International Law

[Note: International Law is not my field, so while I have decided to have a page for it in my bibliography, I have not made any serious effort to make this page comprehensive.]

"Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law" or, occasionally, "Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to Contemporary Law." A collection of material presenting U.S. opinions on issues involving international law appeared in each issue of The American Journal of International Law. It was compiled by someone (usually the Assistant Legal Adviser) in the Office of the Legal Adviser, Department of State. If you browse the Internet through an institution that has subscribed to JSTOR, you can access the full text of this journal through the JSTOR American Journal of International Law browse page. Some of the more interesting Vietnam-related material that can be found in these compilations:

60:1 (January 1966): Letters of June 11 and August 10, 1965, between the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Secretary of State, about the application of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 to the Vietnam War. pp. 92-94. Statement by Secretary of State Dean Rusk, March 24, 1965, on the use of tear gas in Vietnam. pp. 102-104.
60:3 (July 1966): Leonard C. Meeker (Legal Adviser of the Department of State), "The Legality of United States Participation in the Defense of Viet-Nam." pp. 564-585.
62:3 (July 1968): Three MACV directives, late 1967 and early 1968, on war crimes and the handling of POWs. Includes discussion of cases in which the Americans capture people, and classify them as POWs, whom the Republic of Vietnam does not wish to treat as POWs. pp. 765-775.
64:4 (October 1970): Letter of May 5, 1970, by which the U.S. representative to the UN informed the UN Security Council of the Cambodian Incursion. pp. 932-941.
66:1 (January 1972): U.S. statement of August 9, 1971, on the presence of foreign forces (including Thais) in Laos. pp. 141-143.
66:4 (October 1972): Excerpt from a letter from the Legal Adviser, June 6, 1972, on legal issues relating to the U.S. mining of North Vietnamese ports in May 1972, and the letter of May 8 by which George Bush, U.S. representative to the UN, informed the UN Security Council of the mining. pp. 836-840.
67:3 (July 1973): The U.S. explanation of why Article 20 of the Paris Agreement, which said "Foreign countries shall . . . refrain from re-introducing into [Cambodia and Laos] . . . armaments, munitions and war material" did not prohibit the United States from continuing to send arms and munitions to those countries. pp. 540-541.
67:4 (October 1973): Memorandum presented April 30, 1973, on continued U.S. bombing of Cambodia. pp. 765-767.

Sahr Richard Conway-Lanz, "Collateral Damage: The American Struggle with the International Norm of Noncombatant Immunity since World War II." Ph.D. dissertation, History, Harvard, 2002. 420 pp. AAT 3067375. I believe the direct focus of this is more on World War II than on Vietnam, but it is still highly relevant to Vietnam.

Richard A. Falk, ed., The Vietnam War and International Law, 4 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968-1976.

Military Law Review. Published by the Judge Advocate General's School, Charlottesville, Virginia, beginning in September 1958. All issues are available online through the Library of Congress. Articles relating to international law include:

Captain James E. Bond, "A Survey of the Normative Rules of Intervention." Vol. 52 (April 1971), pp. 51-76. The legality of intervening in other nations' affairs.

Colonel G.I.A.D. Draper, "The Ethical and Juridical Status of Constraints in War." Vol. 55 (January 1972), pp. 169-185. A history of the development of the Law of War, and efforts to include protection of Human Rights in it. No explicit discussion of Vietnam.

Professor R.R. Baxter, "The Evolving Laws of Armed Conflict." Vol. 60 (Spring 1973), pp. 99-111.

John Norton Moore, "The Lawfulness of Military Assistance to the Republic of Viet-Nam." The American Journal of International Law 61:1 (January 1967), pp. 1-34. If you browse the Internet through an institution that has subscribed to JSTOR, you can access the text directly or go through the JSTOR American Journal of International Law browse page.

Stephen C. Neff, War and the Law of Nations: A General History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. xii, 443 pp. A history from ancient times to the present.

W. Michael Reisman and Chris T. Antoniou, eds., The Laws of War: A Comprehensive Collection of Primary Documents on International Laws Governing Armed Conflict. New York: Vintage, 1994. xxxii, 448 pp.

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Copyright © 2006, Edwin E. Moise. This document may be reproduced only if this copyright notice is reproduced with it. Revised July 17, 2006.