Dommen's book promises to be the definitive political history of
Indochina during the Franco-American era. -- William M. Leary, E. Merton
Coulter Professor of History, University of Georgia This
...magisterial study by Arthur J. Dommen sets the Indochina wars 'French and American'
in perspective as no book that has come before. He summarizes the history of the
peninsula from the Vietnamese War of Independence from China in 930-39 through the
first French military actions in 1858, when the struggle of the peoples of Indochina
with Western powers began. Dommen details the crucial episodes in
the colonization of Indochina by the French and the indigenous reaction to it. The
struggle for national sovereignty reached an acute state at the end of World War II,
when independent governments rapidly assumed power in Vietnam and Cambodia. When the
French returned, the struggle became one of open warfare, with Nationalists and
Communists gripped in a contest for ascendancy in Vietnam, while the rulers of
Cambodia and Laos sought to obtain independence by
negotiation. The withdrawal of the French after their defeat at
Dien Bien Phu brought the Indochinese face-to-face, whether as friends or as
enemies, with the Americans. In spite of an armistice in 1954, the war between Hanoi
and Saigon resumed as each enlisted the help of foreign allies, which led to the
renewed loss of sovereignty as a result of alliances and an increasingly heavy loss
of lives. Meticulous and detailed, Dommen's telling of this complicated story is
always judicious. Nevertheless, many people will find his analysis of the Diem coup
a disturbing account of American plotting and murder. This is an
essential book for anyone who wants to understand Vietnam and the people who fought
against the United States and won.
After years of secrecy, the archives in the United States on Laos are opening up. This represents a significant change from an initial postwar period (1975-84) when anything to do with practically ...any aspect of Indochina was considered taboo and neglect of these documents was sanctioned, and a subsequent period (1985-92) when the struggles of historical researchers to obtain the release of selected documents under the Freedom of Information Act accentuated what amounted to a government policy of non-co-operation. Beginning in 1990, however, after a hiatus of almost a decade, the Department of State resumed publishing its documentary record of US diplomatic relations with Laos. These volumes have now covered the story through to 1963.
