A Companion to the Vietnam War

A Companion to the Vietnam War contains twenty–four definitive essays on America’s longest and most divisive foreign conflict. These historiographical and narrative essays by leading historians examine the war in its most important contexts. The broad thematic coverage of the book includes the political strategy of three American presidents, the American military tactics and their consequences, the adjoining wars in Laos and Cambodia, the American home front and antiwar movement, and the intersections of race, class, and gender in both America and Vietnam. This volume represents the best current scholarship on one of the most controversial and influential episodes in modern American history. It also contains an expanded bibliography of hundreds of secondary sources to guide further research. For students, scholars, and general readers of Vietnam War studies, this Companion is a vital resource.

About the Contributors. Introduction. 1. Hanoi’s Long Century (Stein Tönnesson). PART I. THE VIETNAMESE IN CONTEXT. 2. In Search of Ho Chi Minh (William Duiker). 3. Belated Asian Allies: The Technical and Military Contributions of Japanese Deserters (1945–50) (Christopher E. Goscha). 4. The Realities and Consequences of War in a Northern Vietnamese Commune (Shaun Malarney). 5. The My Tho Grapevine and the Sino–Soviet Split (David Hunt). 6. "Vietnam" as a Women’s War (Karen G. Turner). PART II. THE AMERICANS IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN CONTEXT. 7. Before the War: Legacies from the Early Twentieth Century in United States–Vietnam Relations (Anne Foster). 8. Franklin Roosevelt, Trusteeship, and US Exceptionalism: Reconsidering the American Vision of Postcolonial Vietnam (Mark Bradley). 9. Dreaming Different Dreams: The United States and the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (Robert K. Brigham). 10. JFK and the Myth of Withdrawal (Edwin E. Moise). 11. The Politics of Escalation in Vietnam During the Johnson Years (Robert Buzzanco). 12. A Casualty of War: The Break in American Relations with Cambodia, 1965 (Kenton Clymer). 13. The Last Casualty? Richard Nixon and the End of the Vietnam War, 1969–75 (Lloyd Gardner). 14. Remembering Nixon’s War (Carolyn Eisenberg). 15. America’s Secret War in Laos, 1955–75 (Alfred W. McCoy). PART III. AMERICANS AT HOME AND ABROAD. 16. Missing in Action in the Twenty–First Century (Bruce Franklin). 17. African Americans and the Vietnam War (James Westheider). 18. Mexican Americans and the Viet Nam War (George Mariscal). 19. "They’ll Forgive You for Anything Except Being Week’: Gender and US Escalation in Vietnam 1961–65 (Robert Dean). 20. The Antiwar Movement (Barbara Tischler). 21. The Veterans Antiwar Movement in Fact and Memory (John Prados). 22. Sanctuary!: A Bridge Between Civilian and GI Protest Against the Vietnam War (Michael S. Foley). 23. Knowledge at War: American Social Science and Vietnam (Michael E. Latham). 24. The War on Television: TV News, the Johnson Administration, and Vietnam (Chester J. Pach, Jr.). Select Bibliography (Compiled by Amy E. Blackwell). Index.

Marilyn B. Young is Professor of History at New York University. She is the author of Rhetoric of Empire: American China Policy (1969) and The Vietnam Wars (1991), winner of the Berkshire Women’s History Prize. She is the co–author of Transforming Russia and China: Revolutionary Struggle in the 20th Century (with William Rosenberg, 1980), Promissory Notes: Women and the Transition to Socialism (with Rayna Rapp and Sonia Kruks, 1983), and Vietnam and America (with Marvin Gettleman, Jane Franklin, and Bruce Franklin, 1995), and is the co–editor of Human Rights and Revolutions (with Lynn Hunt and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, 2000). Robert Buzzanco is Associate Professor of History at the University of Houston. He is the author of Masters of War: Military Dissent and Politics in the Vietnam Era (1996) , winner of the Stuart L. Bernath Prize, and Vietnam and the Transformation of American Life (Blackwell, 1999).

“Overall, this collection will inform and challenge readers, who will discover stimulating perspectives that deliver on Young and Buzzanco’s claims, comprising a welcome addition to the literature.” History: Reviews of New Books "The quality of the essays... make it an easy recommendation to those looking at the war." Journal of American Studies “This terrific collection of twenty–four original articles is as valuable for the teacher as for the student of the Vietnam War. The contributors, who universally rank among the foremost experts on both the War and Southeast Asian history, utilize diverse frameworks and diverse sources to produce diverse perspectives. Young and Buzzanco warrant praise and thanks for assembling a volume sure to become mandatory reading.” Richard Immerman, Temple University “These stimulating essays on both the Southeast Asian and American sides of the war contribute valuable new insights into old debates, such as presidential decisions, and leading–edge investigations into new issues, such as ethnicity, gender, and memory.” David L. Anderson, University of Indianapolis