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The Agent-Structure Co-Constitution and the Vietnam Commitment Decisions: A Rejoinder to Yuen Foong Khong

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2003

GAVAN DUFFY
GAVAN DUFFY
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, 100 Eggers Hall, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY 13244, USA. Tel: (315) 476-4825. Fax: (315) 443-2416. [email protected]
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Abstract

This essay responds to Yuen Foong Khong's (2002) spirited defence of his Analogies at War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965 (Khong, 1992). The author had earlier criticized Khong's overemphasis of agency over structure in his accounting of the 1965 US troop deployment decisions (Duffy, 2001). This essay points to several deficiencies in Khong's defence. Chief among them are (a) the inconsistency between Khong's conception of structure and his professed constructivism, and (b) the false dualism between agency and structure open which Khong's defence rests.

Type
Research Article
Information
Japanese Journal of Political Science , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , May 2003 , pp. 103 - 111
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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