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

What path led Americans to Vietnam? Why and how did the United States become involved in this conflict? Drawing on materials from published and unpublished sources in America and Great Britain, historian Andrew Rotter uncovers and analyzes the surprisingly complex reasons for America's fateful decision to provide economic and military aid to the nations of Southeast Asia in May 1950. Contents Preface Introduction PART I. THE STAGE IS SET: THE REDISCOVERY OF ASIA 1. The Domestic and Foreign Contexts of the United States' Southeast Asian Policy, 1948-1949 PART II.THE PROBLEMS UNFOLD, 1948-1949 2. Japan: The New Urgency of Reconstruction 3. Great Britain and the Dollar Gap: The Malayan Link 4. The United States, Nationalism, and Colonialism in Postwar Southeast Asia 5. Shifts in United States Policy toward the Far East and the World, Autumn 1949 PART III. THE SOLUTIONS AND THEIR AFTERMATH, 1949-1950 AND BEYOND 6. The Reconstruction of Japan: The Southeast Asia Connection 7. The Reconstruction of Great Britain: Triangular Trade and the Limits of American Commitment 8. The Reconstruction of Western Europe and the Beginning of United States Aid to Southeast Asia 9. The Korean Intervention and After Abbreviations Used in the Notes Notes Bibliography Index