Friendly Fire: American Images of the Vietnam War [Hardcover]

Katherine Kinney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2000

Hundreds of memoirs, novels, plays, and movies have been devoted to the American war in Vietnam. In spite of the great variety of mediums, political perspectives and the degrees of seriousness with which the war has been treated, Katherine Kinney argues that the vast majority of these works share a single story: that of Americans killing Americans in Vietnam. Friendly Fire, in this instance, refers not merely to a tragic error of war, it also refers to America's war with itself during the Vietnam years. Starting from this point, this book considers the concept of "friendly fire" from multiple vantage points, and portrays the Vietnam age as a crucible where America's cohesive image of itself is shattered--pitting soldiers against superiors, doves against hawks, feminism against patriarchy, racial fear against racial tolerance. Through the use of extensive evidence from the film and popular fiction of Vietnam (i.e. Kovic's Born on the Fourth of July, Didion's Democracy, O'Brien's Going After Cacciato, Rabe's Sticks and Bones and Streamers), Kinney draws a powerful picture of a nation politically, culturally, and socially divided, and a war that has been memorialized as a contested site of art, media, politics, and ideology.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Gives interesting insights The Journal of American History

About the Author

Katherine Kinney is at University of California, Riverside.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (November 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195116038
• ISBN-13: 978-0195116038
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 9 x 6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,100,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great author and a great teacher, January 11, 2005

By 

Brent H. Barnett (Snowmass, Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Friendly Fire: American Images of the Vietnam War (Hardcover)

Katherine Kinney's book is a miniature first class education. Having taken classes from Dr.Kinney I was eager to read her book and found every chapter a satisfying line of criticism. Ignore all negative or unappreciative reviews of this book or this author.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a fascinating read, January 2, 2005

By 

Andrew C. Howe - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Friendly Fire: American Images of the Vietnam War (Hardcover)

In "Friendly Fire," Katherine Kinney offers a fascinating cultural analysis of the Vietnam conflict as it has been represented through popular media. Writing in a style accessible to the casual reader and the serious Vietnam scholar alike, she explores America's involvement in Vietnam by paying particular attention to how certain cultural fears and desires have been reflected through the portrayal of this historical conflict.

You may have read the only other Amazon review of this book, an embarrassing and cowardly hatchet-job by a disgruntled ex-graduate student at the University of California, Riverside, the university at which the book's author is a well-respected professor and scholar. As a former student at this university, I immediately recognized the author of this character assassination (despite the cowardice of the unsigned post), a student whose shoddy performance on their doctoral examinations was one of the truly embarrassing moments in recent, departmental history (the gulf between expectation and actuality was enormous). My recommendation would be to ignore this vindictive attack from an arrogant and unstable person who is pretty much viewed as a joke in the English Department at UC Riverside.

Oxford University Press, long noted for publishing interesting, relevant, and cutting-edge work, has done so yet again with "Friendly Fire." For those interested in the Vietnam War, post-WWII masculinity, or media studies, this book will provide a fascinating read.

Signed,

Andrew Howe

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting and important book, December 27, 2004

By 

Andrew Howe (Riverside, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Friendly Fire: American Images of the Vietnam War (Hardcover)

In "Friendly Fire," Katherine Kinney offers a fascinating cultural analysis of the Vietnam conflict as it has been represented through popular media. Writing in a style accessible to the casual reader and the serious Vietnam scholar alike, she explores America's involvement in Vietnam by paying particular attention to how certain cultural fears and desires have been reflected through the portrayal of this historical conflict.

You may have read the only other Amazon review of this book, an embarrassing and cowardly hatchet-job by a disgruntled ex-graduate student at the University of California, Riverside, the university at which the book's author is a well-respected professor and scholar. As a former student at this university, I immediately recognized the author of this character assassination (despite the cowardice of the unsigned post), a student whose shoddy performance on their doctoral examinations was one of the truly embarrassing moments in recent, departmental history (the gulf between expectation and actuality was enormous). My recommendation would be to ignore this vindictive attack from an arrogant and unstable person who is pretty much viewed as a joke in the English Department at UC Riverside.

Oxford University Press, long noted for publishing interesting, relevant, and cutting-edge work, has done so yet again with "Friendly Fire." For those interested in the Vietnam War, post-WWII masculinity, or media studies, this book will provide a fascinating read.