Book Description

Book Description
This digital document is an article from Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, published by Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc. on September 1, 2000. The length of the article is 3810 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Exploding the past.(Laos still littered with ordnance from Vietnam War)
Author: Daniel Lovering
Publication: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 2000
Publisher: Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.
Volume: 56Issue: 5Page: 28

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description
Laos has recently come to the attention to global strategic planners.This report puts these executives on the fast track.Ten chapters provide: an overview of how to strategically access this important market, a discussion on economic fundamentals, marketing & distribution options, export and direct investment options, and full risk assessments (political, cultural, legal, human resources).Ample statistical benchmarks and comparative graphs are given. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A fitting tribute
Gives feeling and perspective with great logistical insights and intense battle descriptions, allowing for a respectful look at this monumental operation, one of America's last major combat operations of the war in southeast Asia. Good non fiction read. ... Read more

Book Description
Can Laos—with its small, scattered, ethnically diverse population, enchanting but rugged landscapes, and rich natural resources—emerge from the shadows of its more powerful neighbors? It has been carved up by colonial powers in the nineteenth century and dragged into devastating revolution and war in the twentieth. The authors provide a full, frank, and engaging survey of Laos today, assessing its history, prospects, and hopes. The book is essential reading for scholars, policymakers, and anyone interested in coming to grips with Laos today. ... Read more

Book Description
Dengler's story is a valuable contribution to the literature of survival as well as to the literature of the war. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

The ultimate survival manual
Best book I read in 2007 and I'm squeamish about war narratives.Riveting, astounding, a profile of courage and mental agility. This is the bible of survival techniques.

I shudder to think what details were edited OUT of this book.

I also recommend the film "Little Dieter Needs to Fly" where Dengler himself takes one back to the scene of these horrors.Little Dieter needs to Fly

shackletonesque
On February 1, 1966 the American pilot Dieter Dengler (1938-2001) took enemy fire and crash-landed his plane in Laos while on a secret mission. After surviving in the jungle on his own he was captured, tortured (hung upside down with an ant nest around his neck, submerged in a well, dragged by an ox through a village), then taken on a three-week jungle trek to a Pathet Lao prison camp called Par Kung. Dengler recalls that it was nothing like he imagined a prison camp might be, but instead a tiny enclave of a few huts exactly twenty-one by twenty-two steps in size. There he met six other POWS, two American and four Asian (which later became a source of tension), who had been imprisoned as long as two and a half years. Later they were transferred to the very similar Hoi Het camp. When starvation threatened both the prisoners and the guards, and the prisoners overheard the guards saying that they planned to shoot them, they made an elaborate plan and escaped. The fellow POWS were separated after the escape, and Dengler and his buddy Duane Martin teamed up. Lice, leeches, ticks, ants ("the true torment of the jungle"), sweltering days and cold nights, torrential rain, dumb mistakes and incredibly good luck, and the human will to survive--these are only part of Dengler's first person narrative. Incredibly, after soldiering on for so long, Dengler and Martin stumbled onto some villagers, scared them, and in the space of a minute they had beheaded Duane. After surviving twenty-three days in the jungle after his escape, hallucinations, wandering in a circle, tumbling over water falls, and eating things you never should eat, Dengler was rescued in an improbable stroke of luck. He lost sixty pounds in the six-month ordeal. In 1997 Werner Herzog made a documentary about Dengler called Little Dieter Needs to Fly. More recently Herzog dramatized this survivor's tale in the film Rescue Dawn (2007). This is a gripping book that reminded me of Alfred Lansing's Endurance about Shackleton's Antarctic survival story.

Most powerful book I've ever read.
Mine will be the eleventh review of this book and consistent with my reviewing colleagues, I too give this masterpiece a 5-star rating. So, Dieter, wherever you are, you are 11 for 11. Not too shabby. (For those of you who didn't know, Dieter passed away in 2001 from ALS.)

But what's so good about it? In a word, honesty. He simply told it like it happened, confident the story would do the work. No bluster, no bravado, and best of all, it does not read like a medal citation the way so many first-hand accounts of this genre do. Just simple honesty.

A collateral benefit of this story is how different we modern westerners are from the Third World. Today, we struggle over dealing with unsavory characters, whether torture can play a valid role in the 'War on Terror,' whether it's okay to incarcerate someone without due process. People of the Third World would think those issues are absurd, they have no such issues, might is right. I hope we continue to struggle and I hope we ultimately get the right answer because I shudder to think what kind of a nation we would become if we allow ourselves to lapse into the Third World's law of the bush.

Third worlders aren't all bad. Dieter himself was surprised at the impact the occasional act of kindness had on him as he moved through his gaunlet of horror. And these acts were by no means casual. If the perpetrators had been caught, they would have been severely punished, possibly executed.

Bottom line: if you have a copy, keep it safe. This book is not likely to be reprinted anytime soon.

-- Ejner Fulsang, author of "A Knavish Piece of Work," Aarhus Publishing

Remember the 377
This reviewer has read several P.O.W. tales. Each is disturbing yet stirring.Each paints a picture of physical and mental courage in face of overwhelming physical, military, personal odds. What sets "Escape from Laos" apart is the sheer mystery surrounding the Indochina war in that mysterious landlocked country.Even those of us who served in Vietnam (but were spared combat) can at least relate geographically to many stories. We could locate Cu Chi, An Khe and Khe Sanh on a map. But Laos?To orientate ourselves, EFL is the tale of a Navy Pilot, Dieter Dengler and his escape from a Pathet Lao POW camp in eastern Laos. My edition's one map shed no further geopgrapical light on the situation. Inferior maps no longer surprise this reviewer. Dengler escapes his surprisingly undisciplined guards easily enough. But what amazes the reader, almost boggles the mind, is the sheer geographical challenge he faced. Could remotest and wildest Vietnam be so brutal? And how did the guy feed himself in the bush and deal with the "animal creatures" encountered along the way. I wasn't aware-but surprised! - That the PL and VC tried to lure rescue choppers to their doom with phony escapees signaling for rescue. I also wasn't aware -but was surprised -that POWs ATE the rats they captured! We gave them to our mamasan to dump. Dengler (obviously) made it to freedom but his good news opens up another unpleasant subject. Over 500 men went missing in Laos. We know that our sniveling Ambassador to Vientiane, one William Sullivan, actively discouraged rescue operations. But only 10 men emerged alive from the 500! One was Dengler.9 more were released but via HANOI! Where are the others? At the time of this review, 377 men remain unaccounted for in Laos. It is sad and strange that such a wonderful tale has to share such an unpleasant spotlight but we simply cannot ignore the other MIAs. Yet the bottom line here is Dengler. His heroic escape should be an inspiration to all of us. He is a shining credit to this country and to the Navy. Period!

Haunting, rare first-hand account.
Approximately 600 American pilots were shot down in Laos, but just 10 or so came out alive. Mr. Dengler's account is like a vivid nightmare. I read it years ago after discovering it at the library and have never forgotten it. It's even more haunting to think of the fate of those pilots who survived yet never escaped. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good Taste and Less Filling
Mr. Evans' slight volume focuses narrowly on the extent of the Lao Communist party's efforts to transition from dogmatic socialist to quasi-dogmatic proto-capitalist state. He argues somewhat persuasively that the pre-revolution royal-Buddhist diad never left the public's consciousness and has been supplanted by rituals that bespeak of these roots, albeit in the absence of a functioning monarchy. He states that the influence of Thailand, and particularly the Thai royal family, has to a large extent made the ruling LPDR's social dictates irrelevant; Thailand is their larger, older, more experienced Buddhist brother and will lead the recalcitrant commies to the promised land, dogma or no, but in typically understated Asian fashion.
I would liked to have seen more attention paid to the efforts of the LPDR to transform Lao society, as Mr. Evans wrote of in his Lao Peasants Under Socialism, but admittedtly that was only peripheral (and ancient history) to the theme of this book.

Excellent, far more insightful than the title suggests
I have to admit I had noticed this book in the book stores long before I ever bought it. I was looking for something that would bring Lao politics and cultural insights together (by "Lao" I mean all the people of Laos,) and this appeared to be a rather dry account of current Lao politics. How wrong I was. The book turned out to be exactly what I was looking for. It brings together insights about Lao culture and the thinking of Lao people from the whole spectrum of Lao society, Lao politics both before and after the revolution, and gives enormous insights into how the cultural and political landscape of Laos have influenced each other. For a book that claims to be about the politics of Laos, very deep cultural insights are given, yet remain relevant to the subject of the book as Mr. Evans illustrates how the revolution influenced the culture of Laos and (far more often) how Lao culture shaped the course of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in the past decade-and-a-half. Furthermore, he gives us a certain amount of insight into the royal Lao government.

The book does not contain the same wit and human interest as "Stalking the Elephant Kings,"but there was never any suggestion that it would. Despite having fewer personal anecdotes (not that it didn't have a fair number,) I found this book even more insightful.

The book answered a number of questions I had always had about Laos that several other books, and three weeks in the country, could not answer. I recommend it to anyone interested in this mysterious country, even casual tourists or business people investing in Laos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent and simple.
a quick pace reading with many indepth information. Thank you ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

If you can read only one book on the Vietnam War ...
There are now thousands of books about various aspects of the Vietnam War.I have read at least a hundred of them, trying to understand how the mighty U.S. could have been humbled by tiny North Vietnam.If you could read only one book -- and if you were trying to understand how America could lose a war to a 4th-rate outfit like North Vietnam -- this is the book to read.

Author Hannah was uniquely positioned to see the war strategically, and to discover how and why critical decisions were made to ensure that America could not win (Hannah served as political advisor to the U.S. Commander-in-Chief, Pacific).He focuses on Laos, which he reveals as the key to America's failure.Despite the advice of all his generals in the field, as well as that of the South Vietnamese military and political leadership, Lyndon Johnson chose to hearken to the self-serving "political" advice of Averill Harriman, refusing to allow U.S. forces to cut North Vietnam's supply line through Laos into the South.

Harriman's rationale is mysterious.Perhaps he just wanted to protect his exalted position as the essential man on Vietnam war policy.Johnson's nemesis was his irrational fear of "a wider war," and his lack of confidence in his own strategic abilities.The result was an endless war that could have been ended in a matter of months by a simple policy amendment allowing America, with its overwhelming preponderance of military force, to close down the enemy's supply lines through Laos, and thus quickly dry up the "insurgency" in the South.Richard Nixon, advised by the militarily obtuse Henry Kissinger, chose to continue Johnson's disastrous policy.

If you have read other books that left you less than clear about how the U.S. could have been so foolish, this is the one that will cut through the confusion and show why the outcome was unnecessary but inevitable, given the decision to avoid winning.Hannah deals in specifics, citing names, dates, and places, and leaving no doubt about who was responsible for America's first lost war, and the abandonment of America's Vietnamese allies to a vicious tyranny.

... Read more

Book Description
This is a new pictorial odyssey through Laos, with 1,200 color photographs of subjects closely encountered in all districts throughout the length and breadth of the land btwn 2001 and 2005, identified and indexed in an almost encyclopedic fashion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Pictorial tour
What a wonderful pictorial tour of a culture and country with a rich history unspoiled by tourism. The author captures people and places like no other I have seen.

Amazing book!
Here is a book that was sorely missing.It will interest not only travelers planning a trip to Laos but also those that just want an in depth look at the country and its people.There are an amazing number of photos covers all aspects of the country.I don't think any other tourist has seen as much of the country....it's wonderful! ... Read more

Product Description
Collection of articles exploring the expansion of the Vietnam War into Laos and Cambodia. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good collection
There are some great essays in here that have not been published elsewhere. Original research

Misguided misconceptions
Despite the growing need for flexible overviews of this part of the world, and, taking into account that the editor is an accomplished writer, this volume does not fill the need for even an undergraduate readership (let alone tourists!). It's poorly compiled and suffers from what must have been "old buddies" wanting in. A case in point is Trankell's paper. I've read it through twice and although I've spent two years of field work in the area (Trankell claims to have spent two weeks) I can't recognize any of the "data" she draws on to support point that escapes any sound mind. His paper is not the only bad one, but it does reflect badly on the entire composition of the volume. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Red Pine (a.k.a. Bill Porter) offers a new perspective on the Chinese classic Taoteching. A competent translator and interpreter of Chinese religion, he renders his work with an eye for detail and a spiritualism cultivated during years of Zen monastery living. It's odd that many read translations of Chinese classics as bare-bones texts, whereas no Chinese would tackle such obscurity in the absence of a helping hand from previous pundits. Fortunately, it is no longer necessary to rely on mystical insight in order to understand the Taoteching. Instead, we can look to the 12 or so commentators that Red Pine resurrects from Chinese history. With its clarity and scholarly range, this version of the Taoteching works as both a readable text and a valuable resource of Taoist interpretation.Book Description
Red Pine's translation of the most revered of Chinese texts corrects errors in previous interpretations, truly breathes new poetic life into the English version, and includes selected commentaries-judged by Chinese scholars to be essential to understanding the wisdom of Taoism. Pine incorporates the commentaries of emperors and prime ministers, Taoist monks and nuns, Buddhist priests, poets, scholars, and the country's most famous philosophers of the past 2,000 years. This marks the first time that non-Chinese speakers have been given access to such a range of wisdom explaining the deeper meaning of China's famous ancient classic. With its clarity and scholarly range, this version of the Taoteching works both as a readable text and a valuable resource of Taoist interpretation.

Lao-tzu, founder of Taoism, is supposed to have written the Taoteching around 600 BC in the Chungnan Mountain region, where Red Pine (Bill Porter) interviewed contemporary hermits as described in his book Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits. Bill Porter is also the translator of The Zen Works of Stonehouse, of Sung Po-jen's Guide to Capturing a Plum Blossom, and of The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain.
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Customer Reviews (15)

The BEST on the Tao
Of all the tranlations of the Tao, Red Pine's is by far the best. I've read a lot of other Tao translations and none offer the clear interpretation that Red Pine offers. This is a must have book by the most qualified voice on the subject and at a price that cannot be beat.

My favorite TTC so far
I have a friend who's library includes some 20+ translations of this work and I have to date, read 4 of my own. Red Pine's TTC with Commentaries is much easier to follow and understand than other translations and the commentaries offer even more ways to consider each verse. To read what other Chinese scholars took from reading Lao Tsu's work will also make obvious that many have had very different understanding of this work, and that maybe, they are all useful.

This translation does, in my mind, further disproves those who so misunderstood Lao Tsu to call him a libertarian and an anarchist and does more to convince me that he, maybe above all the great teachers, was a true spiritualist, truly understanding what he chose not to define, not to personify, or to name...other than to simply call it The Way.

I have only two thirds of the book complete, but have to join those who claim it their favorite TTC so far.

It makes you think!
I liked this book. the commentaries are interesting and provide insight into the Tao. I would have liked more commentaries on how to apply them to daily life, but overall it's a good book. I would recommend it.

'untying our tangles. . .softening our light . . .'
The only language in which the Taoteching could have been written is Classical Chinese, a medium seemingly open enough to accomodate any translation without losing anything at all.But we should keep in mind, as the good book here says,". . . the Tao in words is not the real Tao . . ." We could say that Classical Chinese could not really, in our day and age, be served up in literal translation, and we can be grateful to Red Pine, once again, that in this fabulous rendering, he does not begin with the words, but rather with the Tao.

Paul Reps once told me that we humans "are on the outside looking in". Like the space between the kanji strokes, as with the Chinese, thus with the Tao, and even the Truth.(Chapter 11: "Thirty spokes converge on a hub, but it's the emptiness that makes a wheel work . . ."
This translation does work. As in his other impressive translations (I especially love his moving early 1990's translation of Bodhidharma - recommended to all who wish to learn more of Ch'an or Zen) there breathes an immediacy which flows forth into the consciousness of our moment, resonant in these teachings.Relatively obscure in the West not half a century ago, they thus have been recognized for their pith, their eternal relevance, their vision.

Each Chapter in this well-bound, well-designed volume is accompanied by a series of commentaries or alternative translations from various sages in the Taoist tradition, a process which itself, once again, reveals the Tao, ever changing, always unchanged.

Chapter 19: "Get rid of wisdom and reason
and people will live a hundred times better
get rid of kindness and justice
and people once more will love and obey
get rid of cleverness and profit
and thieves will cease to exist
but these sayings are not enough
hence let this be added
wear the undyed and hold the uncarved
reduce self-interest and limit desires
get rid of learning and problems will vanish"

I've been reading this book since the early 1960's in various English renditions - this one is far and away my current favorite - a real delight!

Finally! A Tao Te Ching with the appropriate commentaries
In Asia, sacred texts like the Tao Te Ching are read with reference to the commentaries of its key historical luminaries. Only in the west is it read by itself, with no guidance. Finally, we have a TTC with key commentaries. Plus, the author has here given a translation that may come as close as possible to expressing the Chinese in English. It is concise, even pithy.
A number of other features make this volume unique and particularly valuable. Pine's extensive introduction covers an intriguing linguistic insight into the Chinese written character for Tao, Lao Tzu's historical background, the usual issues of authorship, etc., and some of the deeper understandings of the important themes of philosophical Taoism. Also, he has provided black and white photos of the famed Hanku Pass and the Loukuantai where tradition holds that Lao-tzu wrote the Tao Te Ching. The Chinese text is provided along side Pine's clear and unadorned translation. He utilizes the earlier but more recently discovered Mawangtui texts, and explains his preferences in choosing among textual variants. But most important for me, and for any student of the Tao Te Ching are his carefully selected commentaries which follow each verse. These show how the Chinese have traditionally understood the passages of the TTC in selected commentaries from the last 2000 years. Also, the book provides an extensive glossary of the Chinese terms and the commentators. Highly recommended! ... Read more