Americas Miracle Man In Vietnam

Author : Seth Jacobs
Publisher : Duke University Press
ISBN 13 : 0822386089
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book America's Miracle Man in Vietnam written by Seth Jacobs and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2005-01-27 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America’s Miracle Man in Vietnam rethinks the motivations behind one of the most ruinous foreign-policy decisions of the postwar era: America’s commitment to preserve an independent South Vietnam under the premiership of Ngo Dinh Diem. The so-called Diem experiment is usually ascribed to U.S. anticommunism and an absence of other candidates for South Vietnam’s highest office. Challenging those explanations, Seth Jacobs utilizes religion and race as categories of analysis to argue that the alliance with Diem cannot be understood apart from America’s mid-century religious revival and policymakers’ perceptions of Asians. Jacobs contends that Diem’s Catholicism and the extent to which he violated American notions of “Oriental” passivity and moral laxity made him a more attractive ally to Washington than many non-Christian South Vietnamese with greater administrative experience and popular support. A diplomatic and cultural history, America’s Miracle Man in Vietnam draws on government archives, presidential libraries, private papers, novels, newspapers, magazines, movies, and television and radio broadcasts. Jacobs shows in detail how, in the 1950s, U.S. policymakers conceived of Cold War anticommunism as a crusade in which Americans needed to combine with fellow Judeo-Christians against an adversary dangerous as much for its atheism as for its military might. He describes how racist assumptions that Asians were culturally unready for democratic self-government predisposed Americans to excuse Diem’s dictatorship as necessary in “the Orient.” By focusing attention on the role of American religious and racial ideologies, Jacobs makes a crucial contribution to our understanding of the disastrous commitment of the United States to “sink or swim with Ngo Dinh Diem.”

Author : Seth Jacobs
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 9780742544482
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.86/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Cold War Mandarin written by Seth Jacobs and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2006 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For almost a decade, the tyrannical Ngo Dinh Diem governed South Vietnam as a one-party police state while the U.S. financed his tyranny. In this new book, Seth Jacobs traces the history of American support for Diem from his first appearance in Washington as a penniless expatriate in 1950 to his murder by South Vietnamese soldiers on the outskirts of Saigon in 1963. Drawing on recent scholarship and newly available primary sources, Cold War Mandarin explores how Diem became America's bastion against a communist South Vietnam, and why the Kennedy and Eisenhower administrations kept his regime afloat. Finally, Jacobs examines the brilliantly organized public-relations campaign by Saigon's Buddhists that persuaded Washington to collude in the overthrow--and assassination--of its longtime ally. In this clear and succinct analysis, Jacobs details the "Diem experiment," and makes it clear how America's policy of "sink or swim with Ngo Dinh Diem" ultimately drew the country into the longest war in its history.

Author : Edward Miller
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674075358
Total Pages : 439 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Misalliance written by Edward Miller and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the annals of Vietnam War history, no figure has been more controversial than Ngo Dinh Diem. During the 1950s, U.S. leaders hailed Diem as “the miracle man of Southeast Asia” and funneled huge amounts of aid to his South Vietnamese government. But in 1963 Diem was ousted and assassinated in a coup endorsed by President John F. Kennedy. Diem’s alliance with Washington has long been seen as a Cold War relationship gone bad, undone either by American arrogance or by Diem’s stubbornness. In Misalliance, Edward Miller provides a convincing new explanation for Diem’s downfall and the larger tragedy of South Vietnam. For Diem and U.S. leaders, Miller argues, the alliance was more than just a joint effort to contain communism. It was also a means for each side to pursue its plans for nation building in South Vietnam. Miller’s definitive portrait of Diem—based on extensive research in Vietnamese, French, and American archives—demonstrates that the South Vietnamese leader was neither Washington’s pawn nor a tradition-bound mandarin. Rather, he was a shrewd and ruthless operator with his own vision for Vietnam’s modernization. In 1963, allied clashes over development and reform, combined with rising internal resistance to Diem’s nation building programs, fractured the alliance and changed the course of the Vietnam War. In depicting the rise and fall of the U.S.–Diem partnership, Misalliance shows how America’s fate in Vietnam was written not only on the battlefield but also in Washington’s dealings with its Vietnamese allies.

Author : Seth Jacobs
Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801464048
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.41/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Universe Unraveling written by Seth Jacobs and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, Laos was positioned to become a major front in the Cold War. Yet American policymakers ultimately chose to resist communism in neighboring South Vietnam instead. Two generations of historians have explained this decision by citing logistical considerations. Laos's landlocked, mountainous terrain, they hold, made the kingdom an unpropitious place to fight, while South Vietnam-possessing a long coastline, navigable rivers, and all-weather roads-better accommodated America's military forces. The Universe Unraveling is a provocative reinterpretation of U.S.-Laos relations in the years leading up to the Vietnam War. Seth Jacobs argues that Laos boasted several advantages over South Vietnam as a battlefield, notably its thousand-mile border with Thailand, whose leader was willing to allow Washington to use his nation as a base from which to attack the communist Pathet Lao. More significant in determining U.S. policy in Southeast Asia than strategic appraisals of the Laotian landscape were cultural perceptions of the Lao people. Jacobs contends that U.S. policy toward Laos under Eisenhower and Kennedy cannot be understood apart from the traits Americans ascribed to their Lao allies. Drawing on diplomatic correspondence and the work of iconic figures like "celebrity saint" Tom Dooley, Jacobs finds that the characteristics American statesmen and the American media attributed to the Lao-laziness, immaturity, and cowardice-differed from the traits assigned the South Vietnamese, making Lao chances of withstanding communist aggression appear dubious. The Universe Unraveling combines diplomatic, cultural, and military history to provide a new perspective on how prejudice can shape policy decisions and even the course of history.

Author : Sucheng Chan
Publisher : Temple University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781592135028
Total Pages : 354 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Vietnamese American 1.5 Generation written by Sucheng Chan and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Riveting stories by refugees who fled Vietnam.

Author : Nghia M. Vo
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 0786486341
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.42/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Saigon written by Nghia M. Vo and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2011-08-31 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Saigon (since 1976, officially Hồ Chi Minh City but widely still referred to as Saigon) is the largest metropolitan area in modern Vietnam and has long been the country's economic engine. This is the city's complete history, from its humble beginnings as a Khmer village in the swampy Mekong delta to its emergence as a major political, economic and cultural hub. The city's many transitions through the hands of the Chams, Khmers, Vietnamese, Chinese, French, Japanese, Americans, nationalists and communists are examined in detail, as well as the Saigon-led resistance to collectivization and the city's central role in Vietnam's perestroika-like economic reforms.

Author : Jonathan Michaels
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1135021228
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book McCarthyism written by Jonathan Michaels and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-04-21 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this succinct text, Jonathan Michaels examines the rise of anti-communist sentiment in the postwar United States, exploring the factors that facilitated McCarthyism and assessing the long-term effects on US politics and culture. McCarthyism:The Realities, Delusions and Politics Behind the 1950s Red Scare offers an analysis of the ways in which fear of communism manifested in daily American life, giving readers a rich understanding of this era of postwar American history. Including primary documents and a companion website, Michaels’ text presents a fully integrated picture of McCarthyism and the cultural climate of the United States in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Author : Anna Froula
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317402898
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.93/5 ( download)

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Download or read book American Militarism on the Small Screen written by Anna Froula and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-17 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anna Froula is Associate Professor of Film Studies in the Department of English at East Carolina University, USA Stacy Takacs is Associate Professor and Director of American Studies at Oklahoma State University, USA

Author : Jonathan H. X. Lee
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 031339928X
Total Pages : 478 pages
Book Rating : 4.82/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Asian American History Day by Day written by Jonathan H. X. Lee and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-10-12 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For student research, this reference highlights the importance of Asian Americans in U.S. history, the impact of specific individuals, and this ethnic group as a whole across time; documenting evolving policies, issues, and feelings concerning this particular American population. Asian American History Day by Day: A Reference Guide to Events provides a uniquely interesting way to learn about events in Asian American history that span several hundred years (and the contributions of Asian Americans to U.S. culture in that time). The book is organized in the form of a calendar, with each day of the year corresponding with an entry about an important event, person, or innovation that span several hundred years of Asian American history and references to books and websites that can provide more information about that event. Readers will also have access to primary source document excerpts that accompany the daily entries and serve as additional resources that help bring history to life. With this guide in hand, teachers will be able to more easily incorporate Asian American history into their classes, and students will find the book an easy-to-use guide to the Asian American past and an ideal "jumping-off point" for more targeted research.

Author : Andrew A. Wiest
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135187762
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.67/5 ( download)

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Download or read book New Perspectives on the Vietnam War written by Andrew A. Wiest and published by Routledge. This book was released on with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Vietnam War was one of the most heavily documented conflicts of the twentieth century. Although the events themselves recede further into history every year, the political and cultural changes the war brought about continue to resonate, even as a new generation of Americans grapples with its own divisive conflict.America and the Vietnam War: Re-examining the Culture and History of a Generation reconsiders the social and cultural aspects of the conflict that helped to fundamentally change the nation. With chapters written by subject area specialists, America and the Vietnam War takes on subjects such as women's role in the war, the music and the films of the time, the Vietnamese perspective, race and the war, and veterans and post-traumatic stress disorder.