Footprints of War : University of Washington Press : 9780295743868 : 0295743867 : 09 Oct 2018 : "Weaving together environmental and social history, David Biggs offers an innovative history of the impact of war on central Vietnam in the long twentieth century, from the imposition of French colonial rule in 1885 to the end of American military involvement in 1973. The long history of conflict around the city of Hu produced belts of degraded lands and village societies deeply marred by the demands of war or periods of conflict. Once military units occupy a space, they change it in physical, legal, andcultural terms so that even long after the troopers leave, their footprints continue to shape patterns of land use and local memories of place. There are tombs, cemeteries, and war monuments; and there are the spaces in between, the subterrains of "wilderness" haunted by ghostlike presences of suspected chemical or munitions hazards. Digging below the surface, one risks being maimed by unexpl