The Village of Ben Suc - by Jonathan Schell (Paperback)

About the Book

"Since it's appearance in The New Yorker, on July 15, 1967, Jonathan Schell's THE VILLAGE OF BEN SUC has come to be regarded as a classic of American reporting. It is a rigorously factual account of the destruction by the United States Army, of a South Vietnamese village and of what happened to the 3500 in habitants"--

Book Synopsis

With a new introduction by Wallace Shawn, a classic work of war reportage that describes, with unblinking vision, the systematic leveling of a Vietnamese village by American troops.

In January 1967, as President Lyndon Johnson sent more forces to the war in Vietnam, the US military began what was to be the largest ground operation of the entire conflict. Not far from Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, and close to the Cambodian border was an area known as the Iron Triangle, long under Viet Cong control. Operation Cedar Falls set out to eliminate that guerrilla threat by sealing off the region, emptying its villages, and leveling the surrounding jungle. The local population would be transferred to model "New Life Villages" under US surveillance.

The village of Ben Suc was the Americans' first target, and Jonathan Schell, a reporter at the start of his career, accompanied them there. He witnessed the destruction of the village; the frantic efforts of young soldiers to figure out who was or wasn't a foe; the destruction of people's homes and possessions; and the chaotic transfer of women, children, old men, and livestock to a refugee camp where no preparations had been made for their arrival. He described it all in measured tones and unflinching detail. As a cautionary tale about the unintended and devastating consequences of military occupation, The Village of Ben Suc remains unequaled.

"Schell's book might have been the crystal ball that could have led American policymakers to realize that quasi-imperial American interventions of this type could not succeed in the contemporary world, and if the policymakers had read Schell's book and studied it carefully, who knows, maybe a million or more Vietnamese lives could have been saved, along with the lives of fifty thousand American soldiers, along with countless lives in Afghanistan and Iraq." --From Wallace Shawn's Introduction.

Review Quotes

"An eloquently understated documentary in precise and relevant terms."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Arguably the most important book of reporting from Vietnam."
--Bill McKibben, The New Yorker

"One of the most sobering indictments yet seen of the purposes and conduct of the Vietnam War."
--Eliot Fremont-Smith, The New York Times

"Originally published as an essay for the New Yorker in 1967, The Village of Ben Suc offers a stark lesson in the banality and absurdity of human endeavour."
--Guy Stevenson, TLS

About the Author

Jonathan Schell (1943-2014) was an American nonfiction author whose work explored twentieth-century warfare. Best known for his book on the consequences of nuclear weapons, Fate of the Earth, he was a nominee for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Critics Prize. His work appeared in The New Yorker and The Nation.

Wallace Shawn was born in New York City and still lives there. He is the author of several books, including Essays and Night Thoughts, and many plays, including The Fever and The Designated Mourner. André Gregory's productions of The Designated Mourner and Grasses of a Thousand Colors are available as podcasts from Gideon Media; an opera written with Allen Shawn, The Music Teacher, is available from Bridge Records. His latest play, What We Did Before Our Moth Days, will eventually be seen.