Perseus Academic: Vietnam by D.R. SarDesai

Recent U.S. military interventions in Kosovo and Iraq have stirred public memories of the long and costly Vietnam conflict. Scholars and strategists, military leaders and media continue to raise questions such as what motivated the Vietnamese to wage a protracted conflict first against the French and later against the Americans at such great economic and emotional cost. In this fourth edition, SarDesai provides new insights on the decision-making process in Hanoi and Washington D.C. during the Vietnam conflict. He analyzes the extensive historiographical dialog in the 1990’s involving scholars, strategists and policy-makers of the two countries. He addresses the postwar era of Vietnam’s reconstruction, administrative reorganization, the U.N. sponsored Cambodian settlement, as well as Vietnam’s membership and growing role in the ASEAN. SarDesai also looks at the new economic and strategic relationship between Vietnam and its former foe marked by President Clinton’s visit to Hanoi and the increasing U.S. investment and trade in Vietnam in the aftermath of the Bilateral Trade Treaty (BTA) of July 2000.

D. R. SarDesai is former Chairperson of South and Southeast Asian Studies and the first holder of the Doshi Chair in Indian History at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Southeast Asia: Past and Present 5th Edition (Westview Press, 2003). He is also the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Yadunandan Center for India Studies for his caring and distinguished work in South and Southeast Asian studies.