The Cambridge History of The Vietnam War
volume I
Origins
When, how, and why did the Vietnam War begin? Although its end is dated with great precision to April 30, 1975, there is no agreement as to when it began. The Vietnam War was an enormously complex conflict, and even though any comprehensive reckoning of its causes must include the role of the United States, it did not begin as an “American War.” This volume presents the scholarship that has flourished since the 1990s to situate the war and its origins within longer chronologies and wider interpretative perspectives. The Vietnam War was a war for national liberation and an episode of major importance in the Global Cold War. Yet it was also a civil war, and civil warfare was a defining feature of the conflict from the outset. Understanding the Vietnamese and Indochinese origins of the Vietnam War is a critical first step toward reckoning with the history of this violent, costly, and multilayered war.
Edward Miller is Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies, and Chair of the Department of Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages at Dartmouth College. He is the author of Misalliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and the Fate of South Vietnam and The Vietnam War: A Documentary Reader. He is the founding director of the Dartmouth Vietnam Project, a student-driven oral history program that documents the memories and experiences of members of the Dartmouth community who lived through the Vietnam War era.
