Then the Americans Came: Voices from Vietnam [Hardcover]

Martha Hess (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1993

Numerous photographs and more than one hundred interviews with Vietnamese survivors of the Vietnam War recall the war from the perspective of the Vietnamese, emphasizing their current lack of hostility toward Americans.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"In the United States," writes the author of this deeply disturbing book, "while public attention has focused on the American soldier as a victim of 'misguided' policy, there seems to be little concern or even curiosity about the people of that faraway land who were the object of our country's apocalyptic wrath." Hess traveled the length and breadth of Vietnam in 1990 and 1991, listening to the recollections of men and women who lost family, limbs or sanity--sometimes all of these--during the 1965-1973 war; who witnessed the bombing of schools, hospitals, churches, temples, ferryboats, and animals; who survived beatings, rape and torture, and saw the mass slaughter of civilians by U.S. ground troops. It is difficult to imagine a more powerful indictment of American military conduct in Vietnam than these testimonies (supplemented with photos of many of the speakers) by people who suffered irreparable damage from American weapons and toxic chemicals. One of the victims remarks, "The Americans cannot repay the debt, because it is too big." Hess is a court reporter in New York City.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Pr; First Edition edition (April 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941423921
• ISBN-13: 978-0941423922
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,586,936 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic Book, December 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Then the Americans Came (Paperback)

The people of Vietnam tell what it was like when the Americans came to their country and destroyed it. Things you would not believe the Americans would do to a population. Publisher's Weekly said " It is difficult to imagine a more powerful indictment of American military conduct in Vietnam than these testimonies." With Photos by the author.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Facinating Account of The Vietnam War, February 23, 2007

By 

Lynn Ellingwood "The ESOL Teacher" (Webster, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Then the Americans Came (Paperback)

This account of the Vietnam War is a good. I really think it was important for me to find out more about how Americans conducted this war and how people felt about it It is especially interesting now that the Iraq War is happening and Americans are being accused of holding people without trial and torturing people.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars History of war crimes and attrocities in Vietnam, October 10, 2005

By 

D. R. Broatch "db" (Aotearoa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Then the Americans Came (Paperback)

Should be read in small segments, so overwhelmong is the inhumanity recounted here. The South Korean "allies" were worse torturers than the Americans.. several My Lais every day, and torture was ongoing for years for many of the civilians imprisoned in camps, too sickening to recount here. Brave book by a brave American woman.