Why did the USA become involved in Vietnam? What led US policy makers to become convinced that Vietnam posed a threat to American interests? In The Road to Vietnam, Pablo de Orellana traces the origins of the US-Vietnam War back to 1945-1948 and the diplomatic relations fostered in this period between the US, France and Vietnam, during the First Vietnam War that pitted imperial France against the anti-colonial Vietminh rebel alliance.
With specific focus on the representation of the parties involved through the processes of diplomatic production, the book examines how the groundwork was laid for the US-Vietnam War of the 60’s and 70’s. Examining the France-Vietminh conflict through poststructuralist and postcolonial lenses, de Orellana reveals the processes by which the US and France built up the perception of Vietnam as a communist threat. Drawing on archival diplomatic texts, the representation of political identity between diplomatic actors is examined as a cause leading up to American involvement in the First Vietnam War, and will be sure to interest scholars in the fields of fields of diplomatic studies, international relations, diplomatic history and Cold War history.
By:
Pablo de Orellana (King's College London UK)
Imprint: I.B. Tauris
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 390g
ISBN: 9780755637126
ISBN 10: 0755637127
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 09 September 2021
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgements Abbreviations Figures Prelude PART I OUVERTURES 1. The Road to Vietnam: historical debates, and the question of representation Historical debates Constructing diplomatic understanding of France and Vietminh Understanding representation in diplomacy: historical and conceptual requirements 2. Reading diplomatic knowledge: analytics and sources Conceptual developments: Postructuralism, identity, and text Analysing representation of identity in diplomacy: from concepts to methods On the archival trail of the First Vietnam War: sources 3. Diplomatic pathways PART II DIPLOMATIC TEXT AND THE WORDS OF IDENTITY 1. The Vietminh rebel alliance: universal rights and self-determination 2. The French Empire strikes back: aggression against Ð?c L?p 3. Vietminh as Fascists: Vietnam does not exist 4. Vietminh as Communists: ‘Moscow’s interest in Indo-China’ 5. A ‘united front’ and ‘the left-wing trend of the Viet-Minh’ 6. D’Argenlieu’s ‘sudden raising of the Communist bogey’ 7. Meeting ‘radical Annamese opponents of both France and Japan’ 8. Creating Pyle’s “Third Force”: ‘a truly nationalist government’ PART III DIPLOMATIC STRUGGLES OVER IDENTITY 1948-1945 1. Late 1948-September 1947: the year of the Stalinist domino France Britain US Vietminh 2. August 1947-September 1946: French intransigence and Anglo-Saxon antipathy France Britain US Vietminh 3. August 1946-April 1945: WWII ghosts and rethinking colonialism France Britain US Vietminh Epilogue NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dr Pablo de Orellana is a Lecturer in International Relations at the War Studies Department, King's College London, UK.
Reviews for The Road to Vietnam: America, France, Britain, and the First Vietnam War
Insightful and persuasive. * Global Military Studies Review * The Road to Vietnam accomplishes a remarkable feat: saying something truly fresh and important about the origins of the U.S. embroilment in Vietnam, a topic that historians have investigated from innumerable angles over many years. Through meticulous analysis of evidence from three countries and dexterous use of cultural theory, Pablo de Orellana convincingly shows how policymakers crafted a particular understanding of Vietnam and the country's significance to the Cold War. In the process, De Orellana models an approach that scholars would do well to apply to other international conflicts. * Professor Mark Atwood Lawrence, University of Texas at Austin, USA *
