America's Vietnam War and Its French Connection (Routledge Advances in American History)

That America was drawn into the Vietnam War by the French has been recognized, but rarely explored. This book analyzes the years from 1945 with the French military reconquest of Vietnam until 1963 with the execution of the French-endorsed dictator, Ngo Dinh Diem, demonstrating how the US should not have followed the French into Vietnam. It shows how the Korean War triggered the flow of American military hardware and finances to underpin France’s war against the Marxist-oriented Vietnam Republic led by Ho Chi Minh.

Frank Cain is a Visiting Fellow at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales in Canberra.