Research Catalog

Title

A dragon lives forever : war and rice in Vietnam's Mekong Delta / Thomas R. Hargrove.

Author

Hargrove, Thomas R.

Publication

College Station : Texas A&M University Press, 2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiv, 472 p., [22] p. of plates : ill., maps; 21 cm.

Summary

• "In June 1969, Tom Hargrove arrived in Vietnam as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army. But he wasn't there just to make war against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese armies; Hargrove was also there to introduce improved rice varieties into the war-torn region."
• "This unique memoir tells of Hargrove's efforts to improve the everyday lives of the Vietnamese, even as he was calling in B-52 strikes against opposition forces. It also relates the story of his return to Vietnam in 1988 and 1990 to observe the progress of the "Green Revolution" he had helped initiate with the introduction of "miracle rice." In a dramatic twist, his guide on both visits had been a local Viet Cong political officer: a man who could have had Hargrove killed. The rice had improved the lives of the people of the land and preserved the life of Tom Hargrove, though he hadn't known it at the time."
• "This account of the U.S. Army's attempts to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people - an attempt that failed strategically but ultimately achieved its humanitarian goals - is a vital contribution to the ongoing history and literature of the Vietnam era. Hargrove's dramatic juxtaposition of the sword and the plowshare brings into sharp contrast the paradox of this pivotal time in history."--Jacket.

Series Statement

Texas A&M University military history series ; 123

Uniform Title

Texas A & M University military history series 123.

Subject

• Hargrove, Thomas R
• Vietnam War, 1961-1975 > Personal narratives, American
• Rice > Varieties > Mekong River Delta (Vietnam and Cambodia)

Note

• "Originally published by Ivy Books, a division of Ballantine Books, in 1994"--Pub.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• Transition 1: Chuong Thien Province, 4 June 1988 -- 1. The Diary I never wrote -- II. The letter, the diary, the novel -- III. Let slip the dogs or next stop is Vietnam. -- Transition 2: Chuong Thien Province, 1988 -- IV. Truth and invention -- V. The final chapter. -- Transition 3: Chuong Thien Province, 1988 -- VI. The velvet glove. -- Transition 4: Chuong Thien Province, 1988 -- VII. Five foot two, eyes of blue -- VIII. A message at the Vietnam Memorial. -- Transition 5: Chuong Thien Province, 1988 -- IX. Write it in a book -- X. Other toys. -- Transition 6: Chuong Thien Province, 1988 -- XI. Cross the Bassac at Can Tho. -- Transition 7: Chuong Thien Province, 1988 -- XII. Whatever happened to the Class of '66? -- XIII. We happy few brothers or we are the Aggies -- XIV. Each Army hath a hand. -- Transition 8: The Plain of Reeds, 1988 -- XV. A bridge over troubled waters. -- Transition 9: The Plain of Reeds, 1988 -- XVI. Madness with a method or follow me --^
• XVII. The first casualty or fighting soldiers from the sky. -- Transition 10: Hanoi, May, 1988 -- XVIII. A walking contradiction. -- Transition 11: Hanoi, May, 1988 -- XIX. Christmas bells, the clanging chimes of doom or a star in the East -- XX. My days among the dead are past or a name in the dust. -- Transition 12: IRRI, Philippines, 1990 -- XXI. Home his footsteps -- XXII. We don't go there anymore -- XXIII. A return to the house. -- Transition 13: Ho Chi Minh City, 18 May 1990 -- XXIV. A grass called rice. -- Transition 14: Ho chi Minh City, 19 May 1990 -- XXV. The pit and the stone -- XXVI. Fleeing to the fall. -- Transition 15: Can Tho, 20 May 1990 -- XXVII. The black spring of 1977. -- Transition 16: Chuong Thien Province, 21 May 1990 -- XXVIII. Sixties progeny. -- Transition 17: Chuong Thien Province, 22 May 1990 -- XXIX. Dogtags and skeltons. -- Transition 18: Chuong Thien Province, 22 May 1990 -- XXX. Laughing wolves, wings of harmless doves --^
• XXXI. The past became our fate, or the last, final chapter. -- Transition 19: Northwest Flight 29 over Pacific waters, 8 September 1990 -- XXXII. A dragon lives forever -- XXXIII. Would you do it again? A Mekong Delta Epilogue. -- Postscript -- To those who helped.

ISBN

• 9781603440608 (pbk. : alk. paper)
• 1603440607 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2008008161

OCLC

• 212020982
• SCSB-10744639

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library