Napalm : an American biography / Robert M. Neer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Neer, Robert M., 1964-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Napalm--History.

Napalm.

Incendiary weapons--History.

Incendiary weapons.

Incendiary bombs--Design and construction--History.

Incendiary bombs.

United States--Armed Forces--Weapons systems--History.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (352 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Napalm, incendiary gel that sticks to skin and burns to the bone, came into the world on Valentine's Day 1942 at a secret Harvard war research laboratory. On March 9, 1945, it created an inferno that killed over 87,500 people in Tokyo-more than died in the atomic explosions at Hiroshima or Nagasaki. It went on to incinerate sixty-four of Japan's largest cities. The Bomb got the press, but napalm did the work. After World War II, the incendiary held the line against communism in Greece and Korea-Napalm Day led the 1950 counter-attack from Inchon-and fought elsewhere under many flags. Americans generally applauded, until the Vietnam War. Today, napalm lives on as a pariah: a symbol of American cruelty and the misguided use of power, according to anti-war protesters in the 1960's and popular culture from Apocalypse Now to the punk band Napalm Death and British street artist Banksy. Its use by Serbia in 1994 and by the United States in Iraq in 2003 drew condemnation. United Nations delegates judged deployment against concentrations of civilians a war crime in 1980. After thirty-one years, America joined the global consensus, in 2011. Robert Neer has written the first history of napalm, from its inaugural test on the Harvard College soccer field, to a Marine Corps plan to attack Japan with millions of bats armed with tiny napalm time bombs, to the reflections of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, a girl who knew firsthand about its power and its morality.

Contents:

Prologue

Hero

Harvard's genius

Anonymous research no. 4

American kamikazes: suicide bomber bats

We'll fight mercilessly

The American century

Soldier

Freedom's furnace

Vietnam syndrome

Seeing is believing

Indicted

Pariah

Baby burners

Law catches fire

The third protocol

Judgment day

The weapon that dare not speak its name

Epilogue: the whole world is watching.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674075474

0674075471

9780674075450

0674075455

OCLC:

831658265