The Cambridge History of the Vietnam War: Volume 2, Escalation and Stalemate

Sheds light on the escalation of the Vietnam War between 1963 and 1968 and its development into a violent stalemate.

Lien-Hang T. Nguyen (General editor), Andrew Preston (Edited by)

9781107105102, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 November 2024

712 pages
23.5 x 16.2 x 4.1 cm, 1.24 kg

In great depth, Volume II examines the escalation of the Vietnam War and its development into a violent stalemate, beginning with the overthrow of the Ngô Đình Diệm in 1963 to the aftermath of the 1968 Tết Offensive. This five-year period was, for the most part, the fulcrum of a three-decades-long struggle to determine the future of Vietnam and was marked by rival spirals of escalation generated by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the United States. The volume explores the war's military aspects on all sides, the politics of war in the two Vietnams and the United States, and the war's international and transnational dimensions in politics, protest, diplomacy, and economics, while also paying close attention to the agency of historical actors on both sides of the conflict in South Vietnam.

Introduction Andrew Preston
Part I. Battlefields: 1. Reconsidering American strategy in Vietnam Gregory A. Daddis
2. The air wars in Vietnam Mark Clodfelter
3. US combat soldiers in Vietnam Ron Milam
4. American women and the Vietnam War Heather Marie Stur
5. The conundrum of Pacification John Prados
6. The US military presence in South Vietnam Meredith Lair
7. The ARVN experience Andrew Wiest
8. The National Liberation Front Robert K. Brigham
9. The people's army of Vietnam Hai Thanh Nguyen
10. Vietnamese women and the war Amanda Boczar
11. Vietnam's ethnic minorities at war Oscar Salemink
12. The war in numbers Edwin Moïse
13. The Tet Offensive James H. Willbanks
Part II. Homefronts: 14. Dominoes abroad and at home Fredrik Logevall
15. LBJ, the great society, and Vietnam Julian E. Zelizer
16. Politics in South Vietnam, 1963 –68 Simon Toner
17. Politics in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, 1963 –68 Martin Grossheim
18. The antiwar movement in the United States Simon Hall
19. Vietnam and American race relations Brenda Gayle Plummer
20. Prowar sentiment in the United States Sandra Scanlon
21. The US news media and Vietnam Chester Pach
22. The South Vietnamese Homefront Mai Elliott
23. The North Vietnamese Homefront Pham Quang Minh
Part III. Global Vietnam: 24. International radicalism and antiwar protest Judy Tzu-Chun Wu
25. The Vietnam war and the Sino-Soviet Split Sergey Radchenko
26. Western Europe and the Vietnam war Christian Ostermann
27. International peace initiatives James G. Hershberg
28. Japan and the Vietnam war Jennifer M. Miller
29. The economics of the Vietnam War Daniel Sargent
30. The Global 1968 Adrienne Minh-Chau Le.

Subject Areas: Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3]