ABSTRACT Through an analysis of US military development and use of genetic technologies, I argue these efforts have been shaped by an emphasis on sacrifice to the Nation and the American People in the committing of sovereign violence. First, I analyze genetic testing in the identification and sacralization of US service personnel, including the controversial 1998 identification of the Vietnam War Unknown Soldier. Conversely, US war culture engages in the demonization of enemies as evil and without political legitimacy. This demonization shaped how family, ancestry, and visible appearance-related genetics have been used in targeting those deemed enemies after 9/11, including the US killing of Osama bin Laden, and counterinsurgency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Finally, I consider US military programs to genetically select and eventually genetically engineer US Special Forces members to maximize “force lethality” and other sovereign violence capacities.

The legacy of Agent Orange: Prenatal exposure to dioxin and human capital formation.

Preliminary insights into methylation patterns in Agent Orange exposed thyroid cancers: a pilot study.

Military personnel encounter a wide range of environmental and occupational exposures during their service such as burn pit smoke, chemical warfare agents, depleted uranium, jet fuel, radiation, and pesticides. The field of military exposures research seeks to better understand the nature of these exposures and their effects on Veteran and service member health. This state-of-the-art review assesses the breadth and depth of published military exposures research so that stakeholders can identify trends and gaps in this growing field. An evidence mapping approach was used to perform a literature review of military exposures research published from 1962 to 2024. The search strategy was developed around exposed cohorts: groups of military personnel with a shared potential for exposure to toxic agents. Publications were included if they directly addressed exposures or related health outcomes in military cohorts. Publications were then further categorized by the type of research, and the results were analyzed to build a map of the current military exposures research landscape. Thirty-six exposed cohorts were identified in the literature which were then grouped based on the nature of the exposure event: Wars and Operations (4 cohorts), Occupational Exposures (5), Combat and Combat Training (2), Across Military (2), Ship Exposures (2), Defense Testing (2), Base/Garrison Exposures (9), Toxic Substance Clean-Up and Disposal (5), and Isolated Exposure Events (5). The search identified 2,321 publications that fit the review inclusion criteria. The exposed cohort with the highest number of publications was Gulf War (940, 40.5% of all publications) followed by Vietnam War (277, 11.9%), Post-9/11 Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (191, 8.2%), Aircraft Mechanics and Ground Support (176, 7.6%), and Munition Emissions and Embedded Fragments (164, 7.1%). Each remaining cohort individually represented < 4% of the literature. Six cohorts appeared only in non-peer-reviewed reports. The type of research best represented was Epidemiology (34.0%) followed by Animal and In Vitro Models (18.8%), Sequelae and Management (17.1%), Reviews and Meta-Analyses (11.7%), Exposure Assessment (9.5%), Toxic Agent Sampling and Analysis (4.3%), and publications from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (4.6%). The volume of military exposures research has increased steadily since the early public reports of Gulf War Illness in 1994, with 50% of articles being published after 2008. Military exposures research published since 1962 has focused on cohorts from large, high-profile deployments, particularly the Gulf War. Underrepresented cohorts with potential exposures on bases or from military occupations present opportunities for future research. The lack of meaningful exposure assessment data that has been published also points to further research opportunities to specifically improve collection and accessibility of exposure data. This work should be done with a focus on cohorts where research can directly impact Veterans access to benefits and exposure-informed care.

Music critic and writer Stephen Holden wrote in 1984 that, for all its mostly upbeat sounding songs, the main theme throughout Bruce Springsteen’s seventh studio album, Born in the USA, is “the decline of small-town working class life in a post-industrial society.”1 Bruce himself has noted, “My Born in the USA songs were direct and fun and stealthily carried the undercurrents of [the much quieter, darker] Nebraska.”2 The title track in particular has been misconstrued, with many seeing it as a patriotic anthem instead of a lament about the unconscionable treatment of Vietnam veterans. Bruce fans and scholars, of course, rarely make this mistake. But there’s another tie between Born in the USA and the Vietnam War that only a very select few know about, and their numbers are dwindling. It has to do with what’s in Bruce’s back pocket on the album cover, and a military project from the singer’s home state of New Jersey.

Robert McNamara played a crucial role in transforming the United States’ defense strategy during the 1960s by moving military decision-making away from traditional expertise toward quantitative analysis and rational modeling. As Secretary of Defense (1961–1968), he established what became known as the “systems analysis” approach, which focused on assessing costs, effectiveness, and expected outcomes before choosing any military option. In the nuclear area, McNamara helped shift from a strategy of massive retaliation to the principle of Flexible Response, enabling the use of multiple force levels instead of relying solely on nuclear weapons. He also introduced the concept of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) as the basis for strategic stability during the Cold War, arguing that deterrence depends on each side’s ability to cause unacceptable damage rather than on achieving absolute nuclear superiority. McNamara implemented significant organizational reforms within the Department of Defense, notably unifying planning, budgeting, and armaments under centralized civilian authority and reducing the traditional military leadership’s independence in shaping major policies. This enhanced civilian control over the military while also marginalizing qualitative, field-based judgment in favor of numerical indicators. Although this approach improved efficiency and strategic discipline, its application in the Vietnam War exposed its limits, as quantitative metrics failed to account for the political, social, and psychological aspects of the conflict. McNamara later recognized that overreliance on numerical analysis led to misjudging the true nature of the war.

ABSTRACT What if propaganda doesn’t resolve contradictions, but amplifies them on purpose? This study explores how Vietnamese communist strategists weaponized contradiction not as a failure of logic, but as a deliberate tool of psychological warfare. Through a mixed-method content analysis of 102 propaganda documents, we examine how contradictions, explicit, implicit, antagonistic, and layered, were deployed to polarize identities, manage ideological complexity, and erode enemy legitimacy. Although contradiction framing was present in only a subset of texts, it consistently aligned with specific persuasive functions, including appeals to authority, moral reasoning, and U.S. value targeting. These findings challenge Western assumptions that view contradiction as a communicative flaw, revealing instead its strategic utility in high-context revolutionary messaging. In showing how contradiction can both clarify and destabilize, the study offers fresh insight into the rhetorical mechanics of communist propaganda – and valuable tools for decoding the language of information warfare.

Purpose of researchDescribe prescribing patterns in Australian Vietnam veterans, identify CYP2C19-metabolised medications using established pharmacogenetic (PGx) resources, characterise CYP2C19 profiles of veterans and assess the potential clinical impact of these medications.Major findingsAmong 283 veterans with CYP2C19 profiles, 256 reported current medications use, with a mean prescribed medication of 5.4. Of these, 89 veterans (34.7%) were prescribed at least one medication with CYP2C19 PGx recommendation. Notably, 52 veterans (58.4%) had CYP2C19 profiles that may be at risk of therapeutic failure or adverse effects. Prescribed medications also included six CYP2C19 inhibitors and one inducer, with potential to induce phenoconversion and impact drug metabolism.ConclusionVeterans experienced high levels of polypharmacy and frequently carried CYP2C19 phenotypes associated with increased risk of therapeutic failure or adverse effects. The presence of CYP2C19 inhibitors and inducers raises the potential for phenoconversion, where CYP2C19 profiles may be placed at risk. Given their similarities to the broader older population, these findings suggest that both groups may benefit from pre-emptive PGx testing. Furthermore, ongoing monitoring of drug-gene and drug-drug interactions remains essential to optimise medication safety and efficacy in these high-risk individuals.

Abstract This article examines the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled decision support systems in targeting operations and their implications for proportionality assessments under international humanitarian law (IHL). Emphasizing the primacy of the duty of constant care and precautions in attack as obligations that must be exhausted before and during proportionality assessments, the article advocates for a fuller understanding of civilian harm. It traces the historical trajectory of “quantification logics” in targeting, from the Vietnam War to contemporary AI integration, and analyzes how such systems may reshape decision spaces, cognitive processes and accountability within the context of armed conflict. Specifically, the article argues that over-reliance on computational models risks displacing the contextual, qualitative judgement essential to lawful proportionality determinations, potentially normalizing civilian harm. It concludes with recommendations to preserve the space that human reasoning occupies as central to IHL compliance in targeting operations.

BackgroundMalaria has had a persistent and significant impact on the development of human history and the wars waged throughout it. The impacts on United Stated military operations have been documented since the Revolutionary War in 1776, when one of the first purchases of the Continental Congress was a supply of quinine to protect George Washington’s troops. Modern conflicts, including the World Wars, the Korean War, and the Vietnam war, have had a more thorough accounting of the disruption of malaria. Publications from these wars have reported the attack rate of malaria, servicemember duty days lost, and overall attributable mortality. Robust literature also exists on the effectiveness of chemoprophylaxis for malaria, which during active conflict may be the only utilizable method of prevention. Further, adherence to these preventative measures has been shown to be highly variable amongst US troops. We aim to provide an analysis of the potential impact of malaria on military operations in the Indo-pacific region on both human life and cost.MethodsIndexed literature from PubMed was reviewed relevant to the World Wars, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War as well as the rates of self-adherence to malaria prophylaxis in servicemembers and traveling civilians. We then extrapolated that data to look at morbidity and mortality per 1000 persons at risk and the mitigating effect of leadership (Table 3).Results15 relevant publications were included in our analysis. The efficacy of malaria prophylaxis was consistently reported to be 90-100% when adherence was high. Estimated incidence and aggregate duty days lost are shown in Table 1. Adherence to prophylaxis measures varied widely from 20% to over 90% in some studies (Table 2). Our analysis demonstrated an over 70% estimated reduction in the attack rate with high adherence to prophylaxis (Table 3).ConclusionMalaria mitigation strategies are highly effective when adherence is high and significantly decrease the observed disease attack rate, improve operational readiness, and decrease troop morbidity and mortality.DisclosuresAll Authors: No reported disclosures

Life course theories predict that early-life war experiences will impact later-life health through both risk and resilience processes, which may vary by age cohort. This study uses data on older adults from the 2018 Vietnam Health and Aging Study (N = 1,826) to explore associations between early-life war experiences and later-life moderate/severe chronic pain, highlighting the role of war-related risk or protective factors and testing for heterogeneity across child, adolescent, and young adult cohorts. Regression models reveal that Vietnam War exposures dramatically increase the risk of later-life pain and that war generates both risk and protective factors (e.g., greater social engagement). However, Karlson, Holm, and Breen mediation analyses show that the impact of war on pain is primarily driven by increases in physical and mental health problems. Wartime children were more vulnerable to the effects of wartime violence on later-life pain than older age cohorts, demonstrating the importance of age at exposure to traumatic experiences.

As interest in the history of German Vietnamese relations since the 1950s has gathered momentum, this essay explores how contemporary art and literature have played a key role in representing the different strands of this history. These range from the German Democratic Republic’s employment of contract workers, to the Federal Republic of Germany’s granting of asylum to refugees from the Vietnam War, and xenophobic attacks on Vietnamese communities after Germany’s reunification in 1990. This essay focuses on two recent works whose form and content have been prominent in providing a more nuanced understanding of German Vietnamese relations to wider international audiences: Khuê Phạm’s novel, Brothers and Ghosts (2020/2024), and Sung Tiêu’s multimedia exhibition, One Thousand Times (2023/2024). Drawing attention to how Phạm and Tiêu shift beyond identity discourses and biographical accounts, this essay argues that they develop a mode of narrational and visual revisitation. The history of German Vietnamese relations, in their works, is dissected to show the powerful interplay of national agendas, bureaucracies, economic pursuits, and familial ties in shaping lived experiences.

The development of military doctrine is a relatively weak area in the process of promoting defense revolution and combat development in order to become a cutting-edge science and technology military utilizing the Fourth Industrial Revolution technology. The Army Doctrine have been mainly imitated or developed based on the doctrines of advanced countries such as the United States, and efforts to develop the Korean military's innovative doctrines are insufficient. In the Vietnam War, the Korean military's Company Tactical Base, the Gulf War's Air-Land Battle, and the Next Generation Warfare in Crimea's military operation developed creative doctrines and achieved political objectives by conducting an innovative warfighting methods. This demonstrates the legitimacy of doctrinal innovation, Doctrine Transformation of the Army for Future Warfare Readness is urgently needed amid rapid changes in the future operational environment changes The Army's Doctrine Transformation should focus on developing doctrines in preparation for future operational environment changes, creative doctrines for the Korean military in Korean Theater of Operations(KTO), presenting effective operational methods reflecting war history and training results, expanding doctrinal research led by military experts centered on the general officer corps, optimizing the doctrine development organization and internalizing the doctrine development process. For the success of defense revolution to leap into a cutting-edge science and technology military, the Army needs to pay attention and efforts to revolutionize doctrine in preparation for future warfare.

This article discusses how Canada has appropriated the narrative of the Vietnam War to present itself as a progressive country. Specifically, it analyzes how the Land of Maple Leaf co-opted diasporic Vietnamese narratives to promote a nation-building project that exalted the country’s multicultural ideology and fostered its image as a peaceful kingdom. The article also examines how one of the first memoirs written by a Vietnamese Canadian, Thuong Vuong-Riddick’s The Evergreen Country: A Memoir of Vietnam (2007), complicates our understanding of the diaspora by both enforcing and resisting dominant narratives that portray Vietnamese Canadians as emblematic victims and/or successful immigrants who are grateful beneficiaries of liberal freedom, democracy, and wealth.

This article examines migration as a visual language of memory through a comparative analysis of Shaun Tan’s The Arrival (2006) and Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do (2017). Both works employ graphic storytelling to convey the ofteninexpressible experiences of displacement, generational trauma, and cultural transmission through visual forms that represent memory. In The Arrival, Tan employs wordless images, allegorical landscapes, and surreal symbolism to make the migrant experience universal, highlighting the emotional aspects of feeling estranged and finding a sense of belonging. In contrast, Bui’s memoir combines documentary-style panels, family portraits, and shifting timelines to portray the intergenerational echoes of the Vietnam War and refugee escape. These works demonstrate how visual language navigates the balance between personal and collective memory, creating spaces where silence, fragmentation, and imagination serve as tools of remembrance. By placing migration stories within visual memory practices, the article argues that these works show how graphic literature can reshape archives of trauma and resilience, revealing the intimate and transnational layers of migration.

ABSTRACT Previous English- and Vietnamese-language research has produced unbalanced assessments of the former Republic of Vietnam’s (RVN) place in history. Archival documents at the National Archives Centre II in Ho Chi Minh City reveal that the RVN collaborated with allies to conduct anti-communist operations and build a political anti-communist regime in South East Asia. Saigon worked closely with Canberra to create a strategic partnership with military and civic support to balance power vis-à-vis the US and to control communist influence over Australian public opinion towards the Vietnam War. Drawing on RVN archives and previous literature, this article fills a gap in the study of Saigon–Canberra relations. I argue that, through its engagement with Australia, the RVN sought firstly to hedge or balance ties with the US and, secondly, to establish itself as an independent, sovereign actor. While in the first years of this relationship, Saigon and Canberra prioritized military collaboration, Saigon later shifted its focus to bilateral civic cooperation to enlist Australia’s diplomatic support for its position on the international stage. Unfortunately, challenges from domestic fatigue and the Sino-American détente led to changes in Australia’s foreign policy, and the relationship with the RVN ended when the 1973 Paris Accord was signed.

Preventive diplomacy, as defined by the United Nations Regional Centre for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, refers to diplomatic actions aimed at averting disputes between parties, preventing existing disputes from escalating into conflicts, and containing the spread of conflicts when they occur. Between 1975 and February 17, 1979, Vietnam engaged in significant diplomatic initiatives to mitigate the risk of armed conflict along its border with China. Following the conclusion of the Vietnam War and the country’s reunification in 1975, Vietnam sought to foster amicable relations with China while focusing on post-war reconstruction efforts. However, escalating tensions, fueled by territorial disputes, political divergences, and conflicting alignments with the Soviet Union, strained bilateral relations. This study examines Vietnam’s diplomatic measures aimed at maintaining stability in border regions, offering an analytical perspective on the country’s foreign policy during this period. By investigating the historical context and specific actions taken, this research contributes to understanding the dynamics of preventive diplomacy in managing border conflicts. Furthermore, the study critically assesses the factors that contributed to the failure of Vietnam’s efforts to prevent armed conflict. It also provides insight into the limitations and challenges of diplomatic strategies in conflict prevention.

F*ck the Army!: How Soldiers and Civilians Staged the <scp>Gi</scp> Movement to End the Vietnam War

In the article were analyzed key approaches to understanding the environment using the example of establishing the relationship between the task of mitigating negative consequences and human activity during armed conflicts – namely, through the example of the Vietnam War and the use of chemical weapons during one of its operations, which gave impetus to the development of environmental jurisprudence. Such approaches can be traced from philosophical ones – such as environmental ethics, environmental justice, deep and social ecology, the animal rights movement, and ecofeminism – to legal ones, specifically the approaches through human rights, rights of nature, and rights of future generations. In this context, a distinction was made between anthropocentric and ecocentric lenses for analyzing environmental harm, where preference is given either to understanding it through harm to people and the impact on human groups, or attention is focused on the consequences for the environment per se. Furthermore, the author explored the vision of ecocide as a form of genocide in foreign doctrine, using the example of the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Australia, Kenya, and the Americas. A conclusion was drawn regarding the further prospects and challenges of such regulation, particularly its inadequacy and focus on harm to a human group. However, it was noted that such an approach may become relevant for Ukraine as well, using the example of an indigenous people like the Crimean Tatars, and therefore may require further development. Next, the article analyzed the groups of approaches to the criminalization of ecocide proposed by foreign doctrine – namely, the Incremental school, the Relational Ontology school, the Social Utility school, and the Ecocentric Priority school. Using these as examples, the divergence between anthropocentric and ecocentric approaches in doctrine was shown. The potential elements of the international crime – in particular, the level of intent (the subjective element) – depend on the approaches proposed by these schools. Attention was also drawn to the challenges in choosing the ecocentric direction – namely, their application to the already ordered system of international criminal law, including concerning new categories of victims.

In the article were analyzed key approaches to understanding the environment using the example of establishing the relationship between the task of mitigating negative consequences and human activity during armed conflicts – namely, through the example of the Vietnam War and the use of chemical weapons during one of its operations, which gave impetus to the development of environmental jurisprudence. Such approaches can be traced from philosophical ones – such as environmental ethics, environmental justice, deep and social ecology, the animal rights movement, and ecofeminism – to legal ones, specifically the approaches through human rights, rights of nature, and rights of future generations. In this context, a distinction was made between anthropocentric and ecocentric lenses for analyzing environmental harm, where preference is given either to understanding it through harm to people and the impact on human groups, or attention is focused on the consequences for the environment per se. Furthermore, the author explored the vision of ecocide as a form of genocide in foreign doctrine, using the example of the rights of Indigenous Peoples in Australia, Kenya, and the Americas. A conclusion was drawn regarding the further prospects and challenges of such regulation, particularly its inadequacy and focus on harm to a human group. However, it was noted that such an approach may become relevant for Ukraine as well, using the example of an indigenous people like the Crimean Tatars, and therefore may require further development. Next, the article analyzed the groups of approaches to the criminalization of ecocide proposed by foreign doctrine – namely, the Incremental school, the Relational Ontology school, the Social Utility school, and the Ecocentric Priority school. Using these as examples, the divergence between anthropocentric and ecocentric approaches in doctrine was shown. The potential elements of the international crime – in particular, the level of intent (the subjective element) – depend on the approaches proposed by these schools. Attention was also drawn to the challenges in choosing the ecocentric direction – namely, their application to the already ordered system of international criminal law, including concerning new categories of victims.