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Vietnam Inc.
A re-creation of Philip Jones Griffiths’ classic book on the Vietnam War – one of the most important and acclaimed works of photojournalism – with a foreword to the new edition by Noam Chomsky.
224 pages, Paperback
First published September 25, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 12, 2010
'the overwhelming impression of Americans in Vietnam is one of stupidity rather than evil'
Philip Jones Griffiths' very difficult photojournalistic essay, VIETNAM INC., is the result of his on site documentation of the Vietnam war as a photojournalist from 1968 to 1971 - that period of time when the war was at its worst from all sides. His image statements as well as his written comments remain some of the most pungent of the many books and works of art that were stimulated by the Vietnam conflict. This book was originally published in 1971 and caused such furor among government agencies who saw the work as an 'unAmerican' document condemning an ongoing war, among returned veterans still trying to make sense out of the chaos and mind destroying mission from which they returned bruised and battered physically and emotionally, among families of veterans who did not return from the war machine, and from those who wanted to believe that what we did to a little country called Vietnam was warranted in the desire to spread democracy.
All wars are captured in literature - whether in the eloquence of poetry from WW I and WW II and the many the novels - or films that painted America as a savior of needy people - or in music not the least of which is the 'War Requiem' by Sir Benjamin Britten - or in art. Philip Jones Griffiths used the camera to freeze the moments of the sadness, the sorrow, the errors, the devastation, and the pity of war. Now the book is back in print and should belong in every library of everyone who questions the validity of war. The photographs are brilliant achievements, sharing not only the panoply of reactions between the various branches of the military stationed in Vietnam, but also the varied reactions from the people whose country and homes were gradually being defoliated, scarred, completely destroyed or degraded. The faces of the soldiers are here as are the faces of the Vietnamese people and slowly viewing them page by page is a disturbing experience.
Gratefully many of the photographs from this book are now placed before the public eye in museum exhibitions, such as the current powerful one ENGAGED OBSERVERS at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Hopefully with this book being available once again and with the works in museums there will be enough of the message that whatever happened in Vietnam should never happen again. This in a challenging and very important portfolio whose images speak far louder than words.
Grady Harp
Philip Jones Griffiths' very difficult photojournalistic essay, VIETNAM INC., is the result of his on site documentation of the Vietnam war as a photojournalist from 1968 to 1971 - that period of time when the war was at its worst from all sides. His image statements as well as his written comments remain some of the most pungent of the many books and works of art that were stimulated by the Vietnam conflict. This book was originally published in 1971 and caused such furor among government agencies who saw the work as an 'unAmerican' document condemning an ongoing war, among returned veterans still trying to make sense out of the chaos and mind destroying mission from which they returned bruised and battered physically and emotionally, among families of veterans who did not return from the war machine, and from those who wanted to believe that what we did to a little country called Vietnam was warranted in the desire to spread democracy.
All wars are captured in literature - whether in the eloquence of poetry from WW I and WW II and the many the novels - or films that painted America as a savior of needy people - or in music not the least of which is the 'War Requiem' by Sir Benjamin Britten - or in art. Philip Jones Griffiths used the camera to freeze the moments of the sadness, the sorrow, the errors, the devastation, and the pity of war. Now the book is back in print and should belong in every library of everyone who questions the validity of war. The photographs are brilliant achievements, sharing not only the panoply of reactions between the various branches of the military stationed in Vietnam, but also the varied reactions from the people whose country and homes were gradually being defoliated, scarred, completely destroyed or degraded. The faces of the soldiers are here as are the faces of the Vietnamese people and slowly viewing them page by page is a disturbing experience.
Gratefully many of the photographs from this book are now placed before the public eye in museum exhibitions, such as the current powerful one ENGAGED OBSERVERS at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Hopefully with this book being available once again and with the works in museums there will be enough of the message that whatever happened in Vietnam should never happen again. This in a challenging and very important portfolio whose images speak far louder than words.
Grady Harp
June 16, 2013
Simply the best, most powerful piece of combined photo/text journalism ever made. In photos and recollections from his time there between 1968 and 1971 Philip Jones Griffiths gently destroys all of the rationale the US ever had for its Vietnam adventure, in photos that while (mostly) less shocking than the better known iconic but isolated images of violent incidents, are more telling, for their context and continuity that shows the rape of a beautiful country and an older, gentler society. Allied to his fierce but gentle annotations that express disbelief at what the f***k did America think it was achieving here?, it's a supremely powerful statement, yet put quietly and reasonably.
"What use are American-born, non-native interpreters in a country whose language is so subtle that the word "Ma" can mean any one of a score of different things depending on how it's said?"
This book should be read by everybody. Even if you're the sort to disagree with the anti-war stance or that war is really imperialism, to see how an aggressor is perceived by both the aggressed against and an impartial observer is really important. It cuts through notions of nationalism, "protecting our freedom" or patriotism.
Only the most bullheaded, jingoistic observer could come away from the shattering experience of reading this book with their ideas on Vietnam unchanged. The antis will have everything confirmed in spades, and most importantly, neutrals will most definitely no longer be neutral after it.
Forget Apocalypse Now, or Full Metal Jacket or any of the other bits of Vietnam iconography. This is the real deal and it makes Hollywood's achievements look tawdry and trivial.
Woody Guthrie may have claimed his guitar killed fascists. Philip Jones Griffiths' Nikon certainly slaughters the mythology that Vietnam was a justified war.
"What use are American-born, non-native interpreters in a country whose language is so subtle that the word "Ma" can mean any one of a score of different things depending on how it's said?"
This book should be read by everybody. Even if you're the sort to disagree with the anti-war stance or that war is really imperialism, to see how an aggressor is perceived by both the aggressed against and an impartial observer is really important. It cuts through notions of nationalism, "protecting our freedom" or patriotism.
Only the most bullheaded, jingoistic observer could come away from the shattering experience of reading this book with their ideas on Vietnam unchanged. The antis will have everything confirmed in spades, and most importantly, neutrals will most definitely no longer be neutral after it.
Forget Apocalypse Now, or Full Metal Jacket or any of the other bits of Vietnam iconography. This is the real deal and it makes Hollywood's achievements look tawdry and trivial.
Woody Guthrie may have claimed his guitar killed fascists. Philip Jones Griffiths' Nikon certainly slaughters the mythology that Vietnam was a justified war.
November 6, 2012
I found this book in a rather sparse History shelf of school library while hunting for some reading before lunch. It wiped lunch out of my mind.
A voracious learner on this topic, I can testify that some photos by Griffiths one of their kind. One can find among those photos whose content and caption are themselves perfect juxtaposition. A friendly photo of an American soldier looking endearingly at a Vietnamese mother holding her son - caption: the mother and her son killed by US artillery called in by the troop. Or a picture of an thirsty, wounded VC whose intestine had already been out for 3 days, surrounded by GIs and ARVNs - caption: the Vietnamese interpreter suggested with schadenfreuder to let the VC drink the rice pad water while an US soldier rebutted with disdain: "Any soldier who can fight for three days with his insides out can drink from my canteen any time!".
Not just his visual techniques that deserve credit, topics were also of excellence. This photo also explored battle field, but devoted a substantial proportion to zoom-in the traditional Vietnamese tombs of 60s, 70s, pickpocketing teen clans of Saigon, the role of Vietnamese women - as VC insurgents, prostitutes, rape victims, children and elderly in "strategic hamlets" - with insightful analysis and understanding.
This book did Vietnam War justice.
A voracious learner on this topic, I can testify that some photos by Griffiths one of their kind. One can find among those photos whose content and caption are themselves perfect juxtaposition. A friendly photo of an American soldier looking endearingly at a Vietnamese mother holding her son - caption: the mother and her son killed by US artillery called in by the troop. Or a picture of an thirsty, wounded VC whose intestine had already been out for 3 days, surrounded by GIs and ARVNs - caption: the Vietnamese interpreter suggested with schadenfreuder to let the VC drink the rice pad water while an US soldier rebutted with disdain: "Any soldier who can fight for three days with his insides out can drink from my canteen any time!".
Not just his visual techniques that deserve credit, topics were also of excellence. This photo also explored battle field, but devoted a substantial proportion to zoom-in the traditional Vietnamese tombs of 60s, 70s, pickpocketing teen clans of Saigon, the role of Vietnamese women - as VC insurgents, prostitutes, rape victims, children and elderly in "strategic hamlets" - with insightful analysis and understanding.
This book did Vietnam War justice.
July 28, 2015
Philip Jones Griffiths’s 1971 classic, VIETNAM, INC., needs no review. It is a searing indictment of U. S. strategy in the War in Vietnam. But what can be said is that Griffiths’s message is just as important today when the U. S. is involved in so many foreign conflicts and we seem to have not learned the lessons of Vietnam.
March 11, 2017
Biting, unflinching and concise commentary draw together the haunting, beautiful and empathetic photographs that make up this book.
June 4, 2017
1st Edition 1974
May 22, 2018
A great Vietnam photography book.
Highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
June 25, 2009
This is a classic Vietnam-era text/image book that made the rounds of my friends when it was first published. I only recently came across a copy of a reprint in a bookstore while traveling. It bought it on sight without any thought about having to haul it until getting back home some weeks later....it was as if I'd come across something that had been lost, found anew and I wasn't about to lose it again.
The images and text are disturbing, of course. Griffiths' take is pointed. War is a corporate enterprise. I can't remember if it was a chapter from Zinn's "History" that began with "The Civil War made a few people very, very rich." But that's the same line that underscores the enterprise that was our involvement in SE Asia from the 1950's through the mid-70's.
To some the tone of text and image will also seem dated. There are many shades of nostalgia, some are more dangerous and self-aggrandizing than others. Those with close experiences of this war will recognize familiar territory here. Those who were not alive or whose circumstance of age allowed for further remove, may see the 'dated' image before recognizing the present affiliations of this book.
Halliburton. Blackwater. These are present enterprises engaged in war. But concurrent to and shortly after this book came Chili, ITT, the Contras, Afghanistan, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama.....and Gulf I...and then Bush/Cheney Doctrine of Regime Change. It's all here. It's all still here.
The images and text are disturbing, of course. Griffiths' take is pointed. War is a corporate enterprise. I can't remember if it was a chapter from Zinn's "History" that began with "The Civil War made a few people very, very rich." But that's the same line that underscores the enterprise that was our involvement in SE Asia from the 1950's through the mid-70's.
To some the tone of text and image will also seem dated. There are many shades of nostalgia, some are more dangerous and self-aggrandizing than others. Those with close experiences of this war will recognize familiar territory here. Those who were not alive or whose circumstance of age allowed for further remove, may see the 'dated' image before recognizing the present affiliations of this book.
Halliburton. Blackwater. These are present enterprises engaged in war. But concurrent to and shortly after this book came Chili, ITT, the Contras, Afghanistan, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama.....and Gulf I...and then Bush/Cheney Doctrine of Regime Change. It's all here. It's all still here.
May 8, 2008
I got this a photography book, I was not quite prepared for the commentary. The crazy part is while it was horrible enough what we did in Vietnam, you can see that our "leaders" did it to us again in Iraq.... Iran anyone?
We had a neighbor in Escondido, that was a very intense, somewhat of a whack but always very informed. In the 60's he was in the navy and heard from a friend in the gulf of tonkin, that the "incident" never took place. Just a month or two ago, it was revealed, that yes, in truth, it was all a lie, Why aren't these men in jail? where is the righteous indignation?
and they keep doing it again and again.....
It is quick, it is horrific, we all need the reminder.
We had a neighbor in Escondido, that was a very intense, somewhat of a whack but always very informed. In the 60's he was in the navy and heard from a friend in the gulf of tonkin, that the "incident" never took place. Just a month or two ago, it was revealed, that yes, in truth, it was all a lie, Why aren't these men in jail? where is the righteous indignation?
and they keep doing it again and again.....
It is quick, it is horrific, we all need the reminder.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews