Choosing War by Fredrik Logevall

Choosing War

By

  • Genre U.S. History
  • Publisher Univ of California Press
  • Released
  • Size 9.79 MB
  • Length 558 Pages

Description

In one of the most detailed and powerfully argued books published on American intervention in Vietnam, Fredrik Logevall examines the last great unanswered question on the war: Could the tragedy have been averted? His answer: a resounding yes. Challenging the prevailing myth that the outbreak of large-scale fighting in 1965 was essentially unavoidable, Choosing War argues that the Vietnam War was unnecessary, not merely in hindsight but in the context of its time.

Why, then, did major war break out? Logevall shows it was partly because of the timidity of the key opponents of U.S. involvement, and partly because of the staunch opposition of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations to early negotiations. His superlative account shows that U.S. officials chose war over disengagement despite deep doubts about the war's prospects and about Vietnam's importance to U.S. security and over the opposition of important voices in the Congress, in the press, and in the world community. They did so because of concerns about credibility—not so much America's or the Democratic party's credibility, but their own personal credibility.

Based on six years of painstaking research, this book is the first to place American policymaking on Vietnam in 1963-65 in its wider international context using multiarchival sources, many of them recently declassified. Here we see for the first time how the war played in the key world capitals—not merely in Washington, Saigon, and Hanoi, but also in Paris and London, in Tokyo and Ottawa, in Moscow and Beijing.

Choosing War is a powerful and devastating account of fear, favor, and hypocrisy at the highest echelons of American government, a book that will change forever our understanding of the tragedy that was the Vietnam War.

In one of the most detailed and powerfully argued books published on American intervention in Vietnam, Fredrik Logevall examines the last great unanswered question on the war: Could the tragedy have been averted? His answer: a resounding yes. Challenging

More Fredrik Logevall Books

  • Embers of War

    Embers of War

    Fredrik Logevall

    History

  • JFK

    JFK

    Fredrik Logevall

    Biographies & Memoirs

  • America’s Cold War

    America’s Cold War

    Campbell Craig & Fredrik Logevall

    U.S. History

  • The Origins of the Vietnam War

    The Origins of the Vietnam War

    Fredrik Logevall

    History

  • Nixon in the World

    Nixon in the World

    Fredrik Logevall & Andrew Preston

    U.S. History

  • War

    War

    Philip Bobbitt, Lilia Shevtsova, Rolf Ekéus, Andrew Preston, Janne Haaland Matlary, Hew Strachan, Rob Johnson, Nathan Shachar, Elisabeth Kendall, Christopher Coker, Dick Harrison, Lawrence Freedman, Gregory Feifer, Fredrik Logevall, Peter Pomerantsev, Alexey Arbatov, Pascal Vennesson, David J. Betz, Kimberly Kagan, Frederick Kagan, Rana Mitter, Jessica Stern, Charly Salonius-Pasternak, Malise Ruthven & Tom Holland

    Military History

  • JFK

    JFK

    Fredrik Logevall

    U.S. History

  • Krig

    Krig

    Fredrik Logevall, David J. Betz, Nathan Shachar, Jessica Stern, Andrew Preston, Charly Salonius-Pasternak, Lawrence Freedman, Janne Haaland Matlary, Richard J. Evans, Gregory Feifer, Rolf Ekéus, Christopher Coker, Philip Bobbitt, Rana Mitter, Dick Harrison, Peter Pomerantsev, Tom Holland, Malise Ruthven, Rob Johnson, Hew Strachan, Frederick Kagan, Lilia Shevtsova, Kimberly Kagan, Pascal Vennesson, Elisabeth Kendall & Alexey Arbatov

    Social Science

  • The Vietnam War in the Pacific World

    The Vietnam War in the Pacific World

    Brian Cuddy & Fredrik Logevall

    History

  • Choosing War

    Choosing War

    Fredrik Logevall

    U.S. History