Harvest of Fear: A History of Australia's Vietnam War by John Murphy

Book Description

Secondhand. Very good condition. Slight bend to front cover right tail corner. Some very minor marks on spine.

How did fears of the Cold War shape Australian images of Asia? What was the nature of the Vietnamese revolution, which some 50 000 Australian troops failed to reverse in the 1960s? How did a small and marginal peace movement grow into the powerful Moratorium and did it have any impact on the course of the War?

Harvest of Fear is a beautifully crafted history of Australia's experience of the Vietnam War. It draws together a picture of social and political life in colonial and postcolonial Vietnam; an incisive look at Australian Cold War politics and the diplomacy that led us to Vietnam; and a brilliant portrait of the origins and political impact of the powerful Australian anti-war movement.

Harvest of Fear presents the clearest picture yet of how the war came about, how it was seen from Australia, what the war in Phoc Tuy Province was like for the Australian soldiers sent there, and why our involvement was the cause of such division at home. Using a range of archival sources and interviews with participants, John Murphy shows how our intervention reflected the political alignments of Australia in the Cold War, as well as deeper and more troubled anxieties about Asia. (publisher blurb)