Brian Cuddy and Frederik Logevall (eds.), The Vietnam War in the Pacific World
Brian Cuddy and Frederik Logevall (eds.), The Vietnam War in the Pacific World, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022
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1In his speech to the American people in November 1969, President Richard Nixon concluded that his plan for “Vietnamization”, as he called it, “will end the war and serve the cause of peace, not just in Vietnam but in the Pacific and in the world”. His emphasis on the Pacific dimension of the conflict, however, has not been followed by scholarship. Certainly, research on the Vietnam War (sometimes called the Second Indochina War) has taken a noticeably international turn since the 1990s, but the Pacific dimension of the war remains understudied. Indeed, the editors announce their goals in the first chapter, significantly entitled “Fire in the American Lake: Toward a Regional Turn in Vietnam War Studies”, where they state:
We hold that this regional context is central to any understanding of why, how, and to what effect the United States and its partners intervened in a contest between communist nationalists in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, also known as North Vietnam, and the southern insurgent National Liberation Front on the one side, and anti-communist nationalists in the Republic of Vietnam, or South Vietnam, on the other side. This volume is dedicated to exploring the regional dynamics of the origins, conduct, and legacies of the Vietnam War.
2They go on to insist on the fact that “The Vietnam War was fought for, by and through the Pacific” – which, of course is absolutely correct. But while the literature is huge on the United States and major studies exist on the USSR, China, and a number of European countries with regard to the war, strangely enough, little work on the Pacific region exists. The Vietnam War in the Pacific World is, thus, a welcome addition to scholarship, detailing as it does the actions and reactions of Vietnam’s near or distant neighbors. This book helps to fill a big and noticeable gap.
3The eighteen chapters that follow provide detailed case studies of different regional actors, including Australia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. While most analyses (especially earlier ones) tended to focus on the war itself and its conduct, the editors here also include chapters on the war’s legacies. The studies range chronologically from the period of the conflict to its aftermath, examining those who served there (from Australia and South Korea notably) as well as the diverse experience of Vietnamese refugees (the Boat People in Hong Kong or immigrants to Australia). While the impact of imperialism has been examined in detail with regard to Indochina in the French Empire and American neo-imperialism in South Vietnam, this book expands to include the legacies of the British Empire in the region, and their impact both on Anglo-American relations and on the newly independent countries in the region. As Wen-Qing Ngoei notes: “British neocolonial machinations in Malaya and Singapore were fundamental to the expansion of U.S. empire in this corner of the Pacific once dominated by the European powers” (p. 17). The whole book provides a rich and varied presentation of the myriad ways in which the Pacific world was affected by the conflict.
4In many of these chapters, the authors illustrate the race-based thinking of Americans, Europeans and Australians and its relationship to anti-communism. As Greg Lockhart asserts in his chapter on the basis of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War: “The imposition of the Cold War on the process of decolonization further meant that the race-based strategy, which Australia evolved to establish a neo-imperial order in Asia, tended to be overlaid and camouflaged by anti-communist rhetoric” (p. 32). In keeping with the ideas of new diplomatic history, emotional aspects of the thinking of major players are also highlighted, such as in A. Gabrielle Westcott’s analysis of the 1967 Clifford-Taylor mission.
5While illuminating the role of previously neglected nations, the book also manages to examine new aspects of the American role in the area. One chapter focuses on the little-studied but key role played by Hawaii, while another looks at the relationship between American G.I.s and the Japanese anti-war movement. The generally underestimated importance of Indonesia in American policymakers’ decisions is analyzed by Mark Atwood Lawrence, notably with regard to the Nixon Doctrine and how Suharto’s Indonesia fit in well with Washington’s aims to reduce American military involvement around the world through greater reliance on regional partners (p. 81). In chapter 14, Mattias Fibiger deconstructs one of the major arguments still being given to justify the American war: the US may have lost in Vietnam but, by fighting the war, it gained time to save other countries in the region from communism. He admits that “the Vietnam War served as an engine of economic growth in Southeast Asia” (p. 243), but he also concludes that it “contributed to the rise of authoritarian governments” (p. 251). Fibiger, furthermore, underlines the moral bankruptcy of the argument since it does not take into account the loss of human lives and damage to the environment.
6Historians have also had a tendency to forget that, while the US overwhelmingly supplied the most troops, other nations did contribute in multiple fashions, including sending soldiers. David Anderson provides an overview of the American-led coalition which consisted of the US, South Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand and the Philippines. As he emphasizes: “these third-country nations deployed military members to the RVN for reasons of their own national interests” (182). He then looks at these reasons and the contributions of each nation. Jason Lim’s chapter considers Taiwan’s economic assistance to South Vietnam while Zach Fredman’s looks at the U.S. army’s rest and recreation program in Taiwan, especially in connection with the sex trade there. Several chapters look at the experience of South Korea, with regard to the actual fighting, since it sent combat troops, and developed its own wartime myths, such as the “Vietnamese skirt”. Singapore figures prominently here regarding both its relations with the UK and the US and the war’s impact on its economic and political development.
7The final chapters of the book focus on the legacies of the war in the region, notably with regard to veterans and refugees. Lisa Tran’s chapter looks at the exodus from South Vietnam while Jana Lipman examines the legal aspects of the Boat People’s situation in Hong Kong. Chapter 17 focuses on Vietnamese serving in the Australian Defence Force while the following one compares and contrasts the legacy of the war in the memories of Australian and American veterans. The final chapter takes a more ecological point of view, looking at Australian use of Agent Orange and the consequences not only in Vietnam but also on Aboriginal Australians. It shows how colonialism infused both American and Australian thought, rhetoric and actions with regard to dioxin contamination – in relation both to the Vietnamese and to their own indigenous populations.
8All in all, this is an excellent, path-breaking study that places the war and its aftermath in its geographical region, thus providing important new insights into its international dimension. It is a noteworthy addition to the large literature on the subject.
References
Electronic reference
Lori Maguire, “Brian Cuddy and Frederik Logevall (eds.), The Vietnam War in the Pacific World ”, Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique [Online], XXIX-1 | 2024, Online since 29 March 2024, connection on 08 December 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/11819; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/rfcb.11819
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