Path to Vietnam

Andrew J. Rotter is Professor of History at Colgate University.

A well-documented and sound addition to an understanding of the economic and diplomatic factors that explain our ascending commitment to Vietnam in the early postwar period.(Journal of American History) The great merit of Rotter's work lies in his demonstration of how the commitment to supporting the French in Indochina was connected to the economic reconstruction of Europe and Japan as essential elements of containment.(Foreign Affairs) The United States became committed to a non-Communist Vietnam on May 1, 1950, when President Truman allocated $10 million in military aid to French fndochina. In this persuasive, richly documented study, Rotter analyzes why the Truman administration took that momentous step.(Choice)