[1.1] (Not) Knowing Your Enemy

I write structured book reviews on Goodreads:   / 35434974   This is Chapter 1 (video 2) of a multi-video series:    • 1. U.S. Military Power's Limitations   The script is based on my book review:   / 2545509508   0:00 intro 0:56 Ch.1's Table of contents 1:22 U.S. soft power 3:27 Tool #2: Class analysis 4:52 Class analysis of Vietnam 8:38 Tool #3: Colonialism's divide-and-rule playbook 10:59 colonial military/policing: -ex. "Bound by War: How the United States and the Philippines Built America's First Pacific Century":   / 8020614865   11:13 scapegoating 14:01 French colonialism 15:33 European colonialism (and real-world capitalism) as militarized commerce + for-profit State: -ex. "Debt: The First 5,000 Years":   / 2075867825   -ex. "Perilous Passage: Mankind and the Global Ascendancy of Capital":   / 2487119084   16:27 Japanese occupation in WWII 17:07 Vietnamese Communists' cross-class alliance 17:46 interlude: War on Iran's 3 risks 18:31 Hard power escalation 19:02 Joe Kent quotes from:    • Joe Kent - The Real Reason He's Sounding t...   21:52 end of WWII, creation of DRV, Cold War 22:54 First Indochina War (French) 23:53 Tool #4: Historical materialism 25:24 Historical materialism's view of historical change -ex. automation/mechanization -ex. WWI/WWII restructuring of labour ...A couple points I rushed over in trying to keep this video from going even longer: ...1. The historical materialist lens of analyzing historical change focuses on the dynamism of (ii) "forces of production" clashing against the relatively-static (iii) "relations of production", but obviously (i) material conditions can also dramatically change (i.e. environmental disruptions). ...2. With the example of war-time restructuring of labour, women and minorities also joined the military, once again raising their bargaining power. Indeed, participation of the Allies' colonial armies was particularly significant during WWII, and raised the colonies' bargaining power for postwar independence movements. 27:00 crude materialism, ex. "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies":   / 1095784562   27:13 Idealism vs. Materialism 28:12 "Thinking in Systems: A Primer":   / 2402818060   28:36 Vietnamese Communists' historical materialism 33:07 Second Indochina War (U.S.'s "Vietnam War") 33:44 land reform 34:08 land reform: peasantry vs. socialist 36:09 legacy: war communism, counterrevolution 36:26 counterrevolution examples (bribe right-wing extremists): -ex. The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World:   / 3352438177   -ex. The Management of Savagery: How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump:   / 2776210905   -ex. The Killing Season: A History of the Indonesian Massacres, 1965-66:   / 5313408720   -ex. Buried Histories: The Anticommunist Massacres of 1965–1966 in Indonesia:   / 5313406666   39:17 interlude: Historical context of Iran ...for some more big picture points I skipped over:    • Iran's Nuclear Program: The Untold Story   39:52 "The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World":   / 2075869876  " 42:08 Ch.1 summary I wrote all the music a lifetime ago, so it's a pleasure reviving them!