous Khmer Rouge, the flamboyant Prince Sihanouk, the struggles of the Vietnamese, Chinese power plays, all of this weaved into a thrilling book of history. This book opens my mind to realpolitik: diplomacy, military power, geopolitics, race, and nationalism. Simply a great journalistic achievement which tells the truth with extraordinary balance and fascinating details.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tour de force of Communist international relations, March 16, 2009

By 

Enjolras (Springfield, MA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Brother Enemy: The War After the War (Paperback)

In this book, Chanda details the events leading up and during to the Third Indochina War. Chanda provides intimate detail of the diplomatic maneuverings, petty egos of key players, and the kind of minutiae only Communist bureaucrats could love. For example, he writes that at one point in the late 1970s, Vietnam's relations with China and Russia were determined by how long Vietnamese officials spent at each country's embassy during parties. Reading this book shows the hidden diplomacy of Communist powers and how little we understood. In addition to the wonderful addition to our understanding of Indochina, the book also allows those of us who came of age after the Cold War to understand this era of international politics and how much has changes in the past 30 years.

One note: this is not a book for beginners. Chanda assumes the reader knows the basic history of the U.S.-Indochina War and does not provide background on Vietnam's history until chapter 3. This book would make a good companion to the much more famous (but ultimately less interesting) Stanley Karnow book on the history of the Vietnam War.