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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

Latest read: Dien Bien Phu The Epic Battle America Forgot

Did the seige at Dien Bien Phu became the single event that catapulted America fully into the Vietnam conflict? Howard Simpson’s Dien Bien Phu The Epic Battle America Forgot may actually be the best book for Americans to understand the significance of the French disaster.
Dien Bien Phu The Epic Battle America ForgotSeveral books on this  battle that I have read over the past two years are well researched, second-hand accounts. Simpson was the single American intelligence member actually within the fortress at the beginning of the siege. Many French officers who were to fight and die over the 59-day siege engaged Simpson during the buildup around the garrison.

By December 1953 French expeditionary forces would number 20,000 men. They would be surrounded by 64,500 enemy.

Simpson captured the futility of the French effort within the opening two chapters. The struggle by the Vietminh to face their colonial rulers must be viewed by Americans in the context of the 1775 American revolutionary war. The determination of the Vietminh proved decisive in this battle.

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Education Reading Vietnam War Watergate

Latest read: The Pentagon Papers secret history

The Pentagon Papers: The Secret History of the Vietnam War by Neil Sheehan and The New York Times is an amazing story. Just re-published in December 2017, Sheehan, was an established, respected reporter on Vietnam. This period was an extraordinary time of change in our country as President Nixon expanded the war in Vietnam.

The Pentagon Papers: The Secret History of the Vietnam War by Neil SheehanSheehan obtained a complete copy of the top secret Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg, a RAND consultant and contributor to the papers. The publishing of the Pentagon Papers would lead Nixon’s re-election committee, somewhat appropriately named CREEP to plan and execute the Watergate break-in. This action was a direct result of the Pentagon Papers leaking, and ultimately, Nixon’s resignation.

However the Papers, initiated by his Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara date back to 1945. The initial volumes reveal the American effort to save Vietnam was effectively lost before 1960.

The most striking reports of early failure in Vietnam and Indochina occurred prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and stretched through the 1954 Geneva Conference. This put to rest an notion Vietnam was a development of the Kennedy administration.

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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 Reading Vietnam War

Latest Read: Viet Nam A History from Earliest Times to the Present

Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present by Ben Kiernan is a refreshing historical view void of French or American influence. Kiernan is a professor of History, International, and Area Studies at Yale University.
Viet Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the PresentMy interest, of course,  French and American wars focused on Part Five: Colonies: Chapter 9 Writing and Revolution from Colonialism to Independence, 1920-54.

Kiernan delivers an amazing deep look at the American nightmare in Southeast Asia in the twentieth century. We have few if any books that look at Vietnam’s history from Kiernan’s perspective.

Still seeking to learn new insights into French rule across Indochina this was a deep, intense review of the shifting powers between Ho Chi Minh and Bao Dai. Kiernan should be credited with documenting the impact of a great famine over the previous sixty years.

This produced a very odd relationship. Bao Dai was the final emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty, the last ruling family of Vietnam. Until the end of the Second World War, Bao Dai was appointed emperor of Annam under French rule. His role remained after March 1945 when Japanese troops ousted French military rule throughout Indochina. He abdicated upon the Japanese surrendered.

Yet during the previous two generations, thousands of Vietnamese starved to death. Kiernan reveals in elaborate research the role of journalism spreading in the early 1900s throughout Indochina. The most immediate impact was upon Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism throughout Vietnam. This also launched the first public political parties in 1919.

Bao Dai ruled the State of Vietnam from 1949 to 1955 under French influence during the first Indochina war. Yet he ruled from Hong Kong and China. After the French installed Dai to govern the country, Ho persuaded Dai to abdicate in August 1945. His departure handed power to the Viet Minh. Yet Dai was appointed Supreme Advisor to Ho’s Democratic Republic of Vietnam.