The Woodrow Wilson Center Press
Behind the Bamboo Curtain: China, Vietnam, and the Cold War
Cold War International History Project Series
Based on new archival research in many countries, this volume broadens the context of the U.S. intervention in Vietnam. Its primary focus is on relations between China and Vietnam in the mid-twentieth century; but the book also deals with China's relations with Cambodia, U.S. dealings with both China and Vietnam, French attitudes toward Vietnam and China, and Soviet views of Vietnam and China. Contributors from seven countries range from senior scholars and officials with decades of experience to young academics just finishing their dissertations. The general impact of this work is to internationalize the history of the Vietnam War, going well beyond the long-standing focus on the role of the United States.
Contributors include Chen Jian; Christopher E. Goscha; James G. Hershberg; Noam Kochavi; Li Danhui; Li Xiangqian; Fredrik Logevall; Luu Doan Huynh; Stephen J. Morris; Niu Jun; Mari Olsen; Shen Zhihua; Stein Tønnesson; Yang Kuisong; Zhai Qiang; and Shu Guang Zhang.
What People are Saying
"This volume marks the first time that top Chinese scholars have joined with leading U.S. and European scholars on this topic. Because of this important work, a number of issues surrounding the U.S. war in Vietnam will need to be reconsidered."—Odd Arne Westad, Professor of International History and Director of the Cold War Studies Centre, London School of Economics
Chapter List
Preface, by James G. Hershberg
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: The Vietnam War in Its International Setting, Priscilla Roberts
Part I The Beginning: From Colonial Rule to Escalation
1 Mao Zedong and the Indochina Wars, Yang Kuisong
2 Forging a New Relationship: The Soviet Union and Vietnam, 1955, Mari Olsen
3 Opportunities Lost? Kennedy, China, and Vietnam, Noam Kochavi
4 The French Recognition of China and Its Implications for the Vietnam War, Fredrik Logevall
5 The Economic and Political Impact of the Vietnam War on China in 1964, Li Xiangqian
Part II The Widening War
6 Informing the Enemy: Sino-American "Signaling" and the Vietnam War, 1965, James G. Hershberg and Chen Jian
7 Beijing's Aid to Hanoi and the United States–China Confrontations, 1964–1968, Shu Guang Zhang
8 The Sino-Soviet Soviet Dispute over Assistance to Vietnam's Anti-American War, 1965–1972, Li Danhui
9 The Background to the Shift in Chinese Policy toward the United States in the Late 1960s, Niu Jun
10 Sino-U.S. Reconciliation and China's Vietnam Policy, Shen Zhihua
11 China and the Cambodian Conflict, 1970–1975, Zhai Qiang
12 The Soviet–Vietnamese–Chinese Triangle in the 1970s: The View from Moscow, Stephen Morris
13 Commentary: A Vietnamese Scholar's Perspective on the Communist Big Powers and Vietnam, Luu Doan Huynh
Part III Documents
14 Le Duan and the Break with China, Stein Tønnesson and Christopher E. Goscha
15 Selected Conversations of Asian Communist Leaders on Indochina
About the Contributors
Index