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The Cambridge History of the Vietnam War

The Cambridge History of the Vietnam War

The Cambridge History of the Vietnam War

Volume 1: Origins
Lien-Hang T. Nguyen , Columbia University, New York
Edward Miller , Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
November 2024
1. Origins
Available
Hardback
9781107105089

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    When, how, and why did the Vietnam War begin? Although its end is dated April 30, 1975, there is no agreement as to when it began. The Vietnam War was an enormously complex conflict and while any comprehensive reckoning must include the role of the US, it was not an 'American War'. This volume presents the scholarship that has flourished since the 1990s to situate the war and its origins within longer chronologies and larger interpretative perspectives. The Vietnam War was a war for national liberation and an episode of major importance in the global Cold War. Yet it was also a civil war, and civil warfare was a defining feature from the outset. Understanding the Vietnamese and Indochinese origins of the Vietnam War is a critical first step toward reckoning with the history of this violent, costly, and complex war.

    • Brings together seventy-five leading experts from across the world
    • Provides the most exhaustive and authoritative treatment of the Vietnam War to date
    • Uses a diverse range of methodologies and approaches
    • Sheds light on when, how, and why the Vietnam War began

    Product details

    November 2024
    Hardback
    9781107105089
    512 pages
    236 × 162 × 30 mm
    0.93kg
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • Introduction. Points of departure: the global and local origins of the Vietnam War Edward Miller
    • Part I. Empires and Nations:
    • 1. Memory, tradition, and the history of 'Vietnam' Liam Kelly
    • 2. The origins of the Vietnamese revolution Hue-Tam Ho Tai
    • 3. Hồ Chí Minh and the rise of the Vietnamese Communist Party Pierre Brocheux
    • 4. Indochina during World War II Eric T. Jennings
    • 5. The august revolution of 1945 Stein Tønneson
    • Part II. The First Indochina War:
    • 6. The birth of the democratic republic of Vietnam David Marr
    • 7. Empire and decolonization in France and Indochina Pierre Grosser
    • 8. China, the Soviet Union, and the first Indochina War Chen Jian
    • 9. The first Indochina War in the Central Highlands Oscar Salemink
    • 10. The first Indochina War in Northern Vietnam and the red river delta Christopher E. Goscha
    • 11. The battle of Điện Biện Phủ Christopher E. Goscha
    • Part III. The Two Vietnams:
    • 12. The Geneva Conference of 1954 Martin Thomas
    • 13. Eisenhower and Vietnam David Anderson
    • 14. Ngô Đình Diệm and the birth of the Republic of Vietnam Phi Van Nguyen
    • 15. Nation building in South Vietnam after Geneva Van Nguyen-Marshall
    • 16. Building socialism in North Vietnam after Geneva Alec Holcombe
    • 17. North Vietnam's road to war Tuong Vu
    • 18. Laos between two wars Vatthana Pholsena
    • 19. The origins of the insurgency in South Vietnam David Elliot
    • 20. Kennedy and Vietnam Marc Selverstone
    • 21. The crises of 1963 Edward Miller.
      Contributors
    • Edward Miller, Liam Kelly, Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Pierre Brocheux, Eric T. Jennings, Stein Tønneson, David Marr, Pierre Grosser, Chen Jian, Oscar Salemink, Christopher E. Goscha, Martin Thomas, David Anderson, Phi Van Nguyen, Van Nguyen-Marshall, Alec Holcombe, Tuong Vu, Vatthana Pholsena, David Elliot, Marc Selverstone

    • General Editor
    • Lien-Hang T. Nguyen , Columbia University, New York

      Lien-Hang T. Nguyen holds the Dorothy Borg Chair in the History of the United States and East Asia at Columbia University. She is the author of Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace (2012), which won prizes from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the Society for Military History. She is the co-founder of Vietnamese Studies at Columbia and serves on the Board of Trustees of Fulbright University Vietnam.

    • Editor
    • Edward Miller , Dartmouth College, New Hampshire

      Edward Miller is Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies, and Chair of the Department of Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages at Dartmouth College. He is the author of Misalliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and the Fate of South Vietnam (2013) and The Vietnam War: A Documentary Reader (2015). He is the founding director of the Dartmouth Vietnam Project, a student-driven oral history program which documents the memories and experiences of members of the Dartmouth community who lived through the Vietnam War era.