A Collision of Cultures

A Collision of Cultures covers the less well-known aspects of the Vietnam War. The civilian aid effort, support troops, the black market, life in Saigon and in the countryside, as well as the deterioration in military morale that led to My Lai and other atrocities. This book is clear-headed and hard-hitting, exposing how the surge of American money corroded South Vietnam, replacing a sustainable civilian economy with and turning the people into a nation of bar girls and shoe-shine boys. Military policy aimed to separate the troops from the people in order to prevent friction, but the result was that fast, hostile encounters, from petty theft and abuse to all-out combat, continued while any chance for friendship and mutual respect was cut short. Cultural and language training was almost non-existent, making aid efforts random shots in the dark. In the environment, the “gook mentality” demonized the Vietnamese people, leading America to ask what they were fighting for.