Military Justice in Vietnam
The Rule of Law in an American War
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10026262 |
|---|---|
| Authors | James J Weingartner (Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 94 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 333-333 |
| Publication date | 2007-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/25094913 |
| OpenAlex | W2080715852 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
The Vietnam War is seared into the American memory as a catastrophe of U.S. military and foreign policy. Among the most painful impressions of America's Vietnam experience are images of U.S. soldiers who had seemingly thrown off the restraints of law and discipline, using drugs, “fragging” superiors, and murdering large numbers of Vietnamese civilians. The purpose of this compact monograph is to describe and evaluate the responses of the U.S. military justice system to the daunting challenges posed by the Vietnam War, the objectives of which were not only achieving victory over what was in part a domestic insurgency but also creating in South Vietnam a democratic and capitalist society as a bulwark against the spread of Communism in Southeast Asia. The parallels with the current U.S. imbroglio in Iraq give this book an obvious contemporary relevance. To provide context the author offers a useful summary of the development of the U.S. system of military justice from its origins during the Revolutionary War through the 1960s (an important step in that development was the adoption of the current Uniform Code of Military Justice in 1951). That evolutionary process reflects a chronic and perhaps unavoidable tension between the concept of military justice as a disciplinary tool, designed to preserve military effectiveness, and the expectations of the wider society that military personnel should not be denied the due process that is, ideally, the right of every American citizen
Communism · Context (archaeology · Democracy · Economic Justice · Military justice · Military policy · Military science · Military theory · Military threat · Parallels · Political science · Politics · Victory · Vietnam War · Vietnamese · Engineering · History · Law · Military and Defense Studies
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,17 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2024 (17) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |