At War With Asia: Essays on Indochina

by Noam Chomsky, Christian Parenti (Introduction)

In 1970, Noam Chomsky urged Americans to confront and avoid the dangers inherent in the American invasion of Southeast Asia (North Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos). Looking back 30 years later, we still share Chomsky’s Will this new war lead us to an ever-expanding battle against the people of the world and increasing repression at home? Drawing in part on his visits to Asia and in part on his extensive reading in the field, Chomsky discusses the historical, political and economic reasons behind our involvement in a Southeast Asian land war. Chomsky examines the impact of our involvement on United States military strategy and what its eventual effect will be in America and abroad. While the people of the world are clearly the victims of U.S. foreign policy, the citizens of the United States have not been able to escape harm. In an eerie prediction of current events, Chomsky It is unlikely that we can continue indefinitely on this mad course without severe domestic depression and regimentation. For those who hope to rule the world, to win what some scholars like to call ‘the game of world domination,’ American policies in Southeast Asia may appear rational. To the citizens of the empire, at home and abroad, they bring only pain and sorrow. In this respect we are reliving the history of earlier imperial systems. We have had many opportunities to escape this trap and still do today. Failure to take advantages of these opportunities, continued submission to indoctrination, and indifference to the fate of others, will surely spell disaster for much of the human race. At War With Asia is an indispensable guide to understanding both the past and current logic of imperial force. Introduction by Christian Parrenti.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Asia, War

300 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Avram Noam Chomsky is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He is a laureate professor of linguistics at the University of Arizona and an institute professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Among the most cited living authors, Chomsky has written more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, and politics. In addition to his work in linguistics, since the 1960s Chomsky has been an influential voice on the American left as a consistent critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, and corporate influence on political institutions and the media.
Born to Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants (his father was William Chomsky) in Philadelphia, Chomsky developed an early interest in anarchism from alternative bookstores in New York City. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania. During his postgraduate work in the Harvard Society of Fellows, Chomsky developed the theory of transformational grammar for which he earned his doctorate in 1955. That year he began teaching at MIT, and in 1957 emerged as a significant figure in linguistics with his landmark work Syntactic Structures, which played a major role in remodeling the study of language. From 1958 to 1959 Chomsky was a National Science Foundation fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study. He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program. Chomsky also played a pivotal role in the decline of linguistic behaviorism, and was particularly critical of the work of B.F. Skinner.
An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he saw as an act of American imperialism, in 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention for his anti-war essay "The Responsibility of Intellectuals". Becoming associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for his activism and placed on President Richard M. Nixon's list of political opponents. While expanding his work in linguistics over subsequent decades, he also became involved in the linguistics wars. In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later articulated the propaganda model of media criticism in Manufacturing Consent, and worked to expose the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. His defense of unconditional freedom of speech, including that of Holocaust denial, generated significant controversy in the Faurisson affair of the 1980s. Chomsky's commentary on the Cambodian genocide and the Bosnian genocide also generated controversy. Since retiring from active teaching at MIT, he has continued his vocal political activism, including opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq and supporting the Occupy movement. An anti-Zionist, Chomsky considers Israel's treatment of Palestinians to be worse than South African–style apartheid, and criticizes U.S. support for Israel.
Chomsky is widely recognized as having helped to spark the cognitive revolution in the human sciences, contributing to the development of a new cognitivistic framework for the study of language and the mind. Chomsky remains a leading critic of U.S. foreign policy, contemporary capitalism, U.S. involvement and Israel's role in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and mass media. Chomsky and his ideas are highly influential in the anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements. Since 2017, he has been Agnese Helms Haury Chair in the Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice at the University of Arizona.

Reviews

[Radiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm certain I am not the only person to feel disheartened after reading Chomsky. Before Iraq and Afghanistan, Vietnam was the US government's longest and most painful military involvement in modern war. Written in the 80s, Chomsky discusses military strategy, tactics and its outcomes, eventually raising the question: Is this just the beginning in the game of world domination?

He starts with discussing American involvement in Indochina and delving into the role of the US Congress, then moving onto Cambodia, Laos and North Vietnam before ending with a chapter on War Crimes. Admittedly, I did not expect such a frank discussion on American war crimes in the Vietnam war and I was rather appalled to read about such things and the US government's attempts to hide and disregard the needless deaths of civilians. The reason I am appalled cannot be conveyed fully, I really shouldn't be shocked, but I still can't help it. 30 years after this book was published, I see what Chomsky was trying to warn us of.

[Ploni Almoni · Rating 2 out of 5]

rigtigt fint lige at blive mindet om, at USA ikke primært er fucked up, fordi de lægger told på den stakkels tyske bilindustri, men fordi de står bag de mest vanvittige krigsforbrydelser i Vietnam, Laos og Cambodja, kamoufleret af det mest totalitære propagandaapparatet, man kunne forestille sig.. og lol Irak, Afghanistan, Guantanamo, Gaza…. U name it…

men formidlingsmæssigt en ret ulæselig bog …. altså seriøst mest en flok anekdoter fortalt fra et svært afkodebart og meget indforstået sluttresser-ståsted.

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written decades ago, but still extremely relevant and enlightening.

[Sam Whitehill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will be familiar to anyone who has read Chomsky’s views on Vietnam. He reiterates his famous argument (from “American Power and the New Mandarins”) that mainstream American opinion on the war was narrowly split between aptly named hawks, who advocated winning the war at all costs, and so called doves, who argued that, while good intentioned, the war was becoming too costly to continue. In opposition to American ideology, he catalogues numerous war crimes committed throughout Indochina by the US and its allies, and argues that US policy appears to be aimed at the elimination of large swathes of the Indochinese population to stem the tide of popular independence movements sympathetic to socialism. The best thing about this book is reading Chomsky the investigative journalist; two of his essays follow his visits to Laos and North Vietnam where he conducted extensive interviews.

[Becca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dogmatic.

[Thomas Ray]

DS557 A63 C47 1970 Memorial and Historical Society Libraries

[Luke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gooooooooood stuff

[Kartika Upadhyaya · Rating 4 out of 5]

ultimately about the extent of deceit. 1969 american counterinsurgency spending in laos overtook that country's gnp.