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Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945 > Vietnam War
That America was drawn into the Vietnam War by the French has been
recognized, but rarely explored. This book analyzes the years from
1945 with the French military reconquest of Vietnam until 1963 with
the execution of the French-endorsed dictator, Ngo Dinh Diem,
demonstrating how the US should not have followed the French into
Vietnam. It shows how the Korean War triggered the flow of American
military hardware and finances to underpin France's war against the
Marxist-oriented Vietnam Republic led by Ho Chi Minh.
Built upon a solid foundation of sources, memoirs, and interviews,
this study sheds new light on China's efforts in the Vietnam War.
Utilizing secondary works in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Western
languages, and the author's own familiarity as a former member of
the Chinese People's Liberation Army, this examination expands the
knowledge of China's relations with the North Vietnamese Army (NVA)
during the 1950s and 1960s. As a communist state bordering Vietnam,
China actively facilitated the transformation of Ho Chi Minh's army
from a small, loosely organized, poorly equipped guerrilla force in
the 1940s into a formidable, well-trained professional army capable
of defeating first the French (1946-1954) and then the Americans
(1963-1973). Even after the signing of the Geneva Peace Agreement,
China continued to aggressively support Vietnam. Between 1955 and
1963, Chinese military aid totaled $106 million and these massive
contributions enabled Ho Chi Minh to build up a strong conventional
force. After 1964, China increased its aid and provided
approximately $20 billion more in military and economic aid to
Vietnam. Western strategists and historians have long speculated
about the extent of China's involvement in Vietnam, but it was not
until recently that newly available archival materials revealed the
true extent of China's influence - its level of military assistance
training, strategic advising, and monetary means during the war.
This illuminating study answers questions about China's intention,
objective, strategy, and operations of its involvement in the
Vietnam Wars.
Tran Van Thuy is a celebrated Vietnamese filmmaker of more than
twenty award-winning documentaries. A cameraman for the People's
Army of Vietnam during the Vietnam War, he went on to achieve
international fame as the director of films that address the human
costs of the war and its aftermath.Thuy's memoir, when published in
Vietnam in 2013, immediately sold out. In this translation,
English-language readers are now able to learn in rich detail about
the life and work of this preeminent artist. Written in a gentle
and charming style, the memoir is filled with reflections on war,
peace, history, freedom of expression, and filmmaking. Thuy also
offers a firsthand account of the war in Vietnam and its aftermath
from a Vietnamese perspective, adding a dimension rarely
encountered in English-language literature.
In his widely acclaimed Chasing Shadows ("the best account yet of
Nixon's devious interference with Lyndon Johnson's 1968 Vietnam War
negotiations" - Washington Post), Ken Hughes revealed the roots of
the covert activity that culminated in Watergate. In Fatal
Politics, Hughes turns to the final years of the war and Nixon's
reelection bid of 1972 to expose the president's darkest secret.
While publicly Nixon promised to keep American troops in Vietnam
only until the South Vietnamese could take their place, in private
Nixon agreed with his top military, diplomatic, and intelligence
advisers that Saigon could never survive without American boots on
the ground. Afraid that a pre-election fall of Saigon would scuttle
his chances of a second term, Nixon put his reelection above the
lives of American soldiers. Postponing the inevitable, he kept
America in the war into the fourth year of his presidency. At the
same time, Nixon negotiated a "decent interval" deal with the
Communists to put a face-saving year or two between his final
withdrawal and Saigon's collapse. If they waited that long, Nixon
secretly assured North Vietnam's chief sponsors in Moscow and
Beijing, the North could conquer the South without any fear that
the United States would intervene to save it. The humiliating
defeat that haunts Americans to this day was built into Nixon's
exit strategy. Worse, the myth that Nixon was winning the war
before Congress "tied his hands" has led policy makers to adapt
tactics from America's final years in Vietnam to the
twenty-first-century conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, prolonging
both wars without winning either. Forty years after the fall of
Saigon, and drawing on more than a decade spent studying Nixon's
secretly recorded Oval Office tapes--the most comprehensive,
accurate, and illuminating record of any presidency in history,
much of it never transcribed until now-- Fatal Politics tells a
story of political manipulation and betrayal that will change how
Americans remember Vietnam. Fatal Politics is also available as a
special e-book that allows the reader to move seamlessly from the
book to transcripts and audio files of these historic
conversations.
From its inception, graduates of the Agricultural and Mechanical
College of Texas, now Texas A&M University, have marched off to
fight in every conflict in which the United States has been
involved. Th e Vietnam War was no different. Th e Corps of Cadets
produced more officers for the conflict in Southeast Asia than any
institution other than the US service academies. Michael Lee
Lanning, Texas A&M University class of 1968, has now gathered
over three dozen recollections from those who served. As Lanning
points out, "anytime Aggie Vietnam veterans get together-whether it
is two or two hundred of them-war stories begin." Th e tales they
relate about the paddies, the jungles, the highlands, the
waterways, and the airways provide these veterans with an even
greater understanding of the war they survived. They also allow
glimpses into the frequent dangers of fi refights, the camaraderie
of patrol, and oft en humorous responses to inexplicable
situations. These revelations provide insight not only into the
realities of war but also speak to the character of the graduates
of Texas A&M University. As Lanning concludes, "these war
stories are as much a part of service as is that old green duffle
bag, a few rows of colorful ribbons, and a pride that does not
diminish. In reality, there is only one story about the Vietnam
War. We all just tell it differently."
United States involvement in the Vietnam War was one of the most
important events in the post-World War II period. The political,
social and military consequences of US involvement and defeat in
Vietnam have been keenly felt within the US and the international
community, and the 'lessons' learned have continued to exert an
influence to the present day. This book focuses on the effects of
US propaganda on America's Western allies - particularly France,
West Germany and Great Britain - from the time when the Vietnam War
began to escalate in February 1965, to the American withdrawal and
its immediate aftermath. One of its main aims is to assess the
amount and veracity of information passed on by the US
administration to allied governments and to compare this with the
level of public information on the war within those countries.
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