Hanoi's Road to the Vietnam War opens in 1954 with the signing of the Geneva accords that ended the eight-year-long Franco-Indochinese War and created two Vietnams. In agreeing to the accords, Ho Chi Minh and other leaders of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam anticipated a new period of peace leading to national reunification under their rule; they never imagined that within a decade they would be engaged in an even bigger feud with the United States. Basing his work on new and largely inaccessible Vietnamese materials as well as French, British, Canadian, and American documents, Pierre Asselin explores the communist path to war. Specifically, he examines the internal debates and other elements that shaped Hanoi's revolutionary strategy in the decade preceding U.S. military intervention, and resulting domestic and foreign programs. Without exonerating Washington for its role in the advent of hostilities in 1965, Hanoi's Road to the Vietnam War demonstrates that those who directed the effort against the United States and its allies in Saigon were at least equally responsible for creating the circumstances that culminated in arguably the most tragic conflict of the Cold War era.
By:
Pierre Asselin
Imprint: University of California Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: 1
Volume: 7
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 20mm
Weight: 499g
ISBN: 9780520287495
ISBN 10: 0520287495
Series: From Indochina to Vietnam: Revolution and War in a Global Perspective
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 18 August 2015
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Further / Higher Education
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword by the series editors Acknowledgments Glossary of Terms and Acronyms Introduction 1. Choosing Peace, 1954--1956 2. Changing Course, 1957--1959 3. Treading Cautiously, 1960 4. Buying Time, 1961 5. Exploring Neutralization, 1962 6. Choosing War, 1963 7. Waging War, 1964 Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index
Pierre Asselin is Professor of History at Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu and the author of A Bitter Peace: Washington, Hanoi, and the Making of the Paris Agreement.
Reviews for Hanoi's Road to the Vietnam War, 1954-1965
Highly recommended. CHOICE Excellent new [work] on the Vietnam War. -- Geoffrey C. Stewart Cross-Currents Outstanding... Illuminating. Proceedings A valuable contribution to any discussion of North Vietnam's road to war, and the origins of the American stage in the Vietnam War. -- Tal Tovy H-Net Asselin's excellent study ... will remain an indispensible source for students of Vietnam, the Cold War, and twentieth-century world history for many years to come. -- Jessica Elkind The Journal of American History
