Book description
Using recently released archival materials from the United States and
Europe, Replacing France: The Origins of American Intervention in
Vietnam explains how and why the United States came to assume control as
the dominant western power in Vietnam during the 1950s. Acting on their
conviction that American methods had a better chance of building a
stable, noncommunist South Vietnamese nation, Eisenhower administration
officials systematically ejected French military, economic, political,
bureaucratic, and cultural institutions from Vietnam. Kathryn C. Statler
examines diplomatic maneuvers in Paris, Washington, London, and Saigon
to detail how Western alliance members sought to transform South Vietnam
into a modern, westernized, and democratic ally but ultimately failed to
counter the Communist threat. Abetted by South Vietnamese prime minister
Ngo Dinh Diem, Americans in Washington, D. C., and Saigon undermined
their French counterparts at every turn, resulting in the disappearance
of a French presence by the time Kennedy assumed office. Although the
United States ultimately replaced France in South Vietnam, efforts to
build South Vietnam into a nation failed. Instead, it became a dependent
client state that was unable to withstand increasing Communist
aggression from the North. Replacing France is a fundamental
reassessment of the origins of U. S. involvement in Vietnam that
explains how Franco-American conflict led the United States to pursue a
unilateral and ultimately imperialist policy in Vietnam. Kathryn C.
Statler is associate professor of history at the University of San Diego
and coeditor of The Eisenhower Administration, the Third World, and the
Globalization of the Cold War.
