One of the first studies to examine exclusively the legal activities of judge advocates in Vietnam, focusing primarily on the U.S. Military Assistance Command (MACV).

One of the first studies to examine exclusively the legal activities of judge advocates in Vietnam, focusing primarily on the U.S. Military Assistance Command (MACV).

First published in 1975. From the preface: "The purpose of this monograph is to describe the presence of law at a particular time and in a particular American command in Vietnam. I have selected the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, as the headquarters, and the crucial years of 1964 through 1966 as the primary but not exclusive period of time to study, partly because as the senior legal officer, the Staff Judge Advocate at Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, then, I was most familiar with events, but in the main because it was in that headquarters and at that time that basic policy positions were formed. It was early apparent that law could have a special role in Vietnam because of the unusual circumstances of the war, which was a combination of internal and external war, of insurgency and nation-building, and of development of indigenous legal institutions and rapid disintegration of the remnants of the colonial French legal establishment. Further, the Vietnamese people were eager for knowledge of American institutions, including law."

One of the first studies to examine exclusively the legal activities of judge advocates in Vietnam, focusing primarily on the U.S. Military Assistance Command (MACV).

The American people have a special relationship with their law. While they themselves loudly criticize it as too slow, often archaic, and usually inadequate, they are at the same time devoted to its extraordinarily high legal principles-principles of fairness, openness, and justice frequently talked about by other peoples but rarely observed in actual daily practice to the extent that they are in America. The American people take their law with them, insofar as they are able, and they find it difficult to accept when other nations do not see justice in the same light they do. That war affects law is not apparent to many Americans, who are so used to peace at home, where their courts continuously function, that it is very hard for them to visualize how combat interferes with the legal process. It will surprise no serious student of American affairs to learn that from the beginning of American participation in the Vietnam War- there was a substantial presence of American law and legal institutions in the company of U.S. forces there. This presence of U.S. law had effects during American participation and after, some of them only dimly seen at this time because we are so close to the event. The purpose of this monograph is to describe the presence of law at a particular time and in a particular American command in Vietnam.

This concluding volume of The Vietnam War and International Law focuses on the last stages of America's combat role in Indochina. The articles in the first section deal with general aspects of the relationship of international law to the Indochina War. Sections II and III are concerned with the adequacy of the laws of war under modern conditions of combat, and with related questions of individual responsibility for the violation of such laws. Section IV deals with some of the procedural issues related to the negotiated settlement of the war. The materials in Section V seek to reappraise the relationship between the constitutional structure of the United States and the way in which the war was conducted, while the final section presents the major documents pertaining to the end of American combat involvement in Indochina. A supplement takes account of the surrender of South Vietnam in spring 1975. Contributors to the volume—lawyers, scholars, and government officials—include Dean Rusk, Eugene V. Rostow, Richard A. Falk, John Norton Moore, and Richard Wasserstrom. Originally published in 1976. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This publication represents the ninth volume in an operational and chronological series covering the Marine Corps’ participation in the Vietnam War. This particular volume details the final chapter in the Corps’ involvement in South-East Asia, including chapters on Cambodia, the refugees, and the recovery of the container ship SS Mayaguez. Although largely written from the perspective of the III Marine Amphibious Force, this volume also describes the roles of the two joint commands operating in the region: the Defense Attaché Office, Saigon, and the United States Support Activities Group, Thailand. Thus, while the volume emphasizes the Marine Corps’ role in the events of the period, significant attention also is given to the overall contribution of these commands in executing U.S. policy in South-east Asia from 1973 to 1975. Additionally, a chapter is devoted to the Marine Corps’ role in assisting thousands of refugees who fled South Vietnam in the final weeks of that nation’s existence.