Revisiting the Vietnam War and International Law

Stefan Andersson studied religion and philosophy at Lund University, Harvard Divinity School, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Toronto, and McMaster University, Ontario, where the Bertrand Russell Archives are located. In 1994, he defended his doctoral thesis in the philosophy of religion at Lund University; it was published as In Quest of Certainty: Bertrand Russell's Search for Certainty in Religion and Mathematics up to 'The Principles of Mathematics' (1903). Andersson then turned to Russell's political activism and started a project about student protests against the Vietnam War and the Russell-Sartre Tribunal on the United States War Crimes in Viet Nam.

• Foreword: the harmful legacy of lawlessness in Vietnam Richard Falk; Preface; Acknowledgments; Part I. The US Role in Vietnam and International Law: 1. A Vietnam settlement: the view from Hanoi; 2. US in Vietnam: rationale and law; 3. International law and the United States role in the Vietnam War; 4. International law and the United States role in Vietnam: A Response to Professor Moore; 5. The six legal dimensions of the United States involvement in the Vietnam War; Part II. War and War Crimes: 6. Appropriating Tet; 7. Son My: war crimes and individual responsibility; 8. The Cambodian Operation and international law; Part III. The Vietnam War and the Nuremberg Principles: 9. The Nuremberg Defense in the Pentagon Papers case; 10. A Nuremberg perspective on the trial of Karl Armstrong; 11. Telford Taylor and the legacy of Nuremberg; Part IV. The Legacy of the Vietnam War: 12. Learning from Vietnam; 13. The Vietnam syndrome: from the Gulf of Tonkin to Iraq; 14. 'The Vietnam Syndrome' the Kerrey Revelations raise anew issues of morality and military power; 15. Why the legal debate on the Vietnam War still matters; Index.

'The US wars in Indochina were an unspeakable horror. Throughout these terrible years, Richard Falk's voice made a unique contribution to understanding, combining meticulous legal and historical scholarship with acute insight and penetrating analysis, and not least, compassion for the victims and dedication to finding a peaceful and just resolution. The relevance of these essays extends far beyond the Indochina wars, and has only increased over the years as similar quandaries and concerns arise, to the present moment. They merit careful study and serious reflection.' Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor and Professor of Linguistics Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology