The path to Vietnam : origins of the American commitment to Southeast Asia /

The US became committed to a non-Communist Vietnam on May 1, 1950, when President Truman allocated $10 million in military aid to French Indochina. In this persuasive, richly documented study, Rotter analyzes why the Truman administration took that momentous step. Previous studies, such as George Herring's America's Longest War (CH, Jul '80), have emphasized that the US reluctantly backed French colonialism because it wanted to bolster a crucial European ally. Rotter agrees, but adds that the origins of the US commitment can be found in the political economy of Truman's Southeast Asian policy. A stable, prosperous, non-Communist Southeast Asia was vital for the containment of China, the economic reconstruction of Japan, Britain, and France, and the political unification of Western Europe. A Communist triumph in Vietnam would endanger that strategy. To protect liberalism and capitalism in the developed world, the US ironically agreed to support despotism and colonialism in Southeast Asia. Comprehensive bibliography and index. Recommended for all college and university libraries.-S.G. Rabe, University of Texas at Dallas