The Vietnam War

In the foreword the author explains why the book was written: the Vietnam War and the political jargon it created are used loosely by politicians, scholars and the public in Turkey, but no serious work has been written about the war. The aim is to show, through an academic assessment, the causes of the war and its meaning for Vietnam, America, the communist world and especially the Soviet Union and China. The author thanks the library of the Turkish Grand National Assembly and the library of Bilkent University.

The introduction lists the consequences of the war: the defeat of the US by a guerrilla movement despite its huge military power, the growth of the terminology of asymmetric war, the deepening of rifts within the communist world, and the demonstration that «containment» and the «domino theory» did not work. Economically, the financial burden of Vietnam was unbearable for the US; politically, it is written, anti-war protesters, advocates of black rights, minorities and even supporters of sexual rights gained a powerful environment for action in America.

On the colonial period, the author says Vietnam lived under Chinese rule for a thousand years without losing its national identity. French missionaries appear from the 17th century and by the end of the 18th century 600,000 Vietnamese in the south and 200,000 in the north have been converted to Christianity. France took Vietnam after more than 25 years of wars. The author writes that Britain ruled the 350 million of India with about 5,000 officials, while France with the same number of officials barely ruled the 30 million of Vietnam, and calls French colonialism «plunder». Communism spreads among landless masses, and the Indochinese Communist Party founded by Ho Chi Minh becomes active.

The Second World War and the Japanese occupation increase Vietnamese support for the Viet Minh. On 2 September 1945 the Democratic Republic of Vietnam is declared under Ho Chi Minh, but France, with British and American support, restores the colonial regime. Defeated at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, France withdraws. Under the Geneva Accords the country is temporarily divided at the 17th parallel into two; South Vietnam does not allow a general election and the division becomes permanent. Eisenhower says China is lost and that Indochina must not be lost because of Vietnam, and Kennedy brings in the «Green Berets» to stop communism.

The author calls Diem, the leader of South Vietnam, «one of the dictators of modern times» and writes that his family rule rested on Catholics and the wealthy; he is killed in a coup in November 1963. A few weeks later Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. On taking power, Johnson turns the war into an American war. In August 1964, on the claim of an «attack on American ships» in the Gulf of Tonkin, the US begins air attacks. The author writes that the Tonkin incident did not happen as claimed and shows how it raised Johnson's popularity before the elections.

Then the war grows. It is claimed that the tonnage of bombs America dropped on North Vietnam exceeded all those dropped on Europe in the Second World War, but no source is given. Air raids are not enough and the US has to send a land army of about 500,000. In the Tet Offensive of 1968 the Viet Cong reach the American embassy in Saigon. The author calls it «America's first 9/11» and writes that it crushed Americans' self-confidence. The first television war, student protests (SDS), the killing of Martin Luther King on 4 April 1968, riots in 125 cities and Hollywood films (such as «Platoon») are also described in the introduction.

• The introduction gives the whole war and its consequences together in summary
• International background: France, the US, the Soviet Union, China and Japan
• Extensive references in footnotes to researchers such as Joseph Buttinger, William Duiker, Gabriel Kolko and Robert Buzzanco
• The relation of the media, the anti-war movement and Hollywood to the war is given in separate chapters