The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War

More than a quarter of a century after the last Marine Corps Huey left the American embassy in Saigon, the lessons and legacies of the most divisive war in twentieth-century American history are as hotly debated as ever. Why did successive administrations choose little-known Vietnam as the "test case" of American commitment in the fight against communism? Why were the "best and brightest" apparently blind to the illegitimacy of the state of South Vietnam? Would Kennedy have pulled out had he lived? And what lessons regarding American foreign policy emerged from the war?

The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War helps readers understand this tragic and complex conflict. The book contains both interpretive information and a wealth of facts in easy-to-find form. Part I provides a lucid narrative overview of contested issues and interpretations in Vietnam scholarship. Part II is a mini-encyclopedia with descriptions and analysis of individuals, events, groups, and military operations. Arranged alphabetically, this section enables readers to look up isolated facts and specialized terms. Part III is a chronology of key events. Part IV is an annotated guide to resources, including films, documentaries, CD-ROMs, and reliable Web sites. Part V contains excerpts from historical documents and statistical data.

Autorentext

David L. Anderson

Inhalt

Introduction
List of Abbreviations
Part I: Historical Narrative

1. Studying the Vietnam War
2. Vietnam: Historical Background
   Roots of the Vietnamese Culture and State
   The Impact of French Colonialism
   The Rise of Vietnamese Nationalism
   The Origins of Vietnamese Communism
3. United States: Historical Background
   Idealism and Realism in U.S. Foreign Relations
   The United States and the Open Door in Asia
   The World Wars: The Legacies of Wilson and Munich
   The Origins of the Cold War
4. The French War in Vietnam
   The August Revolution
   Outbreak of the Franco-Vietminh War
   U.S. Support of France
   Dienbienphu and the Geneva Conference
5. The Diem Years: Eisenhower
   The Decision to Back Ngo Dinh Diem
   The Non-election of 1956
   The Illusion of Nation Building
   NLF: Rise of the Southern Insurgency
6. The Diem Years: Kennedy
   Counterinsurgency Warfare
   The Buddhist Crisis
   The Diem Assassination
   What if Kennedy Had Lived?
7. The American War in Vietnam: Escalation
   The Gulf of Tonkin Incident
   Rolling Thunder
   Johnson Decides on a Land War in Asia
   Theories of Causation
8. The American War in Vietnam: Strategy
   The Draft
   Attrition Strategy and Body Count
   Humpin' It: The American Soldier
   The Air War
   Diplomacy
   The Resilient Enemy
9. The American War in Vietnam: The Limits of Power
   The Tet offensive
   The Antiwar Movement and the Media
   Johnson's Decision to Stop Escalation
   The Presidential Election of 1968
10. The American War in Vietnam: De-escalation
    Vietnamization and More Bombing
    Cambodia and Kent State
    Negotiations and the Paris Peace Accords
    DRV Victory in 1975
11. The War What Will Not Go Away
    The Postwar Wars in Southeast Asia
    American Vietnam Veterans
    Films, Fiction, and Poetry
    Postmortems
    Part II: The Vietnam War from A to Z
    Part III: Chronology
    **Part IV: Resource Guide
    **1. General Works
12. History of Southeast Asia and U.S. Foreign Relations
13. The Diem Years
14. North Vietnam and the Vietcong
15. Escalation of the American War
16. The American Way of War
17. The Limits of American Power
18. The End of the American War
19. The Legacy of the Vietnam War
20. Films and Documentaries
21. Electronic Resources
    **Part V: Appendices
    **Appendix 1. Documents
    Appendix 2. Statistics
    Index