The Vietnam Run: American Merchant Mariners in the Indochina Wars, 1945-1975 - Paperback

by Michael Gillen (Author)

On the same day the Japanese surrender ended World War II, Vietnamese nationalists declared independence from France. Within weeks, France sought to reestablish colonial rule. American merchant seamen arriving in French ports to ship GIs back to the U.S. were dismayed when French troops bound for Vietnam came aboard instead. Many of these seamen objected because American veterans awaited transport home and because they flew in the face of Allied war aims of national self-determination. Later, with the Vietnam War effort dependent on Merchant Marine logistical support, seamen were among the first to protest U.S. involvement. With firsthand recollections, this book tells the story, from deadly encounters with mines, rockets and gunfire to evacuations of refugees and to rescues of "boat people" in the South China Sea.

Author Biography

A former merchant seaman, Michael Gillen (Ph.D., public history, New York University) was later a maritime labor reporter, an historic site curator and a program director and professor of Asian history at Pace University in New York. He also directed the project that preserved the Liberty Ship John W. Brown as an operational World War II ship museum in Baltimore. He lives in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania.