In the Vietnam War, the US Army faced an enemy they weren’t trained to deal with. The Vietcong employed guerilla tactics, very different from the open conflict of WW2 that the US Army was used to.
Conflicts occurred largely in South Vietnam, and the Ho Chi Minh Trail from the North was the Vietcong’s lifeline, supplying them with all sorts of aid. The US tried everything they could to disrupt this, from bombs to forest clearance to chemical weapons, but nothing stuck. They realised, though, that the monsoons made the trail muddy and difficult to navigate. …
The Indian state has had an uneasy relationship with technology throughout history. What can the past tell us about the future?
We’re on the precipice of a brave new world. Technology advances rapidly, society adopts it in a frenzied manner, and governments struggle to keep pace with changes. In places like the USA, tech companies become behemoths that the state tries to reign in, while in China the state conspires with tech companies to stamp the Dragon’s footprint further across the globe. India seems to be caught in an odd mix of a free-market led by big-tech on one hand…
Shantanu Kishwar
Policy geek, history buff, hummus-maker extraordinaire. I curate the Kish-Wording Newsletter, a fortnightly roundup for the curious: https://bit.ly/39MgXrc
