Choosing War
Subtitle: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: July 30, 1999
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 557
ISBN-13: 9780520215115
Subjects: American history: postwar, from c 1945 -; Asian / Middle Eastern history: postwar, from c 1945 -; Central government policies; Warfare & Defence; Vietnam; International Relations - General; 20th Century Diplomatic History; U.S. History - Vietnam Conflict (1965-1973); History; History - General History; United States - 20th Century; History: World; USA; Military - Vietnam War; Asia - Southeast Asia; History / General; Foreign relations; Vietnam War, 1961-1975; United States
First sentence: We begin not in Washington or Saigon or Hanoi but in Paris: Paris with its long and tangled attachment to the affairs of Vietnam, Paris where French leaders had ruled Indochina for three-quarters of a century and where generations of privileged Vietnamese had gone to be educated.
Description: "In Choosing War Fredrik Logevall presents the first truly comprehensive examination of the making of a major war in Vietnam in 1963-65.

Placing U.S. decision making in its wider international and domestic political contexts, he shows that the Vietnam War was unnecessary, not merely in hindsight but from the perspective of key players at the time, American-officials chose war over disengagement despite deep pessimism about U.S. prospects in the war and over the objections of important voices in the United States and abroad."--BOOK JACKET.