Argument Without End : In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy

by Mcnamara, Robert

• ISBN13: 9781891620225
• ISBN10: 1891620223
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-03-01
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

The former Secretary of Defense, and leading scholars from the U.S. and Vietnam, offer a groundbreaking new study of exactly how the Vietnam War happened-- and why it could not be stopped before three million people died.

Author Biography

Robert S. McNamara was president of the Ford Motor Company, secretary of defense to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and president of the World Bank. James G. Blight is professor of international relations (research) at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University. The author or editor of ten books on the recent history of U.S. foreign policy, he is director of the Vietnam War project at Brown. Robert K. Brigham is associate professor of history and director of the Program in International Studies at Vassar College. Thomas J. Biersteker is director of the Watson Institute for International Studies and Henry Luce professor of transnational organizations, at Brown University. Colonel Herbert Y. Schandler is a professor in the Department of Grand Strategy at the National Defense University, Washington, DC. A former infantry commander in Vietnam, he earned a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi	(2)
Biographical Sketches of Participants in the U.S.-Vietnamese Dialogue	xiii	(11)
Maps	xxiv
1 The Theme and Structure of the Book	1	(20)
2 Enemies: Washington's and Hanoi's Mindsets by January 1961	21	(40)
3 The Evolution of Washington's and Hanoi's Mindsets, 1945-1960	61	(38)
4 A Neutral Solution: Was it Possible?	99	(52)
5 Escalation: 1961-1965	151	(68)
6 Negotiating Initiatives, 1965-1967: Why Did They Fail	219	(94)
7 U.S. Military Victory in Vietnam: A Dangerous Illusion?	313	(60)
8 Learning from Tragedy: Lessons of Vietnam for the Twenty-First Century	373	(26)
APPENDIX A Additions to History: Corrections to the Historical Record, 1945-1968	399	(10)
APPENDIX B Three Alternative U.S. Strategies in Vietnam: A Reexamination Based on New Chinese and Vietnamese Sources	409	(12)
APPENDIX C Participants in "The Vietnam War Reexamined: Its History and Lessons," a Conference in Bellagio, Italy, July 27-31, 1996	421	(2)
Notes	423	(32)
Photograph credits	455	(2)
Acronyms	457	(2)
Acknowledgments	459	(4)
Index	463