Vietnam : anatomy of a war, 1940-1975

When the war ended in 1975, Vietnam's leaders had no coherent plan for dealing with the southern economy, much less the skills and organization that the immense challenge demanded. Preface - xi Introduction - 3 Part One: The Origins of the War to 1960 Vietnam's Road to Crisis - 13 2 The Communist Party until 1945: From Depression to War - 22 3 Vietnam: From the August 1945 Revolution to Protracted War - 35 4 The Internal World of Vietnamese Communism: Theory and Practice - 45 5 The Communist Party's Consolidation of Power - 62 6 America's Confrontation with the Limits of World Power, 1946-1960 - 72 7 South Vietnam to 1959: Origins of the Conflict - 80 8 The Communist Party's Dilemma in the South, 1954-1959 - 97 Part Two: The Crisis in South Vietnam and American Intervention, 1961-1965 9 The U.S. Involvement in Vietnam: From Sponsorship to Air War - 111 10 The War and Rural Vietnam - 126 11 The Challenge of Defining Military Strategies - 138 12 The United States, the Revolution, and the Components of Struggle - 152 Part Three: Total War, 1965-1967, and the Transformation of South Vietnam 13 Escalation and the Frustration of American Politics - 163 14 The Continuing Search for Effective Military Strategies - 176 15 The Dilemma of the American Way of War - 188 16 War and the Transformation of South Vietnamese Society - 199 17 Nguyen Van Thieu and the RVN Power Structure - 208 18 The Dilemma of Economic Dependency and the RVN - 223 19 The Building of the RVN's Army and the Struggle for Rural South Vietnam - 231 20 The Character and Consequences of the Two Vietnamese Armies - 252 21 The Communist Party's Responses to Total War - 264 22 The Economic Impact of the War on the United States - 283 23 The Balance of Forces in the War at the End of 1967 - 293 Part Four: The Tet Offensive and the Events of 1968 24 The Tet Offensive - 303 25 The Tet Offensive's Impact on Washington - 312 26 Assessing the Tet Offensive - 327 Part Five: War and Diplomacy, 1969-1972 27 The Nixon Administration's Confrontation with Vietnam and the World - 341 28 The Crisis of American Military Power - 356 29 The Revolution's Military Policy, 1969-1971 - 368 30 The United States and the RVN: Vietnamization's Contradictions - 377 31 The Struggle for a Changing Rural South Vietnam - 386 32 The Communist Party's International Strategy - 401 33 War on Two Fronts: Diplomacy and Battlefields, 1971-1972 - 412 34 The Diplomatic Process: Illusions and Realities - 431 Part Six: The Crisis of the Republic of Vietnam and the End of the War, 1973-1975 35 The Balance of Forces in South Vietnam, Early 1973, and the Impact of the RVN's Policies - 457 36 The Nixon Administration's Dilemmas of Power - 470 37 Recovery and Response: The Communist Party's Strategy until Mid-1974 - 476 38 The Deepening Crisis of the RVN Social System - 483 39 Saigon and Washington, Mid- 1974: The Conjunction of Two Crises - 499 40 The Revolution's Perceptions and Plans, Late 1974 - 513 41 The End of the War - 521 Conclusion - 545 Sources and Notes - 559 Chronology - 607 Glossary - 612 Index - 615