Table Of Contentthe end of ambition
amer i ca in the world
Sven Beckert and Jeremi Suri, Series Editors
Mark Atwood Lawrence, The End of Ambition: The United States and the Third
World in the Vietnam Era
Roberto Saba, American Mirror: The United States and Brazil in the Age of
Emancipation
Stefan J. Link, Forging Global Fordism: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the
Contest over the Industrial Order
Sara Lorenzini, Global Development: A Cold War History
Michael Cotey Morgan, The Final Act: The Helsinki Accords and the
Transformation of the Cold War
A. G. Hopkins, American Empire: A Global History
Tore C. Olsson, Agrarian Crossings: Reformers and the Remaking of the US and
Mexican Countryside
Kiran Klaus Patel, The New Deal: A Global History
Adam Ewing, The Age of Garvey: How a Jamaican Activist Created a Mass
Movement and Changed Global Black Politics
Jürgen Osterhammel and Patrick Camiller, The Transformation of the World:
A Global History of the Nineteenth Century
Edited by Jeffrey A. Engel, Mark Atwood Lawrence & Andrew Preston,
Amer i ca in the World: A History in Documents from the War with Spain to the
War on Terror
Donna R. Gabaccia, Foreign Relations: American Immigration in
Global Perspective
Thomas Borstelmann, The 1970s: A New Global History from Civil Rights to
Economic In equality
Rachel St. John, Line in the Sand: A History of the Western U.S.- Mexico Border
Ian Tyrrell, Reforming the World: The Creation of Amer i ca’s Moral Empire
Andrew Zimmerman, Alabama in Africa: Booker T. Washington, the German
Empire, and the Globalization of the New South
For a full list of titles in the series, go to:
https:// press . princeton . edu / catalogs / series / title / america - in - the - world . html
The End of Ambition
the united states and the third
world in the vietnam era
mark atwood lawrence
prince ton university press
prince ton & oxford
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contents
Preface vii
Abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
1 The Liberal Inheritance 15
2 A World of Dilemmas 41
3 Lyndon Johnson’s World 79
4 Brazil: The Allure of Authoritarianism 106
5 India: The Partnership That Faded 141
6 Iran: A Relationship Transformed 177
7 Indonesia: Embracing the New Order 213
8 Southern Africa: Settling for the Status Quo 250
Conclusion 287
Notes 311
Bibliography 357
Index 373
v
preface
this book originated with a simple question: How did the Vietnam War alter
the broad contours of American foreign policy in the 1960s? Although the war
has drawn a staggering amount of attention from scholars, journalists, and
memoirists, few authors have focused on this subject over the years despite its
con spic u ous importance. Appreciating the ways in which the U.S. embroil-
ment in Southeast Asia redirected the grand patterns of history promised to
help us understand what has unfolded ever since. Above all, I aimed to explore
how U.S. frustrations in Indochina affected perhaps the most striking policy
departure of the early 1960s— Washington’s bold assurances of support for
democ ratization and economic pro gress in the emerging nations of the Third
World.
Answering my question not only revealed a crucial dimension of the Viet-
nam War but also cast light on one of the most profound transformations in
U.S. foreign policy during the twentieth c entury. The first half of the 1960s
marked a high point of U.S. power and confidence in American po liti cal and
economic ideals. Almost any prob lem, abroad as at home, seemed tractable
through the application of U.S. resources and know- how. Within a remarkably
short time, however, these aspirations lay in shambles. The United States un-
questionably remained a superpower as the 1960s gave way to the 1970s, but
the failure of ambitious liberalism confronted U.S. leaders with the challenge
of refashioning American policy for a new era of disillusion, a challenge that
in many ways lingers to the pre sent.
Indeed, I did not fully realize as I began this proj ect how strongly my story
echoed in the twenty- first century. Just like American leaders in the early six-
ties, I came to see, President George W. Bush had responded to surging prob-
lems in the Global South after the turn of the millennium by promising to
promote democracy and prosperity on a worldwide scale. Yet those ambitions,
which coexisted with old doubts about the efficacy of American power, crum-
bled under the weight of costly wars in Iraq and Af ghan i stan. U.S. foreign
policy grew increasingly militarized, and Washington deepened its reliance on
cooperative regional powers. Commentators noted similarities in the foreign
policies of Richard Nixon and Barack Obama. Despite sharp differences in
vii
viii preface
po liti cal style, the two presidents aimed to reduce American commitments
amid waning popu lar support for international activism and demoralizing
military commitments that devoured U.S. resources. As a candidate and then
president, Donald Trump took this approach to a new level, unapologetically
calling for a foreign policy rooted in a narrow conception of national interest.
The result was, among other things, closer relationships with antidemo cratic
regimes that stirred consternation across much of the po liti cal spectrum.
The End of Ambition aspires neither to predict the outcome of new contro-
versies nor to offer explicit judgments about the twenty- first century. But the
book does aim to show that the United States, shaped by competing impulses
to remake the world and to serve its self-i nterests, has passed through similar
moments before. Recognizing the ways history reverberates—t he extent to
which the past “rhymes” with the pre sent, as Mark Twain put it— can help us
discern the pitfalls and opportunities that lie before us. And it can, hopefully,
enliven discussion of the best choices for the future.
— — —
One of the greatest pleasures of completing a book is the opportunity to reflect
on the journey and express gratitude for the help I received along the way. In
the early stages of this proj ect, I benefited from a Cassius Marcellus Clay Fel-
lowship at Yale University. I was delighted to be part of the remarkable group
of scholars at Yale’s International Security Studies program and to have a new
chance to learn from John Lewis Gaddis, Paul Kennedy, and Ben Kiernan,
three exceptional historians and mentors. I am grateful as well to the Univer-
sity of Texas at Austin, my home for most of the past two de cades. For this
proj ect, I was fortunate to receive a Humanities Research Award from the
College of Liberal Arts and a research fellowship from the Institute for Histori-
cal Studies. My thanks go particularly to Alan Tully and Jacqueline Jones for
making so many opportunities available to me and my colleagues. I am also
indebted to Williams College, where I had the good fortune to hold the Stan-
ley Kaplan Visiting Professorship in American Foreign Policy and to work
alongside James McAllister for a memorable year.
I appreciate invitations to pre sent parts of this proj ect to symposia focused
on the study of international history. Thanks especially to Frank Costigliola at
the University of Connecticut, Daniel Sargent at the University of California,
Berkeley, Kurk Dorsey at the University of New Hampshire, Mitch Lerner and
Robert McMahon at Ohio State, Michael Allen at Northwestern, Fredrik Lo-
gevall (then) at Cornell, and the late Marilyn Young at New York University.
I learned a g reat deal from t hese eminent historians as well as the extraordinary
communities of students they have nurtured.
preface ix
Several other experts contributed to this book by generously sharing ideas
and feedback. I am indebted to Nate Citino, David Cole, Greg Daddis, Susan
Ferber, James Galbraith, Jim Hershberg, Tanvi Madan, Tim Naftali, Wen- Qing
Ngoei, Andrew Preston, Elizabeth Saunders, Tom Schwartz, Kate Weaver, and
the late Jon Persoff. Ryan Irwin deserves special thanks for sharing troves of
archival material from South Africa. Daniel Sargent, who read the entire manu-
script, provided im mensely valuable comments. I also wish to thank an anony-
mous reader whose incisive critiques helped me sharpen the manuscript.
At UT- Austin, I am lucky to be part of an extraordinary team of interna-
tional historians who have unfailingly supported my work. It is a privilege to
work alongside Bill Brands, W ill Inboden, Aaron O’Connell, Bat Sparrow,
Michael Stoff, and Jeremi Suri. It has been my pleas ure as well to work with
innumerable talented undergraduates and gradu ate students at the University
of Texas. Joe Parrott, Mark Battjes, and Brian McNeil in par tic u lar pushed me
to think hard about U.S. foreign relations in the 1960s. Special thanks go as well
to my research assistants, Kayleigh Berger and Marcelo José Domingos.
At Prince ton University Press, Brigitta van Rheinberg expressed enthusi-
asm for this book at a pivotal point in my career and showed a perfect blend
of support and patience thereafter. I am grateful, too, to Eric Crahan and Priya
Nelson for their consummate professionalism and to Thalia Leaf for deftly
shepherding the manuscript to publication. I benefited from the expertise of
Joseph Dahm and Jenny Wolkowicki in the final stages. For help with the pho-
tos, I am grateful to Jay Godwin and, for creating the chart, to Alexis Schrubbe.
I am also pleased to acknowledge the generosity of the Herblock Foundation
for permitting me to publish two cartoons.
Fin ally, I owe a massive debt to the friends and f amily who provided sound-
ing boards, encouragement, and welcome distractions. For all of the above, I
am especially grateful to Michael Anderson, Doug Hood, John Merriman,
Jennifer Siegel, Bat Sparrow, Alan Tully, and Mark Updegrove. My deepest
thanks go, too, to Priscilla, Patrick, Elizabeth, and Jane MeLampy for their
exceptional generosity and good cheer. My parents, Elizabeth Atwood and
Robert Lawrence, did not live to see this book, but it owes much to the enthu-
siasm and love they showered on me for years and years. Most of all, I am
grateful to Steph Osbakken and our daughters, Maya and Bryn, who (along
with Hamley) created a house hold where serious pursuits mingle effortlessly
with boundless joy. This book is dedicated to Steph, Maya, and Bryn.
