Short, The Origins of the Vietnam War

Abstract

The Vietnam War is a "hot" course topic now and texts are being produced to meet the demand. Neglected for so long, the Vietnam conflict has now generated a host of combat memoirs as well as works dealing with the diplomatic side of the war, but has produced fewer studies of the early years of U.S. involvement. The natural questions for each new Vietnam text are: Is this book useful, and is it necessary?

Anthony Short's Origins of the Vietnam War is part of the Origins of Modern Wars series, that has already weighed in with some distinguished entries, such as James Joll's Origins of the First World War. Short defines his origins broadly, providing chapters on the early career of Ho Chi Minh, the French involvement and exodus, and the subsequent growth of U.S. involvement through 1965. The American involvement is broken down into a chapter on the period from 1952 to 1954 and another on the Geneva conference of 1954. These two chapters are followed by three chapters that cover the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson years through 1965. Throughout, the author concentrates on the diplomatic maneuvering behind the conflict rather than on the purely military side of the war.