The Columbia guide to the Vietnam War / David L. Anderson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Anderson, David L., 1946-

Series:

Columbia guides to American history and cultures

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vietnam War, 1961-1975.

Physical Description:

xiv, 308 pages : maps ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, 2002.

Summary:

The Vietnam War remains a major point of reference in discussions of U.S. foreign policy and national character. The lessons and legacies of the most divisive event in U.S. history in the twentieth century are hotly debated to this day. Written by a renowned scholar of the conflict, "The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War" provides students and researchers with the materials to think seriously about the conflict's many paradoxes and ramifications.

Contents:

Part I Historical Narrative 1

1. Studying the Vietnam War 3

2. Vietnam: Historical Background 7

Roots of the Vietnamese Culture and State 7

The Impact of French Colonialism 10

The Rise of Vietnamese Nationalism 11

The Origins of Vietnamese Communism 12

3. United States: Historical Background 15

Idealism and Realism in U.S. Foreign Relations 15

The United States and the Open Door in Asia 16

The World Wars: The Legacies of Wilson and Munich 18

The Origins of the Cold War 20

4. The French War in Vietnam 22

The August Revolution 23

Outbreak of the Franco-Vietminh War 24

U.S. Support of France in Indochina 25

Dienbienphu and the Geneva Conference 27

5. The Diem Years: Eisenhower 30

The Decision to Back Ngo Dinh Diem 31

The Non-election of 1956 32

The Illusion of Nation Building 33

NLF: Rise of the Southern Insurgency 34

6. The Diem Years: Kennedy 37

Counterinsurgency Warfare 38

The Buddhist Crisis 39

The Diem Assassination 40

What If Kennedy Had Lived? 41

7. The American War in Vietnam: Escalation 43

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident 45

Rolling Thunder 46

Johnson Decides on a Land War in Asia 46

Theories of Causation 48

8. The American War in Vietnam: Strategy 55

The Draft 56

Attrition Strategy and Body Count 57

Humpin' It: The American Soldier 58

The Air War 59

Diplomacy 60

The Resilient Enemy 61

9. The American War in Vietnam: The Limits of Power 63

The Tet Offensive 63

The Antiwar Movement and the Media 65

Johnson's Decision to Stop Escalation 67

The Presidential Election of 1968 68

10. The American War in Vietnam: De-escalation 70

Vietnamization and More Bombing 71

Cambodia and Kent State 72

Negotiations and the Paris Peace Accords 73

DRV Victory in 1975 75

11. The War That Will Not Go Away 78

The Postwar Wars in Southeast Asia 79

American Vietnam Veterans 81

Films, Fiction, and Poetry 83

Postmortems 84

Part II The Vietnam War from A to Z 87

1. General Works 197

Bibliographies and Historiographical Essays 197

Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Atlases 198

Surveys and Syntheses 199

Document Collections 202

Biographies 203

Memoirs 205

Oral Histories 207

2. History of Southeast Asia and U.S. Foreign Relations 209

General History of Vietnam 209

History of U.S. Foreign Relations 210

The French Indochina War 211

Laos and Cambodia 213

3. The Diem Years 215

4. North Vietnam and the Vietcong 217

5. Escalation of the American War 219

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident 219

Lyndon Johnson's Decisions for War 219

6. The American Way of War 223

Military Operations and Overviews 223

My Lai Massacre 226

Pacification and Counterinsurgency 226

International Setting 227

7. The Limits of American Power 230

Antiwar Movement 230

American Politics and Economy 232

Television and the Press 233

The Tet Offensive 234

8. The End of the American War 235

Richard Nixon's War and Diplomacy 235

The End of South Vietnam 236

9. The Legacy of the Vietnam War 238

Lessons and Postmortems 238

Literature, Movies, and Music 241

American Cultural Myths and National Identity 243

10. Films and Documentaries 244

11. Electronic Resources 247.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [197]-243) and index.

"Films and documentaries": pages [244]-246.

ISBN:

0231114923

OCLC:

48893066