The Origins of the Vietnam War by Fredrik Logevall. He is a Professor of History at Harvard University. His book, Embers of War won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize.
Previously, Fredrik taught at UC Santa Barbara and co-founded the University of California, Santa Barbara Center for Cold War Studies. In 2004 he began teaching at Cornell University. In addition, from 2006-07 was a Mellon Senior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He is an associate of the London School of Economics IDEAS Cold War Studies Programme.
This publication is rather brief, yet delivers impactful, easy reading. This short work should be considered mandatory for high school curriculum.
Part One looks at the First Vietnam war, between the French and Vietminh. He provides the French historical view of attempting to simply gain credibility and new markets. Their military, certainly humiliated by Prussia in the late 1970s and both World Wars sought victory. In addition, French financial and business interests needed to create new markets.
Fredrick follows up in Part Two, providing the foundation for America’s entry into Indochina from the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu to July 1965 under President Johnson. This serves everyone well by simply introducing the research to support America’s position of continued war across Indochina. By today, all the major players in this timeframe have died. In addition, documents classified during this timeframe are now available.
This also provides a very accurate goal to revealing key elements. In addition, to further support the academic position of this book, Fredrik provides full text and commentary to key documents prior to the end of World War II. In fact, this reveals a deeper exploration of setting the stage for the cold war.
Setting the stage
The influence of war time Japan, then post-war France heavily influenced many Vietnamese to seek their independence. Perhaps, the historical documents provide (today) a certainly more honest approach to those early events missed by Americans:
In the main, however, the French public backed the colonial venture in Indochina, in part because leaders proved skillful in emphasizing the moral aspect of colonialism. That is, they spoke in terms of the so-called civilizing mission (mission civilisatrice) – the obligation of the advanced peoples of the world to bring the benefits of advanced Western civilization to the primitive peoples of Asia and Africa. The ‘white man’s burden,’ Rudyard Kipling had called it. In Indochina, so the argument went, France would not only bring economic development but create a modern society based on representative government, the rule of law, and individual freedom.
p.8
In addition, we see pivotal elements that help shape American policies, including the CIA insurgency Edward Lansdale. This simply created a narrative in the mid 1950s the misled our country that resulted in a disastrous campaign that would forever change the country.
America’s early role
American officials, convinced that a massive migration out of the Vietminh-controlled North would prove a major embarrassment to Ho Chi Minh, were key players in the effort. Encouraged by the Catholic hierarchy and organized by Diem’s US adviser Colonel Edward Lansdale and his team, entire parishes were moved south, many making the trip in American ships. Priests convinced the reluctant by informing them that ‘Christ has gone to the South,’ while Lansdale offered the incentives of five acres of land and a water buffalo. His agents also circulated stories of Vietminh concentration camps and the possibility of a US atomic bomb attack on the North.
pg. 34
CIA influences
But there can also be no doubt that these tactics by the priests and by Lansdale were instrumental in convincing large numbers of others to come. Regardless, the campaign achieved its objective. Once settled in South Vietnam, this refugee population was a significant political asset to Diem, forming a substantial and dependent bloc of loyal voters.
pg. 34
Simple propaganda
The notion that a ‘flight to freedom’ had occurred in Vietnam quickly took hold in the American popular consciousness. In a best-selling book titled Deliver Us from Evil, Lt. Tom Dooley, a US navy doctor who participated in the transportation of refugees, leveled horrific – and unsubstantiated – charges against the Hanoi regime for atrocities committed against those fleeing the ‘Godless cruelties of Communism.’ He also exaggerated his own and America’s good works in the resulting ‘Passage to Freedom.’ And no one reading Dooley’s book or watching the movie based on it could fail to see his plea for a full American commitment to help South Vietnam: ‘We had come late to Vietnam, but we had come. And we brought not bombs and guns, but help and love
pg. 34
Although time has passed, Fredrik allows for a wider view that may surprise many readers. In addition, it is time that reveals critical mistakes that impacted our country deeply.
All men are created equal; they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.
This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.
The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: ‘All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights.’
Those are undeniable truths.
THE VIETNAMESE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, SEPTEMBER 1945
Vietnam’s outcome would not be different
In conclusion, Fredrik has provided a deeply interesting, compact writing to help readers gain an easier understanding of the times. Was Vietnam critical to the US? We now now President Johnson knew we could not win. At the same time, America used Vietnam for credibility along those very similar lines France sought to secure credibility.