This new study of American support to the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam illuminates many contemporary events and foreign policies. During the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, the United States used foreign police and paramilitary assistance to combat the spread of communist revolution in the developing world. This became the single largest internal security programme during the neglected 1955-1963 period. Yet despite presidential attention and a sustained campaign to transform Diem's police and paramilitary forces into modern, professional services, the United States failed to achieve its objectives. Given the scale of its efforts, and the Diem regime's importance to the US leadership, this text identifies the three key factors that contributed to the failure of American policy. First, the competing conceptions of Diem's civilian and military advisers. Second, the reforms advanced by US police training personnel were also at odds with the political agenda of the South Vietnamese leader. Finally, the flawed beliefs among US police advisers based on the universality of American democracy. This study also shows how notions borrowed from academic social science of the time became the basis for building Diem's internal security forces. This book will be of great interest to all students and scholars of intelligence studies, Cold War studies, security studies, US foreign policy and the Vietnam War in general.

At the height of the Cold War, the United States used foreign police and paramilitary assistance to combat the spread of communist revolution in the developing world. Support to the regime of Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam became the single largest internal security programme during the 1955-1963 period. Yet despite presidential attention and a sustained campaign to transform Diem's police and paramilitary forces into modern, professional forces, the United States failed to achieve its objectives.
Using recently declassified government records, this book offers the first full-length assessment of America's struggle to remake Diem's internal security forces into "mirror images" of US police institutions. Operating at the zenith of America's national self-confidence, policymakers in Washington and police advisers on the ground in South East Asia were convinced that exporting US law enforcement techniques and values to Vietnam would help establish that country as a secure, progressive, and pro-Western nation.
Analyzing how and why the US campaign in South Vietnam failed, this volume sheds new light on the broader US programme of assistance to 'free world' internal security forces during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. Today, as the United States and its allies confront insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the global threat posed by al-Qa'ida, the challenge of building foreign internal security forces, and the demands of 'nation-building', have again become urgent priorities. The US experience in Vietnam serves as a cautionary tale and highlights the perils of imposing American notions about public order.
This book will be of much interest to students of USforeign policy, Intelligence Studies, Cold War studies, the Vietnam War and Security Studies in general.

During the winter of the scholastic year 1905-1906, the author delivered a course of lectures, on the subject of which this book treats, before the Oriental Seminary of the Johns Hopkins University. At the conclusion of the course, some of the students expressed the desire of possessing the lectures in permanent form. Acting on this wish, on the consciousness that few people know anything of the contribution of Jews to the science of Biblical criticism, and on the hope that a word on the subject may be welcome, the author herewith presents the results of his investigation in popular form. Footnotes, giving more exhaustive explanations, have been omitted, because lacking in interest for the majority of readers. Not all Biblical commentators have been treated in this book, as not all are of equal importance. Only such have been considered as represent distinct schools of criticism. - W.R.

During the winter of the scholastic year 1905-1906, the author delivered a course of lectures, on the subject of which this book treats, before the Oriental Seminary of the Johns Hopkins University. At the conclusion of the course, some of the students expressed the desire of possessing the lectures in permanent form. Acting on this wish, on the consciousness that few people know anything of the contribution of Jews to the science of Biblical criticism, and on the hope that a word on the subject may be welcome, the author herewith presents the results of his investigation in popular form. Footnotes, giving more exhaustive explanations, have been omitted, because lacking in interest for the majority of readers. Not all Biblical commentators have been treated in this book, as not all are of equal importance. Only such have been considered as represent distinct schools of criticism. - W. R.

This is a new release of the original 1932 edition.