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Voices from the Plain of Jars: Life under an Air War (New Perspectives in SE Asian Studies) Paperback – May 31, 2013
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When first published in 1972, this book was instrumental in exposing the bombing. In this expanded edition, Branfman follows the story forward in time, describing the hardships that Laotians faced after the war when they returned to find their farm fields littered with cluster munitions—explosives that continue to maim and kill today.
- Print length176 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherUniversity of Wisconsin Press
- Publication dateMay 31, 2013
- Dimensions8.1 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
- ISBN-100274727323
- ISBN-13978-0299292249
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"[In Laos,] where a right-wing government installed by the CIA faced a rebellion, one of the most beautiful areas in the world, the Plain of Jars, was being destroyed by bombing. This was not reported by the government or the press, but an American who lived in Laos, Fred Branfman, who told the story in his book Voices from the Plain of Jars."—Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States
"Today, the significance of this book's message has, if anything, increased. As Fred Branfman predicted with uncommon prescience, the massive U.S. bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War marked the advent of a new kind of warfare—automated, aerial, and secret—that is just now emerging as the dominant means of projecting U.S. power worldwide."—Alfred W. McCoy, author of Torture and Impunity: The U.S. Doctrine of Coercive Interrogation
"In this small, shattering book we hear—as we are so rarely able to do—the voices of Asian peasants describing what we can barely begin to imagine."—Gloria Emerson, New York Review of Books
“The most moving history book I’ve read. . . . Serves as an important reminder on the long-term consequences of conflict.” -- Ed Harvey ― LSE Review of Books
From the Publisher
Alfred W. McCoy, R. Anderson Sutton, Thongchai Winichakul, and Kenneth M. George, Series Editors
• Prior edition, Harper & Row USA, 1972, paper ISBN 0-060-90300-7
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : 029929224X
- Publisher : University of Wisconsin Press; 2nd edition (May 31, 2013)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 176 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0274727323
- ISBN-13 : 978-0299292249
- Item Weight : 8 ounces
- Dimensions : 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,247,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #927 in Human Rights Law (Books)
- #1,009 in Southeast Asia History
- #1,421 in Human Rights (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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- Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2015When Fred Branfman died at age 72 in September 2014, he was hailed as the American journalist who exposed to the world the secret US bombing of Laos (1965 to 1973). The US Air Force dropped 2.1 tons of bombs on Laos, roughly one-third of 6.7 million tons dropped in all of Southeast Asia (North and South Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos).
Branfman arrived in Laos in 1967 to work as an educational adviser for the International Voluntary Services (IVS). He lived in a Lao village 6.8 miles outside Vientiane, a village lacking running water and electricity. He learned how to speak Laotian, though he could not read the language. The time he spent with the Lao rice farmers gave him profound respect for the "kind, friendly, cheerful, decent, fun, honest, sincere, and trustworthy" villagers. He connected with the locals on a deep human level. One day in September of 1969, Branfman accompanied his friend Tim Allman, a New York Times journalist, to interview refugees from the Plain of Jars, a lush mountainous region in the northeast handle of Laos. Branfman and Allman had heard rumors of bombing denied by the US government but reported in "Le Monde" the previous spring.
Branfman learned about the horrific US bombings of Laos from the villagers he interviewed in the Plain of Jars. Survivors of the bomb attacks hid in shelters dug into mountain slopes, living like animals foraging for food at night. When Branfman later interviewed US soldiers stationed in Vietnam, he was disgusted by the arrogance of the military personnel who bragged about killing civilians. US officials in Southeast Asia denied any US air attacks in Laos. Branfman discovered that the US government went to war unilaterally without Congressional authorization.
"Voices from the Plain of Jars" contains a 30-page Introduction by the author, including an outline of the history of Laos. The collection of first-person narratives and their accompanying drawings convey sorrow, loss, bewilderness. Many of the voices come from villagers. One woman talks about what it is like to be a new wife, and one narrator is a nurse who talks about how she came to study medicine. One theme that runs throughout the stories is how the survivors are made to live like animals. Airplanes are featured in nearly all the pictures as though the image of the airplane (symbolic of bombs) is implanted in the people's minds. While the drawings are amateur and unschooled, I cannot help but think of Picasso's "Guernica", which depicts the bombing of Guernica in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The Laotian pictures are not as schizophrenic as "Guernica", but they are just as unsettling, especially the drawings of dismembered bodies.
Fred Branfman enlightened the world on a very dark period in US history. We can't get enough of Vietnam, and the movie "The Killing Fields" brought Cambodia to our consciousness. "Voices from the Plain of Jars" adds another dimension to the terror of America's involvement in Indochina. When the book first came out in 1972, it did not sell many copies. The author found that his countrymen had little interest in or concern for the suffering of their leaders' victims, whom they treated as "nonpeople". Branfman called the US secret bombing of Laos the US Executive Secret Automated War which represented an entire new form of warfare. He labeled this the "Laos model" which entailed three features: (1) unilateral executive branch power; (2) strict information management -- "secret war"; (3) automated warfare. The "Laos model" is as relevant today as it was during the bombing of Laos.
Laotian studies, including Hmong in America and history of Laos, is a new academic field. The University of Wisconsin Press, which reissued this book, is embarking on an exciting new niche in Southeast Asian studies.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2023Gifts for those interested in the "Secret War".
- Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2015Branfman's book is a searing indictment of the mindless and cruel US bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War. It's a highly well thought-through and analytical treatment of the war coupled with powerful and evocative testimonies from Laotian peasants, farmers, and children from the Plain. For many this book will be an important reminder of one of the most devastating bombings in the history of "warfare" and for others it will serve as a shock to learn about this "secret" bombing.
Books like this remind us of the responsibility we each need to have when fellow human beings are being slaughtered. That this is a chronicle of the world's mightiest power being brought to bear against poor villagers who had to resort to living in caves or digging holes in the ground to live makes it all the more powerful.
- Reviewed in the United States on September 6, 2017impressive and sad
- Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2015pretty underwhelming
- Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2016An inside view of one of our country's most shameful incidents, and we have had plenty of them. Branfman was in the right place at the wrong time, and he shows the suffering of the ordinary people who lived through it with him.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2013Besides the background this book gives -- the terrible destruction our country wrought on this country -- it is very moving to hear and see (the drawings) of the people who actually suffered through this terror, an ongoing terror as unexplored ordinance continues to maim and kill.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2015Fred's Voices from the Plains of Jars is a classic. As historian Al McCoy said of it, perhaps the single most important book to come out of the US war in Indochina!.
-Walt Haney former teacher in laos 1968-1971.