Confronting Vietnam: Soviet Policy toward the Indochina Conflict, 1954-1963

308 Pages·2003·9.319 MB·English

by  Ilya V. Gaiduk

Confronting Vietnam
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IHTERHATIOHAI HISTORY
PROJECT SERIES
Jam es G. H ersh b erg
s e r ie s e d ito r
Brothers in Arma
The Rise and Fall of the SinO'Sovlet Alliance,
1945-1963
edited by Odd Ame Westad
Rotmomỉe Cold War
America's Embargo against
China and the Sino-Sovlet
Alliance, 1949-1963
By Shu Quang Zhang
WOODROW WILSON CENTER PRESS
STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CONFRONTING VIETNAM
Soviet Policy toward the Indochina Conflict,
1954-1963
Ilya V. Qakhik
Woodrow Wilson Center Press
Washington, D.c.
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
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02003 by Dya Gaiduk
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Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gaiduk. I. V. (Il’iaV.), 1961-
Confronting Vietnam: Soviet policy toward the Indochina Conflict,
1954-1963 / Dya V. Gaiduk.
p. cm.—(Cold War International History Project series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8047-4712-1 (alk. paper)
1. Indochina—Foreign relations—Soviet Union. 2. Soviet
Union—Foreign relations—Indochina. 3. Soviet Union—Foreign
relations—1953-1975.4. Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975—Soviet Union.
I. Title, n. Series.
DS546.5.S65 G35 2003
959.704’3347—dc21
2002155618
For my mother

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Contents
Abbreviations X
Series Preface xl
Preface XV
Chapter 1. The Origins 1
Chapter 2. To Divide or Not to Divide 12
Chapter 3. Making Peace at Geneva 28
Chapter 4. From Support to Cooperation 54
Chapter 5. Neither Peace nor War 69
Chapter 6. If the Fractured Friendship Collapses 98
Chapter 7. Crisis In Laos 122
Chapter 8. Back to Genova 157
Chapter 9. A Disposition to War 181
Conclusion 205
Bibliography 212
Notes 220
Index 265
AVPRF Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation
cc Central Committee
CCP Chinese Communist Party
CDNI Committee for the Defense of National Interests, Laos
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
CPSU Communist Party of the Soviet Union
DMZ Demilitarized zone
DRV Democratic Republic of Vietnam
PO Foreign Office (Great Britain)
FRUS Fixeign Relations of the United States
ICC International Commission for Supervision and Control, sometimes called
International Control Commission
KGB Committee on State Security (Russian acronym)
MAAG Military Assistance Advisory Group
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NLHX Neo Lao Hak Xat, Lao Patriotic Front
NLFSV National Liberation Front of South Vietnam
PathetLao Movement “Lao Nation”
PAV People's Army of Vietnam
PRC People’s Republic of China
PRO Public Record Office (Great Britain)
RLG Royal Lao Government
RGANI Russian State Archive of Contemporary History
RGASPI Russian State Archive of Social-Political History
SEATO Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
Vietcong Viet Nam Cong San (Vietnamese Communists), People’s Liberation Army
in South Vietnam
Vietminh Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh, League for Independence of Vietnam
WPV Workers' Party of Vietnam, also called die Lao Dong Party