Vietnam's Strategic Thinking During the Third Indochina War

Vietnam's Strategic Thinking During the Third Indochina War PDF Author: Kosal Path
Publisher:
ISBN: 029932270X
Category : Cambodia
Languages : en
Pages : 308

Book Description
"Why did Vietnam invade and occupy Cambodia in 1978? And why did it eventually change its approach, shifting from military confrontation to economic reform and reconciliation with China in the late 1980s? Drawing on rarely accessed archival documents, Kosal Path explores this major change in Vietnamese leaders' objectives and strategies. Unlike most studies, which attribute the invasion to political elites' paranoia and imperial ambition over Indochina, Path argues that Hanoi's move was rational and strategic, intended to resolve its economic crisis and counter imminent threats posed by the Sino-Cambodian alliance by cementing its own alliance with the Soviet Union. As these costly efforts failed in the 1980s, Vietnamese thinking shifted from the doctrinal Marxist-Leninist ideology that had prevailed during the last decade of the Cold War to the approach that would come to characterize the post-Cold War era. Path traces the moving target of Vietnam's changing priorities: first from military victory to Socialist economic reconstruction in 1975-76; then to military confrontation in 1978-1984; and finally, in 1985-86, to the broad reforms dubbed Doi Moi ("renovation"), meant to create a peaceful regional environment for Vietnam's integration into the global economy. Path's sources include internally circulated reports from provincial authorities, ministries, and ad hoc Party committees--materials that have been largely masked by the Vietnamese nationalist history of Vietnam's selfless assistance to Cambodia's revolution and glossed over by the Cambodian nationalist narrative of Vietnam's longstanding imperial ambition in Cambodia"--

Changing Worlds

Changing Worlds PDF Author: David W.P. Elliott
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199996083
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 432

Book Description
Throughout the entire Cold War era, Vietnam served as a grim symbol of the ideological polarity that permeated international politics. But when the Cold War ended in 1989, Vietnam faced the difficult task of adjusting to a new world without the benefactors it had come to rely on. In Changing Worlds, David W. P. Elliott, who has spent the past half century studying modern Vietnam, chronicles the evolution of the Vietnamese state from the end of the Cold War to the present. When the communist regimes of Eastern Europe collapsed, so did Vietnam's model for analyzing and engaging with the outside world. Fearing that committing fully to globalization would lead to the collapse of its own system, the Vietnamese political elite at first resisted extensive engagement with the larger international community. Over the next decade, though, China's rapid economic growth and the success of the Asian "tiger economies," along with a complex realignment of regional and global international relations reshaped Vietnamese leaders' views. In 1995 Vietnam joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), its former adversary, and completed the normalization of relations with the United States. By 2000, Vietnam had "taken the plunge" and opted for greater participation in the global economic system. Vietnam finally joined the World Trade Organization in 2006. Elliott contends that Vietnam's political elite ultimately concluded that if the conservatives who opposed opening up to the outside world had triumphed, Vietnam would have been condemned to a permanent state of underdevelopment. Partial reform starting in the mid-1980s produced some success, but eventually the reformers' argument that Vietnam's economic potential could not be fully exploited in a highly competitive world unless it opted for deep integration into the rapidly globalizing world economy prevailed. Remarkably, deep integration occurred without Vietnam losing its unique political identity. It remains an authoritarian state, but offers far more breathing space to its citizens than in the pre-reform era. Far from being absorbed into a Western-inspired development model, globalization has reinforced Vietnam's distinctive identity rather than eradicating it. The market economy led to a revival of localism and familism which has challenged the capacity of the state to impose its preferences and maintain the wartime narrative of monolithic unity. Although it would be premature to talk of a genuine civil society, today's Vietnam is an increasingly pluralistic community. Drawing from a vast body of Vietnamese language sources, Changing Worlds is the definitive account of how this highly vulnerable Communist state remade itself amidst the challenges of the post-Cold War era.

Vietnam's Communist Revolution

Vietnam's Communist Revolution PDF Author: Tuong Vu
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316875954
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 571

Book Description
By tracing the evolving worldview of Vietnamese communists over 80 years as they led Vietnam through wars, social revolution, and peaceful development, this book shows the depth and resilience of their commitment to the communist utopia in their foreign policy. Unearthing new material from Vietnamese archives and publications, this book challenges the conventional scholarship and the popular image of the Vietnamese revolution and the Vietnam War as being driven solely by patriotic inspirations. The revolution not only saw successes in defeating foreign intervention, but also failures in bringing peace and development to Vietnam. This was, and is, the real tragedy of Vietnam. Spanning the entire history of the Vietnamese revolution and its aftermath, this book examines its leaders' early rise to power, the tumult of three decades of war with France, the US, and China, and the stubborn legacies left behind which remain in Vietnam today.

Eisenhower & Cambodia

Eisenhower & Cambodia PDF Author: William J. Rust
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813167450
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 349

Book Description
This historical study examines America’s Cold War diplomacy and covert operations intended to lure Cambodia from neutrality to alliance. Although most Americans paid little attention to Cambodia during Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency, the global ideological struggle with the Soviet Union guaranteed US vigilance throughout Southeast Asia. Cambodia’s leader, Norodom Sihanouk, refused to take sides in the Cold War, a policy that disturbed US officials. From 1953 to 1961, his government avoided the political and military crises of neighboring Laos and South Vietnam. However, relations between Cambodia and the United States suffered a blow in 1959 when Sihanouk discovered CIA involvement in a plot to overthrow him. The failed coup only increased Sihanouk’s power and prestige, presenting new foreign policy challenges in the region. In Eisenhower and Cambodia, William J. Rust demonstrates that covert intervention in the political affairs of Cambodia proved to be a counterproductive tactic for advancing the United States’ anticommunist goals. Drawing on recently declassified sources, Rust skillfully traces the impact of “plausible deniability” on the formulation and execution of foreign policy. His meticulous study not only reveals a neglected chapter in Cold War history but also illuminates the intellectual and political origins of US strategy in Vietnam and the often-hidden influence of intelligence operations in foreign affairs.

Hanoi's Road to the Vietnam War, 1954-1965

Hanoi's Road to the Vietnam War, 1954-1965 PDF Author: Pierre Asselin
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520287495
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Book Description
"Using new and largely inaccessible Vietnamese sources as well as French, British, Canadian and American archives, Pierre Asselin sheds valuable light on Hanoi's path to war. Step by step the narrative makes Hanoi's revolutionary strategy from the end of the French Indochina War to the start of the Anti-American Resistance Struggle for Reunification and National Salvation (the Vietnam War) transparent. The book reveals how North Vietnamese leaders moved from a cautious policy emphasizing nonviolent political and diplomatic struggle to a far riskier pursuit of military victory"--

The Third Indochina War and the Making of Present-day Southeast Asia, 1975-1995

The Third Indochina War and the Making of Present-day Southeast Asia, 1975-1995 PDF Author: Hoang Minh Vu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
At the end of the Second Indochina War (more popularly known in the United States as the Vietnam War), the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China, and Democratic Kampuchea were among Vietnam's closest allies. At the same time, the new Socialist Republic was hoping to establish diplomatic relations with many countries that had been allies of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) during the war, including the then five-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United States itself, hoping to capitalize on new trade and investment opportunities to rebuild its tattered economy and avoid overdependence on a single great power benefactor. Yet as early as 1978, this dream had collapsed as Vietnam found itself in the unenviable position of becoming reliant on Soviet economic support to fight the first full-scale conflict between socialist nations - a two-front war against both China and Cambodia. Vietnamese troops would remain bogged down in a bloody guerrilla war in Cambodia until 1989. Not until 1991 would the parties finally agree to a political solution to the conflict, and Vietnam became the first socialist country to become a full member of ASEAN in 1995. My central argument is that in terms of foreign economic policy, Vietnam consistently sought from 1975 onwards to diversify trade relations and to not become overly dependent on aid from a single power. In the 1970s, Vietnam tried unsuccessfully to avoid the Third Indochina War, which would jeopardize its quest for independence through multilateralism. When it finally did invade Cambodia primarily as an act of self-defense, Vietnamese leaders found withdrawal politically impossible as they committed to justifying the original invasion post facto as a humanitarian intervention. While the Vietnamese domestic economy changed significantly with the doi moi reforms in 1986, Vietnam's economic integration in the 1990s was therefore not a revolutionary break from a conservative past but rather a fulfillment of a vision in the 1970s, with the notable difference that Vietnam and other ASEAN countries would through the Third Indochina War elevate absolute state sovereignty and non-interference to be the most important principles guiding regional affairs. In situating my work at the intersection between the International Relations debate on the nature and driving force of regionalism and the historical debates surrounding the Cambodian Genocide and the Third Indochina War, I hope my research will attract a wide audience of scholars, practitioners, and the interested public.

The Third Indochina War

The Third Indochina War PDF Author: Cheng Guan Ang
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781009560092
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
"Comprised of the Vietnam-Kampuchea War (1978-1990) and the brief Sino-Vietnamese War (1979), the Third Indochina War has received less scholarly attention than its predecessors. Bringing together a wide range of primary and secondary material, Ang Cheng Guan reassess this conflict from the perspective of the international history of the Cold War"--

Peace and Security in Indo-Pacific Asia

Peace and Security in Indo-Pacific Asia PDF Author: Sorpong Peou
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000462609
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 251

Book Description
Peace and Security in Indo-Pacific Asia is for the informed, the interested, and the engaged. Sorpong Peou brings together the skills of the pedagogue with the knowledge of the scholar. -Dr. David Dewitt, University Professor Emeritus, Senior Scholar, York University, Toronto, Canada. Peou’s excellent book provides both the lay reader and the specialist with six important theoretical frameworks which should provide the basis for better appreciation of what a security community in Indo-Pacific Asia means in our world today. There are very few scholars who understand the region like Peou. -Dr. W. Andy Knight, Professor of Political Science, the University of Alberta, Canada. Sorpong Peou’s extraordinary breadth of knowledge, of both International Relations theory and the key trends in Indo-Pacific Asia, shines through in this authoritative analysis. -Dr. Richard Stubbs, Professor of Political Science, McMaster University, Canada. A pedagogical approach of the textbook that is appreciated is how the author respectfully engages with the theories of IR and is not pushing an agenda of denouncing some theories and trying to persuade the reader of others. We live in such polarizing times that it is truly refreshing to read scholarly work that avoids sensationalistic attacks on theories that have been debated for decades. Each theory in this manuscript is explored on its own terms, and the reader is encouraged to figure out where they stand on these enduring debates in the context of Indo-Pacific security. The approach will lead to compelling classroom discussions of the theories and the politics of the region. This book is a must-read for any student or observer of security trends in the region. -Dr. Mark Williams, Chair and Professor of Political Studies, Vancouver Island University, B.C., Canada.

Contested Territory

Contested Territory PDF Author: Christian C. Lentz
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300245580
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Book Description
The definitive account of one of the most important battles of the twentieth century, and the Black River borderlands’ transformation into Northwest Vietnam This new work of historical and political geography ventures beyond the conventional framing of the Battle of Điện Biên Phủ, the 1954 conflict that toppled the French empire in Indochina. Tracking a longer period of anticolonial revolution and nation-state formation from 1945 to 1960, Christian Lentz argues that a Vietnamese elite constructed territory as a strategic form of rule. Engaging newly available archival sources, Lentz offers a novel conception of territory as a contingent outcome of spatial contests.

The First Vietnam War

The First Vietnam War PDF Author: Shawn F. McHale
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108936172
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 567

Book Description
Shawn McHale explores why the communist-led resistance in Vietnam won the anticolonial war against France (1945–54), except in the south. He shows how broad swaths of Vietnamese people were uneasily united in 1945 under the Viet Minh Resistance banner, all opposing the French attempt to reclaim control of the country. By 1947, resistance unity had shattered and Khmer-Vietnamese ethnic violence had divided the Mekong delta. From this point on, the war in the south turned into an overt civil war wrapped up in a war against France. Based on extensive archival research in four countries and in three languages, this is the first substantive English-language book focused on southern Vietnam's transition from colonialism to independence.