The January issue of Military History Monthly, the British military history magazine, is now on sale.
In this issue:
THE VIETNAM WAR
The war tore America apart and devastated Vietnam. Its brutality was broadcast across the globe, and the widespread use of chemical weapons against a civilian population caused public outrage. As the body bags returned home to the United States in their thousands, US generals – who once believed victory was assured – were now wondering how best to admit defeat and withdraw.
Over 50 years since the onset of the war, acclaimed documentary film-maker Ken Burns has released a new series on the subject, provoking public debate on its controversies and legacy. In our special this month, James H Willbanks, veteran of the war and consultant to the new series, recaps 30 years of conflict – from its origins to its denouement. In a second special feature, MHM Editor Neil Faulkner analyses how and why the Viet Cong defeated the United States.
- Diplomacy
- Maps
- Strategy
- Battle analysis
- Tactics
The Battle of Nashville: death of an army
Andrew Mulholland reports on the complete annihilation of the Confederate Army of Tennessee in 1864.
Bauernkrieg: The German Peasants’ War, 1524-1525
Fred Chiaventone recaps a catastrophic insurrection against aristocracy at the dawn of the Reformation.
Supplying Stalin: WWII Arctic convoys
James Ruddy reveals the suppressed history of the Allied convoys to Russia.
Regiment: Royal Marines at Zeebrugge, 1918
Patrick Mercer revisits a raid of suicidal bravery i n the dying days of World War I.
Also in this issue:
Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace: 1914-1918
The battlefield photography of Michael St Maur Shiel.
The Vietnam War
James H Willbanks gives an insider’s account on the making of Ken Burn’s new documentary, The Vietnam War.
Women at War; Book of the Month; Book Reviews; Museum Review; Event Listings; Competitions; and much more.
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From the editor
It is half a century since the Vietnam War reached its terrible climax. The US had 550,000 men deployed, fighting alongside 800,000 South Vietnamese. In all, during the war, the US would drop more than 8 million tons of explosive – three times the tonnage dropped by all belligerents during the whole of the Second World War.
South Vietnam was a country of just 20 million people, the great majority of them peasants. Embedded among them was a guerrilla insurgency – the Viet Cong – fighting foreign occupation, military dictatorship, and landlord rule. Backing them was the North Vietnamese Army.
The conflict pitted the world’s greatest superpower and its local clients against a national liberation struggle rooted in a hundred thousand villages. It became a holocaust of violence that killed at least 2 million Vietnamese. It divided America and the world, and shook the US political system to its foundations.
Now veteran documentary film-maker Ken Burns has released his long-awaited 18-hour epic on the war. In this issue, James Willbanks – a leading contributor on the show – offers his overview of the war that defined an epoch.
Also in this issue, we have Fred Chiaventone on the German Peasants’ War of 1524 to 1525, Andrew Mullholland on the Battle of Nashville in December 1864, James Ruddy on the Arctic convoys of the Second World War, and Patrick Mercer on the Royal Marines at Zeebrugge in 1918.
To subscribe to the magazine, click here. To subscribe to the digital archive, click here.
