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Author: Helen Nguyen Pho
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 742
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Book Description
This dissertation argues that military and political decisions made by U.S. policymakers to wage war in Vietnam produced economic consequences that severely undermined the entire American objective of preserving an independent, anticommunist South Vietnam. The escalation of war in 1965 ultimately sent over two million Americans to serve in combat or support roles in South Vietnam. The overwhelming presence of Americans, which peaked at over half a million in January 1969, in turn created numerous problems for the urban South Vietnamese population. The extraordinary amount of wealth brought into South Vietnam, including in the form of commodities, foreign aid, and American soldiers’ purchasing power, disrupted South Vietnamese society and economy. Due to high levels of inflation, the sudden influx of American wealth into a small developing country created incentives for South Vietnamese to work for the Americans, who provided better compensation than South Vietnamese employers. Those who worked for the South Vietnamese state in the armed forces and the civil service received fixed incomes and could not keep pace with growing wartime inflation. The inundation of American soldiers and dollars into the country also led to widespread corruption both among Americans and South Vietnamese, which I argue was destructive to state legitimacy in South Vietnam. Oftentimes, South Vietnamese citizens had to make the morally difficult choice to engage in corrupt actions in order to support their families. The American presence thus exacerbated socioeconomic inequality in South Vietnam and contributed to eroding the national morale of those tasked with serving and fighting on behalf of their country.
Author: Helen Nguyen Pho
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 742
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Book Description
This dissertation argues that military and political decisions made by U.S. policymakers to wage war in Vietnam produced economic consequences that severely undermined the entire American objective of preserving an independent, anticommunist South Vietnam. The escalation of war in 1965 ultimately sent over two million Americans to serve in combat or support roles in South Vietnam. The overwhelming presence of Americans, which peaked at over half a million in January 1969, in turn created numerous problems for the urban South Vietnamese population. The extraordinary amount of wealth brought into South Vietnam, including in the form of commodities, foreign aid, and American soldiers’ purchasing power, disrupted South Vietnamese society and economy. Due to high levels of inflation, the sudden influx of American wealth into a small developing country created incentives for South Vietnamese to work for the Americans, who provided better compensation than South Vietnamese employers. Those who worked for the South Vietnamese state in the armed forces and the civil service received fixed incomes and could not keep pace with growing wartime inflation. The inundation of American soldiers and dollars into the country also led to widespread corruption both among Americans and South Vietnamese, which I argue was destructive to state legitimacy in South Vietnam. Oftentimes, South Vietnamese citizens had to make the morally difficult choice to engage in corrupt actions in order to support their families. The American presence thus exacerbated socioeconomic inequality in South Vietnam and contributed to eroding the national morale of those tasked with serving and fighting on behalf of their country.
Author: Seth S. Jacobs
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 080146451X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 327
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Book Description
During the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, Laos was positioned to become a major front in the Cold War. Yet American policymakers ultimately chose to resist communism in neighboring South Vietnam instead. Two generations of historians have explained this decision by citing logistical considerations. Laos's landlocked, mountainous terrain, they hold, made the kingdom an unpropitious place to fight, while South Vietnam—possessing a long coastline, navigable rivers, and all-weather roads—better accommodated America's military forces. The Universe Unraveling is a provocative reinterpretation of U.S.-Laos relations in the years leading up to the Vietnam War. Seth Jacobs argues that Laos boasted several advantages over South Vietnam as a battlefield, notably its thousand-mile border with Thailand, whose leader was willing to allow Washington to use his nation as a base from which to attack the communist Pathet Lao.More significant in determining U.S. policy in Southeast Asia than strategic appraisals of the Laotian landscape were cultural perceptions of the Lao people. Jacobs contends that U.S. policy toward Laos under Eisenhower and Kennedy cannot be understood apart from the traits Americans ascribed to their Lao allies. Drawing on diplomatic correspondence and the work of iconic figures like "celebrity saint" Tom Dooley, Jacobs finds that the characteristics American statesmen and the American media attributed to the Lao—laziness, immaturity, and cowardice—differed from the traits assigned the South Vietnamese, making Lao chances of withstanding communist aggression appear dubious. The Universe Unraveling combines diplomatic, cultural, and military history to provide a new perspective on how prejudice can shape policy decisions and even the course of history.
Author: William R. Haycraft
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476621071
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
The Vietnam War coincided with, and in many ways caused, an enormous cultural schism in the United States. Now, as then, scholarship is divided over the efficacy of American Cold War strategy, its ability to halt the spread of communism in Southeast Asia and the role the United States should have played in the struggle for a unified, socialist Vietnam. This book represents a new historical take on the Vietnam War. After a lengthy description of the war's historical backdrop, the book examines the origins of American involvement under the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, Kennedy's advancement toward direct conflict between the U.S. and guerrilla and regular North Vietnamese forces, and the dramatic troop buildup under Johnson. The final chapters discuss peace negotiations during Nixon's presidency, the ultimate American failure in Indochina, and the region in the aftermath of war. Throughout, the work argues that the war was necessary and winnable under better circumstances and leadership. The book includes an extensive bibliography.
Author: Long T. Bui
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479817066
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 261
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Book Description
The legacy and memory of wartime South Vietnam through the eyes of Vietnamese refugees In 1975, South Vietnam fell to communism, marking a stunning conclusion to the Vietnam War. Although this former ally of the United States has vanished from the world map, Long T. Bui maintains that its memory endures for refugees with a strong attachment to this ghost country. Blending ethnography with oral history, archival research, and cultural analysis, Returns of War considers Returns of War argues that Vietnamization--as Richard Nixon termed it in 1969--and the end of South Vietnam signals more than an example of flawed American military strategy, but a larger allegory of power, providing cover for U.S. imperial losses while denoting the inability of the (South) Vietnamese and other colonized nations to become independent, modern liberal subjects. Bui argues that the collapse of South Vietnam under Vietnamization complicates the already difficult memory of the Vietnam War, pushing for a critical understanding of South Vietnamese agency beyond their status as the war’s ultimate “losers.” Examining the lasting impact of Cold War military policy and culture upon the “Vietnamized” afterlife of war, this book weaves questions of national identity, sovereignty, and self-determination to consider the generative possibilities of theorizing South Vietnam as an incomplete, ongoing search for political and personal freedom.
Author: Joseph Buttinger
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781258373146
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 250
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Book Description
Additional Contributing Authors Include Robert R. Nathan, John C. Donnell, Vu Van Thai, And Many Others.
Author: Seth Jacobs
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801464048
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328
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Book Description
During the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, Laos was positioned to become a major front in the Cold War. Yet American policymakers ultimately chose to resist communism in neighboring South Vietnam instead. Two generations of historians have explained this decision by citing logistical considerations. Laos's landlocked, mountainous terrain, they hold, made the kingdom an unpropitious place to fight, while South Vietnam-possessing a long coastline, navigable rivers, and all-weather roads-better accommodated America's military forces. The Universe Unraveling is a provocative reinterpretation of U.S.-Laos relations in the years leading up to the Vietnam War. Seth Jacobs argues that Laos boasted several advantages over South Vietnam as a battlefield, notably its thousand-mile border with Thailand, whose leader was willing to allow Washington to use his nation as a base from which to attack the communist Pathet Lao. More significant in determining U.S. policy in Southeast Asia than strategic appraisals of the Laotian landscape were cultural perceptions of the Lao people. Jacobs contends that U.S. policy toward Laos under Eisenhower and Kennedy cannot be understood apart from the traits Americans ascribed to their Lao allies. Drawing on diplomatic correspondence and the work of iconic figures like "celebrity saint" Tom Dooley, Jacobs finds that the characteristics American statesmen and the American media attributed to the Lao-laziness, immaturity, and cowardice-differed from the traits assigned the South Vietnamese, making Lao chances of withstanding communist aggression appear dubious. The Universe Unraveling combines diplomatic, cultural, and military history to provide a new perspective on how prejudice can shape policy decisions and even the course of history.
Author: James H. Willbanks
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 414
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Book Description
Drawing upon both archival research and his own military experiences in Vietnam, Willbanks focuses on military operations from 1969 through 1975. He begins by analyzing the events that led to a change in U.S. strategy in 1969 and the subsequent initiation of Vietnamization. He then critiques the implementation of that policy and the combat performance of the South Vietnamese army (ARVN), which finally collapsed in 1975.
Author: Vinh-The Lam
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780367621216
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
This book provides an in-depth analysis of the political instability of South Vietnam between the two Republics and offers a valuable contribution to the study of the history of Vietnam as it focuses on a decisive period in the history of South Vietnam. A much-needed examination of the political environment of the Republic of Vietnam between 1963-1967, this book shows how South Vietnamese leadership failed to form a stable civilian government and to secure South Vietnam against the increasing threat by North Vietnam. Through a detailed assessment of political difficulties during the period, the book suggests that, to prevent the imminent loss of South Vietnam to the Communist forces, the United States government did not have any other option than to escalate the war by committing its combat ground forces in the South and beginning the sustained bombing in the North. Moreover, the book analyses the administration of General Khánh and Prime Minister Phan Huy Quát and includes a full account of the War Cabinet of General Nguyễn Cao Kỳ. The achievements, the difficulties and the sudden death of the National High Council as well as the confrontation between the Buddhists and the Trần Vãn Hýõng government are also explored. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of the contemporary history of Vietnam, the history of the Republic of Vietnam, the Vietnam War and Southeast Asian history and politics.
Author: Allen J. Matusow
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
ISBN: 0820334057
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 567
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Book Description
In a book that William E. Leuchtenburg, writing in the Atlantic, called “a work of considerable power,” Allen Matusow documents the rise and fall of 1960s liberalism. He offers deft treatments of the major topics—anticommunism, civil rights, Great Society programs, the counterculture—making the most, throughout, of his subject’s tremendous narrative potential. Matusow’s preface to the new edition explains the sometimes critical tone of his study. The Unraveling of America, he says, “was intended as a cautionary tale for liberals in the hope that when their hour struck again, they might perhaps be fortified against past error. Now that they have another chance, a look back at the 1960s might serve them well.”
Author: Michael Joe Allen
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807832618
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 449
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Book Description
Reveals how wartime loss in the Vietnam War transformed U.S. politics, arguing that the effort to recover lost warriors was as much a means to establish responsibility for their loss as it was a search for answers about their fate.
