Share
Jfk and de Gaulle: How America and France Failed in Vietnam, 1961-1963 (Studies in Conflict, Diplomacy, and Peace)
Sean J. Mclaughlin (Author)
·
The University Press Of Kentucky
· Hardcover
Jfk and de Gaulle: How America and France Failed in Vietnam, 1961-1963 (Studies in Conflict, Diplomacy, and Peace) - Sean J. Mclaughlin
£ 45.00
£ 50.00
You save: £ 5.00
Choose the list to add your product or create one New List
✓ Product added successfully to the Wishlist.
Go to My WishlistsIt will be shipped from our warehouse between
Tuesday, May 14 and
Wednesday, May 15.
You will receive it anywhere in United Kingdom between 1 and 3 business days after shipment.
Synopsis "Jfk and de Gaulle: How America and France Failed in Vietnam, 1961-1963 (Studies in Conflict, Diplomacy, and Peace)"
Despite French President Charles de Gaulle's persistent efforts to constructively share French experience and use his resources to help engineer an American exit from Vietnam, the Kennedy administration responded to de Gaulle's peace initiatives with bitter silence and inaction. The administration's response ignited a series of events that dealt a massive blow to American prestige across the globe, resulting in the deaths of over fifty-eight thousand American soldiers and turning hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese citizens into refugees.This history of Franco-American relations during the Kennedy presidency explores how and why France and the US disagreed over the proper western strategy for the Vietnam War. France clearly had more direct political experience in Vietnam, but France's postwar decolonization cemented Kennedy's perception that the French were characterized by a toxic mixture of short-sightedness, stubbornness, and indifference to the collective interests of the West. At no point did the Kennedy administration give serious consideration to de Gaulle's proposals or entertain the notion of using his services as an honest broker in order to disengage from a situation that was rapidly spiraling out of control. Kennedy's Francophobia, the roots of which appear in a selection of private writings from Kennedy's undergraduate years at Harvard, biased his decision-making. The course of action Kennedy chose in 1963, a rejection of the French peace program, all but handcuffed Lyndon Johnson into formally entering a war he knew the United States had little chance of winning.
