| Sumario: | In a bid to understand the experience of North Vietnamese soldiers and civilians during the American war, the writer investigates the paths leading Vietnamese men into battle by examining the relationship between socioeconomic status and war mortality. Using data from the 1995 Vietnam Longitudinal Survey conducted in Ha Nam Ninh Province of the Red River Delta, he demonstrates that sons of better-educated fathers bore the burden of war disproportionately in relation to sons of fathers with less education, both in proportion serving in the military and in diminished survival chances in combat. He argues that the Vietnamese experience during the U.S. war testifies to the ability of a country to reorder society temporarily and to convince higher-status groups to contribute fully to the war effort. He concludes that an appreciation of the meaning of this social reshuffling during the war is vital for understanding the war, Vietnam, and its political outlook.
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