Table Of ContentVIETNAM AT WAR
This page intentionally left blank
VIETNAM AT
WAR
MARK PHILIP BRADLEY
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford.
ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship,
andeducationbypublishingworldwidein
Oxford NewYork
Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi
KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi
NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto
Withofficesin
Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece
Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore
SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam
OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress
intheUKandincertainothercountries
PublishedintheUnitedStates
byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork
#MarkPhilipBradley2009
Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted
DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker)
Firstpublished2009
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,
storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,
withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,
orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate
reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction
outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,
OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove
Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover
andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
Dataavailable
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Dataavailable
TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India
PrintedinGreatBritain
onacid-freepaperby
ClaysLtd,St.Ivesplc
ISBN 978–0–19–280349–8
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
For Anne
This page intentionally left blank
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book emerges from almost twenty years of teaching and
writingaboutthehistoryoftheVietnamwars.Itcouldneverhave
been written without my experiences in the classroom teaching
super-smart undergraduates at the University of Chicago, North-
western University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and
HarvardUniversity.Theirprobingquestionsanddeepengagement
inthehistoryofthewarsforVietnamnotonlysharpenedmyown
approachestothembuthelpedmeappreciatehoweagerayounger
generation has been to understand the wars in their Vietnamese
andglobalcontexts.Iwasespeciallyfortunatetoteam-teachacourse
onthewarsatNorthwesternwithMikeSherry,whohasanamazing
abilitytoconveyengagementanderuditionintheclassroomeffort-
lessly and whose close reading of this volume in manuscript made
itafarbetterbook.
Over this same time, I have been fortunate to come to know
amarvellousgroupofscholarsinVietnamesestudiesandthehistory
oftheVietnamwarsintheUnitedStates,Europe,andVietnamwhose
work has deeply influenced my approach here. They include such
senior scholars as William Duiker, David Elliott, Lloyd Gardner,
George Herring, David Hunt, Ben Kerkvliet, Ben Kiernan, Greg
Lockhardt,andBobMcMahon,DavidMarr,NgoVinhLong,Keith
Taylor,JayneWerner,andAlexanderWoodside.Thelastdecadehas
promptedanexplosionofexcitingnewscholarshiponVietnam,and
Ihavelearnedincalculableamountsfromtheworkofandconversa-
tions with Michael Allen, Bob Brigham, Cam Nguyen, George
Dutton, Christoph Giebels, Chris Goscha, Hang Nguyen, Judy
Henchy, SethJacobs, HeonikKwon, MarkLawrence, Anne Marie
Leshkowich, Fred Logevall, Shawn McHale, Shaun Malarney, Ed
Miller,KimNinh,SophieQuinn-Judge,NoraTaylor,PhilipTaylor,
ArneWestad,andPeterZinoman.InVietnamIamespeciallygrateful
toLuuDoanHuynh,LuuVanLoi,PhanHuyLe,TranHuuDinh,
viii acknowledgements
and Vo Van Sen for their warm intellectual fellowship, and to the
Institute of International Relations, the Institute of History, and
theUniversityofHanoifortheirassistanceinmyresearch.
Twoscholars,Hue-TamHoTaiandMarilynYoung,havebeen
critical in my efforts to undertake this project and I will never be
abletorepaymydebtstothem.Althoughneitherofthemwillagree
with all that I write here, I could never have written this book
without what I have come to know about Vietnam from Marilyn
and Tam Tai. For me they will always be the model scholars and
teachersthatIhopeonedaytobecome.IamalsoinMarilyn’sdebt
forhersupportivelycriticalreadingofthisvolumeinmanuscript.
IthasbeenapleasuretoworkwithOxfordUniversityPresson
thisproject,especiallyChristopherWheeler,MatthewCotton,and
David Reynolds. They have been enormously patient in its long
gestation period. I am also grateful to an anonymous reader for
commentsonthemanuscriptandtothePress’sever-helpfulediting
and production staff. I am especially indebted to Laurien Berkeley
forhercarefulcopy-editing.
Intheend,myfamily—mywife,AnneHansen,andmychildren,
Ilsa and Peter Bradley—made it possible to complete this project.
IknowIlsaandPeterwouldpreferthebookbededicatedtothem
(nexttime,guys)butthisoneisforAnne...withloveandgratitude.
M.P.B.
CONTENTS
listofillustrations xi
listofplates xii
listofabbreviations xiv
mapofvietnamatwar,1954–1975 xv
Prelude 1
1. VisionsoftheFuture 9
2. TheFrenchWar 41
3. TheComingoftheAmericanWar 77
4. ExperiencingWar 115
5. War’sEnd 147
Coda 183
furtherreading 197
notes 203
pictureandtextacknowledgements 227
index 229
Description:For many Westerners, the Vietnam War summons images of American soldiers patrolling rice paddies, battling an elusive enemy as helicopters circle overhead. But there were, in fact, many Vietnam wars--an anti-colonial war with France, a cold war turned hot with the United States, a civil war between
