The book begins with the story of the iconic 1972 photograph of
a 9-year-old Vietnamese girl running naked down a road after
being severely burned in a napalm attack. Readers expecting a
polemic may be pleasantly surprised at this lucid account of the
technical, political and ethical features of a notorious symbol
of American inhumanity in war. Neer (History/Columbia Univ.)
writes that napalm is a thickening agent mixed with flammable
petroleum. An advantage over traditional incendiaries is that
the thick gel sticks to its target and burns far longer.
Developed by Harvard researchers in 1942, it was soon put to use
in flamethrowers against dug-in Japanese troops and in B-29
raids on Japanese cities, which killed far more civilians than
the atomic bombs. Although less publicized, even more napalm
fell during the Korean War, producing vast devastation and death
in North Korean cities. Only mildly controversial at this point,
its use against guerillas in Vietnam produced gruesome civilian
casualties and internat