Nuremberg and Vietnam: An American Tragedy - Introduction

Introduction

The book Nuremberg and Vietnam: An American Tragedy, published in 1970, is an examination of the United States’ conduct of the Vietnam War in comparison to the actions taken by Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Its author, Telford Taylor, was once the Chief Counsel Prosecutor at the war crimes trials of Nazi leaders in Nuremberg, Germany from 1946–1949. In that capacity, Taylor helped to establish the laws by which Nazi war criminals would be tried for their crimes.

Perhaps most interesting about the book is that it was published in 1970, three years before the cease-fire agreement of 1973 and the subsequent withdrawal of United States troops from Vietnam. For this reason, the release of the book would have appeared premature had Taylor not been particularly suited for the undertaking. Furthermore, Nuremberg and Vietnam: An American Tragedy is not a seething indictment of U.S. policy in Vietnam as the title may suggest, but rather an unbiased perspective of the Vietnam War based on international law.

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