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Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest Read: The Eagle Weeps

The Eagle Weeps by Lieutenant colonel Keith Honaker offers stunning lessons from his deployment to Vietnam in February 1952. He arrived in Saigon as a member of the US Military MAAG Vietnam program. His experience illustrates the repeated failures of France to defeat the Viet Minh.

the eagle weeps by Lt. Col Keith Honaker

At the same time, Lieutenant colonel Honaker invited his family to join him in Saigon. Only a select few American officers brought their families to Vietnam. Shockingly his wife Wilma was abducted by Viet Minh agents during a trip to Hanoi. Only a French officer saved her from departing a safe zone around Hanoi. Can you imagine if Wilma had been taken prisoner or killed by the Viet Minh? Certainly shocking to read 65 years later.

During his deployment, France was seeking to remove American officers from the field. Lieutenant colonel Honaker and his fellow American officers in Saigon were not even informed of the French plans for the Dien Bien Phu until after the airlift began.

Likewise there are additional moments in the book that reveal a deep misunderstanding to the early American MAAG mission. As Lieutenant colonel Honaker describes in the opening chapters, his arrival in Vietnam was like landing in another world. His experiences are very foretelling to the next for next 23 years for America.

Surprisingly, as we would later learn, the Viet Minh were preparing a very strong defense of their country. A mature network of spies including those who served American military families as house servants greeted the Honaker family upon their arrival.

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Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest Read: Replacing France

Replacing France: The Origins of American Intervention in Vietnam by Kathryn Statler. This book vividly illustrates failures by France and America in determining a free and democratic Vietnam. Kathryn directly addresses America’s tenuous relationship with France, watching as the French consistently flailed at war in Vietnam.

replacing france by kathryn statler

Kathryn sheds much needed light across a very complicated 10 year relationship (1950-60) at the dawn of the cold war. Her research helps fill gaps between US support for France and where we took over the war. The timeline begins stumbling forward in the late 1940s. Her scholarship is elevated by recently released archival materials from the US and Europe.

This is a much longer book review than normal. Even with multiple references, below simply I cannot fully address the deep impact of Kathryn’s research in a single post. This should be required reading for any college history class on the American war in Vietnam.

France made every effort to re-enter Indochina, patiently waiting for any chance to re-enslave the peoples of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Britain also fought to regain colonial control over Malaya at the end of World War II.

Since 1887, every aspect of Vietnamese society was under French control. This colonial monster had 80 years to metastasize across every aspect of Indochinese life. Among my Dien Bien Phu retrospective, this book helps answer how the tumultuous relationship between of France brought America into the war.

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Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest read: Churchill, America and Vietnam, 1941-45

When did America actually enter the Vietnam conflict? Churchill, America and Vietnam, 1941-45 by T.O. Smith details Churchill’s attempts to influence FDR to permit France to re-colonize Indochina before World War II. Yes before December 7th. FDR authored the US position of a trusteeship regarding Indochina. FDR’s policy intended to deny France their desire to re-enslave Indochina. Was the American nightmare for the faded glory of colonial empires?
Churchill, America and Vietnam, 1941-45Today it may seem surprising the future of Vietnam was debated between Churchill and FDR prior to the D-Day landings. This places a large part of their correspondence well into 1943. Ten years later the French would suffer defeat at Dien Bien Phu.

America would begin deploying troops a decade later. Smith’s previous book Britain and the Origins of the Vietnam War reveal how Churchill’s desire to expand their empire would entangle France and America  across Indochina.

Smith has drawn upon papers from academic studies of Britain and France along with US Presidential libraries. On the surface many point to the Kennedy order placing American troops into Vietnam in 1963. Smith shows how this timeline is backed up to the mid 1940s. The US role is more accurately triggered to the 1954 Geneva Conference following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu. Formally US Secretary of State Dulles would return to brief Congress that America would pickup where the French left off to preserve democracy by military means.

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Education Reading Vietnam War

Latest read: Britain and the Origins of the Vietnam War

Britain and the Origins of the Vietnam War: UK Policy in Indochina, 1943-50 is a very insightful examination of the complex relationship between Churchill and President Roosevelt. This is the insight with personal communications now published, reveal how they negotiated the future of Indochina.
Britain and the origins of the Vietnam WarTo many Americans the Vietnam War was a long, slow nightmare with France. However T.O. Smith reveals letters between Churchill and FDR brings Britain into a very early negotiation supporting French recolonization of Indochina. Most strikingly is the timeframe of the letters exchanged.

Churchill and Roosevelt wrote about the future of Vietnam prior to the D-Day landings during World War II. Yes, one old white man pushing another old white man to allow France, a fading colonial empire to restart slavery across Indochina. All of this was a backdrop to their current role confronting Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan in late 1943. Fascinating reading.

Clearly Britain found itself shifting from an imperial world power to a new, second class global role. England and all of the UK was weakened and bled by two world wars. Churchill could read as clearly as anyone else the coming shift in the new world that placed America atop the world.

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Education Globalization Reading Vietnam War

Latest read: Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War

The Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War by Ted Morgan is a simply stunning read. This book proves to be a perfect follow up to the CIA’s Archimedes Patti revealing Why Vietnam? Prelude to America’s Albatross and Bernard Fall’s excellent Hell In A Very Small Place: The Siege Of Dien Bien Phu.

This review below includes a series of powerful quotes from the 700+ pages that should turn your stomach as French leaders permitted men to die just to save face for their failing empire. It is truly stunning across this book to see a morally bankrupt France fight to re-colonize Indochina.

Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam WarMorgan set the post-World War II stage inside Indochina for any reader to learn how France was able to maintain a rule over Indochina during the occupation by the Japanese Imperial coup in Vietnam. Valley of Death reveals how the CIA approached Ho Chi Minh before D-Day to rescue downed US Air Force pilots from Japanese troops throughout Indochina. Ho urgently cooperated and was rewarded with munitions and a US Army Deer Team sent by the CIA to Ho Chi Minh. Their mission? To train and lead Viet Minh troops against the Japanese. This includes raids on Japanese positions in northern Vietnam after both atomic bombs were dropped.

Again Valley of Death clearly reveals US and Viet Minh relations were bonded against Japanese control of Indochina during World War II.