Jonathan Schell – författare

In The Military Half, legendary Vietnam War reporter for The New Yorker Jonathan Schell details the devastating effects of American bombings and ground operations on the provinces of Quang Ngai and Quang Tin in South Vietnam.  Schell provides first-hand accounts of the bombing runs and how they contributed to the destruction of the two provinces, giving a new generation of Americans an inside look at why the Vietnam War, years after its conclusion, is still a hot topic of debate in our country.

BEN SUC was a relatively prosperous farming village thirty miles from Saigon, on the edge of the Iron Triangle, the formidable Vietcong stronghold.  It had been “pacified” many times, but because of security leaks no Vietcong were ever captured, and it always reverted to them.  Therefore on January 8, 1967, American forces launched a surprise assault kept secret even from their South Vietnamese allies.  The plan was to envelop the village, to seal it off, to remove its inhabitants, to destroy its every physical trace, and to level the surrounding jungle.   Jonathan Schell accompanied the operation from its beginning to its successful but dismal end, and reports it in depth as he saw it.  This time no one slipped away.  The story of the bewildering task of separating the V.C. from ordinary villagers is the dramatic core of the first part of this book.   The 3,500 villagers were moved to a refugee camp in Phu Loi, a barren, treeless “safe” area, with only what possessions they could carry.  The bulldozers went to work and flattened every building.  For security reasons no advance preparations had been made, and the move became a human and administrative nightmare.  The people of Ben Suc were farmers, and there was nothing for them to do at Phu Loi, Mr. Schell offers vivid portraits of one individual after another—women, children, old men—as they are pacified and sink into apathy and despair.   Here is an overwhelmingly affective narrative of American skill and good intentions squandered in a cause made hopeless by misunderstanding, by resistant traditions, and by cultural gaps not only between ourselves and the villagers, but between them and the Saigon government.  Mr. Schell’s report is devastating.

Now combined in one volume, these two books helped focus national attention in the early 1980s on the movement for a nuclear freeze. The Fate of the Earth painted a chilling picture of the planet in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, while The Abolition offered a proposal for full-scale nuclear disarmament. With the recent tensions in India and Pakistan, and concerns about nuclear proliferation around the globe, public attention is once again focused on the worldwide nuclear situation. The author is at the forefront of the discussion. In February 1998, his lengthy essay constituted the centerpiece of a special, widely distributed issue of The Nation dealing with the nuclear arms race. The relevance of his two books for today's debates is undeniable, as many experts assert that the nuclear situation is more dangerous than ever.Reviews of The Fate of the Earth"This is a work of enormous force. There are moments when it seems to hurtle almost out of control, across an extraordinary range of fact and thought. But in the end, it accomplishes what no other work has managed to do in the years of the nuclear age. It compels us—and compel is the right word—to confront head on the nuclear peril."—New York Times Book Review"There have been thousands of commentaries on what this new destructive power of man means; but my guess is that Schell's book . . . will become the classic statement of the emerging consciousness."—Max Lerner, New RepublicReviews of The Abolition"As always, Schell is interesting and ingenious, eloquent and sometimes moving. He presents his case with clarity, and with candor about its possible shortcomings."—New Republic"A reasoned argument. . . . As this work will do much to stimulate the ongoing nuclear debate, it is highly recommended."—Library Journal

At times of global crisis, Jonathan Schell's writings have always presented nuanced and influential alternatives to conventional thinking. The moral clarity of his reportage first entered the public consciousness with his dispatches for The New Yorker on Vietnam. These seminal articles became The Village of Ben Suc (1967), a searing account that predicted the failure of Pentagon politics. Over the subsequent decades, Schell's varied and consistently prescient articles have articulated the now commonly held notion that image has replaced substance in politics provided (in Fate of the Earth) an apocalyptic vision of nuclear war that revitalized the disarmament movement and more recently, charted the rise of "the other superpower",the international peace movement that transcends country, class, and religion. As America finds itself at a crucial juncture both domestically and internationally, The Jonathan Schell Reader is vital reading for those who wish to better understand the history they have come from and the direction they should be heading toward. This book provides a landmark collection that spans the career of one of the leading thinkers and authors of our time.