The story started in the Second World War. Then, the French had to content with the Japanese. The Japanese wanted to be in Vietnam to stage the action to block aid from going to Chiang through Yunan. while there was initial apprehensions because they did not want a conflict with the US (pg. 41), they did not know that the US would counsel the French to accede to the demands of the Japanese (pg. 32).Yet this would eventually lead the US to make the fateful decision to increase economic sanctions on Japan who, by then, had decided that she had no choice but to secure the resources from Southeast Asia. Which brought it to war with the US, and having to surrender, gave the Vietnamese the opportunity to demand independence.
This book explores the question: how did the US eventually got caught in such a tragic war after the French left Vietnam? In doing so, the author spent a good amount of time focusing on the famous Domino Theory which in hindsight did not materialise. Immediately after the Second World War, the US was at best ambivalent to the Vietnam question and in fact leaned towards asking the French to give independence to the Vietnamese. The French though, would have none of that and was able to cleverly portray the fight against Ho Chi Min as that of a frontier against the spread of Communism which requires the materiel support of the US. The US would be persuaded (pg. 220, 356).
As the US got more involved, they eventually had to confront the dilemma: should they follow their anti-colonial instincts or should they support the French in the larger context of the Cold War? They first chose a position that was a non-starter for the French - to promise independence to Vietnam but at the same time fight the Communist. That was a logical recommendation to an ally helping them to fight a broader war against the spread of Communism; it was fantastical idea if one is fighting to hold on to a colony, which the French was. So the French led the Americans along, and eventually when they felt that the Americans were too bothersome, wanted to shake them off.
And I quote from Jack Higgins's book Touch the Devil: Touch the devil and you can't let go.
By 1952, the French felt that they had had enough. But by then the Americans felt that they had been in the game too deep to let the French quit (pg. 318, 346-347). The French would not be able to shake the Americans off, and would have no choice but to go on with the war, culminating in Dien Bien Phu. The Americans who at first had to underwrite the war would end up taking over from the French. There would be a few years of relative calm as the date of the promised election in Vietnam came and went and the Americans would have their own experience at not being able to let the devil go (pg. 186, 197).
Prof. Logevall is an engaging writer. I particularly enjoy the lead up to Dien Bien Phu with all the suspense and then the fiasco as the French parameters shrunk. But it is not just enjoyable writing that makes this book an important one to read. In it, one will see history rearing its head, the attitudes that the French had (eg. the sunken cost) could also later be seen on the Americans, the belief amongst the Vietnamese that the foreigners would eventually go home would be repeated in the Second Vietnam War. We are left to wonder about ourselves, do we learn?
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