War Crimes in Vietnam — Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell
Monthly Review Press · New York · 1967
First American Edition · First Printing

The Book:
The First American Edition · First Printing of Bertrand Russell’s War Crimes in Vietnam, his sustained indictment of American conduct during the Vietnam War. Published while the conflict was still underway, the book attacks U.S. intervention, the Western press, bombing and civilian destruction, and argues that Americans themselves had a responsibility to resist what was being done in their name. It also documents Russell’s effort to establish the International War Crimes Tribunal, an independent forum intended to investigate allegations against the United States and its allies. 178 pp. Original Monthly Review Press pictorial wrappers retain the original 95¢ price.

Condition:
Near Fine-. Original pictorial wrappers remain bright and complete, with light rubbing, minor handling and extremity wear, and mild age toning. An old partially abraded bookseller label remains on the rear wrapper, and a small penciled “10-” appears on the opening quotation page. Binding is tight; spine straight and fully legible; contents otherwise notably clean and unmarked. No rebinding or restoration documented.

Story Of The Book

At ninety-five years old, Bertrand Russell accused the United States of committing war crimes in Vietnam — and helped create a tribunal to put those accusations before the world.

Russell had spent decades opposing militarism and state violence. By 1967, he had turned that dissent toward Vietnam. War Crimes in Vietnam attacks American intervention, the Western press, bombing, chemical warfare, civilian destruction, and what Russell regarded as the moral failure of Americans to resist policies carried out in their name. Its essays include “War and Atrocity in Vietnam,” “Free World Barbarism,” and “Appeal to the American Conscience.”

But Russell did more than write. He helped establish the International War Crimes Tribunal, commonly known as the Russell Tribunal, to investigate allegations against the United States and its allies outside the institutions controlled by governments themselves. The book is unapologetically polemical. It is not neutral history, and it does not pretend to be.

It is an accusation made while the accused still held the power—and while the war was still happening.

Why It’s In The Collection

War Crimes in Vietnam belongs in Consigned to Darkness because power is hardest to hold accountable when the power being accused is strong enough to resist judgment.

Russell believed conventional institutions were failing to confront American conduct in Vietnam, so he used his reputation, his writing, and eventually an unofficial tribunal to create another forum.

Whether one accepts every conclusion Russell reached is secondary to why this object matters here. He insisted that no government should be beyond moral scrutiny simply because it possessed the military, political, or institutional power to avoid it.

This first American printing preserves that challenge as it entered the country Russell was accusing.

The book asks a dangerous question of wartime power: who judges the state when the state is powerful enough to judge everyone else?

Collection Categories: Publication-Event Object · Free Expression · Political Dissent · Anti-Authoritarianism · War & Conflict · Human Rights · Political Movements · Political History

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Authentication Evidence

• Title page identifies the work as War Crimes in Vietnam by Bertrand Russell.

• Title page carries the Monthly Review Press device.

• Copyright page states “Copyright © 1967 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd.”

• Copyright page explicitly states “First Printing,” directly confirming first-printing status.

• Copyright page identifies Monthly Review Press, 116 West 14th Street, New York, New York 10011.

• Copyright page states “Manufactured in the United States.”

• Original front wrapper carries the MR Press imprint.

• Original front wrapper retains the 95¢ publisher’s price.

• Spine identifies Bertrand Russell, War Crimes in Vietnam, and MR Press.

• Contemporary bibliographic evidence records War Crimes in Vietnam as a 1967 Monthly Review Press publication of 178 pages priced 95¢, matching this copy.

• Scholarly bibliographies independently identify the American publication as New York: Monthly Review Press, 1967.

• Authoritative bibliographic sources record parallel 1967 publications in London by George Allen & Unwin and New York by Monthly Review Press.

• Because this copy is the Monthly Review Press issue, the precise designation is First American Edition rather than an unqualified First Edition.

• Contents correspond to independently documented copies of the 1967 edition, including “The Press and Vietnam,” “War and Atrocity in Vietnam,” “Free World Barbarism,” “Peace Through Resistance to US Imperialism,” “Appeal to the American Conscience,” the International War Crimes Tribunal postscript, and Ralph Schoenman’s “Report from North Vietnam.”

• Haverford College’s Quaker & Special Collections independently catalogs a “First printing copy of Bertrand Russell’s War Crimes in Vietnam” dated 1967.

• Physical collation comprises 178 pages, consistent with contemporary bibliographic descriptions.

• Original Monthly Review Press pictorial wrappers remain present.

• No later-printing designation, facsimile indicator, replacement wrappers, rebinding, or restoration is observed.

• Observable physical and bibliographic evidence supports identification as the 1967 First American Edition · First Printing.