Behind the Bamboo Curtain: China, Vietnam, and the World Beyond Asia(Cold War International History Project)

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.

Table of Contents:
Contents 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 Tonnesson and Christopher E. Goscha 15 Selected Conversations of Asian Communist Leaders on Indochina About the Contributors Index

About the Author :
Priscilla Roberts has been a Lecturer in History at the University of Hong Kong since 1984 and the Director of the University's Centre of American Studies since 1995. She is the author of The Cold War(2001), the editor ofSino-American Realtions since 1900(1991) and the associate editor of the Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social, and Military History.

Review :
"A model anthology, these cross-referenced essays find unity in substantiation of the editor's conclusion that during the Vietnam Was, ideology 'could not trump differences in political culture and style' or divergent national interests between Communist allies, as disagreement and discord raged behind the Bamboo Curtain." - Pacific Affairs "This book is certainly long-awaited and should refine, deepen, and change our understanding of the Vietnam War... All the chapters are well-written, cutting-edge and worth reading." - The China Review "This addition to the growing literature of the Vietnam War is long overdue." - CHOICE "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 "Behind the Bamboo Curtain is an important collection of essays on Sino-Vietnamese relations during the Cold War An excellent contribution from a Vietnamese historian and well-documented chapters on Soviet and French policy further augment the impo