The Vietnam War: A Concise International History- Mark Atwood Lawrence (2010)

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No matter how many times I read an account of the Vietnam War or visit the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, there are always elements of the history that I struggle with and questions that remain in my mind. I recently studied this war for my A-Level history course but I often forget features of the international context that lead to the events that unfolded, preventing me from having a full picture of why, and how, this war came to be. Clearly I needed to refresh my memory with a book that explains the roots and developments of the Vietnam War. Mark Atwood Lawrence achieves this successfully in The Vietnam War: A Concise International History, succinctly evaluating what he considers to be the four key questions of historical debate, viewed from an international perspective and considering different streams of historical interpretation.  The four arguments considered in the book are the basic motives of the Vietnamese who fought against the US, the reasons why powerful nations invested so much in this small, impoverished country, the reasons for the outcome of the war and the legacy of the war for both Vietnam and the United States. Lawrence does not provide conclusive answers to all of these questions but lays his interpretation out through his excellent explanation of the war as a historical event.

Mark Atwood Lawrence has been the Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas in Austin since 2000. He has published one other book on the Vietnam War: Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam, which won the 2006 George Louis Beer prize and the Paul Birdsall Prize of the American Historical Association.  The angle he assumes in this, his second book, is largely focused on the importance of American policy-making decisions, although Soviet, Chinese, French, British, Japanese and particularly North and South Vietnamese decision-making is also accounted for. The reason for this focus is outlined in his introduction, in which Lawrence explains how American calculations were central to the development of a war that is known by many names: ‘the Vietnam War’ in the West, ‘the American War’ within Indochina and ‘the Second Indochina War’ to many historians. Furthermore, Lawrence explains, source material on American decision making, politics and public opinion throughout and following the war is more accessible than in any other country. Nonetheless, the author makes use of new source material that has become available since the fall of the Soviet Union and the opening of Vietnam in the late 1980s and early 1990s, providing a broad international view of the war as a historical event.

Great detail is devoted to explaining the “long flow of Vietnamese history” that provides background and context for the events of the twentieth century. From the development of the first Viet kingdom, through a millennium of Chinese domination and a century of French colonialism, Vietnam has a long history of fighting foreign invasion. Communist propaganda throughout the war against the US, and still to this day, manipulates this historical fact as evidence of an intrinsic Vietnamese characteristic of stout nationalism and hardihood. In fact, many historians claim that a misunderstanding of Vietnamese history and culture explains American miscalculations in thinking that they could defeat the Vietnamese communists. More notably, Lawrence explains how opposition to the brutal and repressive French regime in Vietnam led to the establishment of groups to challenge the existing order, thus developing the political organisation and structures necessary to overthrow the French in 1954 and later defeat the Americans.

Lawrence shows sympathy towards the Vietnamese struggle for independence, one that was arguably characterised by nationalism as much as by communism. Interestingly, it was during the First Indochina War between France and Ho Chi Minh’s Viet Minh party that the conflict escalated from a colonial struggle to a Cold War confrontation that polarised the world; to gain much-needed US support, France claimed to be fighting a ‘war against communism’, rather than merely serving their own imperialist interests. Meanwhile, in a bid to encourage aid from the Soviet Union, Ho Chi Minh betrayed his preferred method of maintaining broad coalitions of different interest groups by emphasising his commitment to international communism. The author does not show bias towards either side; Lawrence shows contempt for the persecution brought by the new communist authorities of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as much as for the hawkish American policy-makers responsible for the escalation of a bloody war that claimed millions of lives. In his concluding chapter he notes the psychological impact of the war on both American and Vietnamese citizens, and summarises the change in the global order that followed, including the impact of the war on future American foreign policy.

This is a well-researched book that effectively and concisely explores the war, its background and its aftermath in the context of shifting global geopolitical patterns. Lawrence makes good use of quotes to support the arguments he puts forward. Moreover, this adds interest and a sense of the attitudes taken towards the conflict by different parties, from politicians, journalists and news reporters to soldiers and Vietnamese peasants. The narrative is easy to follow, the writing is clear and the arguments are well explained, making this the perfect introduction to the Vietnam War for the average reader.

I found this book useful for my project. The history of Vietnam as recorded in the opening chapter was very well summarised and this information will be beneficial for my studies. Furthermore, despite its focus on American policy decisions, the book also provides insight into Vietnamese decision-making on both sides of the seventeenth parallel, as well as explaining the impact of the war on the country and its population. After reading moving memoirs of those who served on the ground for the North Vietnamese side, such as Bao Ninh’s The Sorrow of War and Dang Thuy Tram’s Last Night I Dreamed of Peace, it is useful to step back and look at the international context that resulted in the unfolding of this terrible war.