Vietnam: Anatomy of a War, 1940-1975

Preface - xi
Introduction - 3

Part One: The Origins of the War to 1960
Vietnam's Road to Crisis - 13
2 The Communist Party until 1945: From Depression to War - 22
3 Vietnam: From the August 1945 Revolution to Protracted War - 35
4 The Internal World of Vietnamese Communism: Theory and Practice - 45
5 The Communist Party's Consolidation of Power - 62
6 America's Confrontation with the Limits of World Power, 1946-1960 - 72
7 South Vietnam to 1959: Origins of the Conflict - 80
8 The Communist Party's Dilemma in the South, 1954-1959 - 97

Part Two: The Crisis in South Vietnam and American Intervention, 1961-1965
9 The U.S. Involvement in Vietnam: From Sponsorship to Air War - 111
10 The War and Rural Vietnam - 126
11 The Challenge of Defining Military Strategies - 138
12 The United States, the Revolution, and the Components of Struggle - 152

Part Three: Total War, 1965-1967, and the Transformation of South Vietnam
13 Escalation and the Frustration of American Politics - 163
14 The Continuing Search for Effective Military Strategies - 176
15 The Dilemma of the American Way of War - 188
16 War and the Transformation of South Vietnamese Society - 199
17 Nguyen Van Thieu and the RVN Power Structure - 208
18 The Dilemma of Economic Dependency and the RVN - 223
19 The Building of the RVN's Army and the Struggle for Rural South Vietnam - 231
20 The Character and Consequences of the Two Vietnamese Armies - 252
21 The Communist Party's Responses to Total War - 264
22 The Economic Impact of the War on the United States - 283
23 The Balance of Forces in the War at the End of 1967 - 293

Part Four: The Tet Offensive and the Events of 1968
24 The Tet Offensive - 303
25 The Tet Offensive's Impact on Washington - 312
26 Assessing the Tet Offensive - 327

Part Five: War and Diplomacy, 1969-1972
27 The Nixon Administration's Confrontation with Vietnam and the World - 341
28 The Crisis of American Military Power - 356
29 The Revolution's Military Policy, 1969-1971 - 368
30 The United States and the RVN: Vietnamization's Contradictions - 377
31 The Struggle for a Changing Rural South Vietnam - 386
32 The Communist Party's International Strategy - 401
33 War on Two Fronts: Diplomacy and Battlefields, 1971-1972 - 412
34 The Diplomatic Process: Illusions and Realities - 431

Part Six: The Crisis of the Republic of Vietnam and the End of the War, 1973-1975
35 The Balance of Forces in South Vietnam, Early 1973, and the Impact of the RVN's Policies - 457
36 The Nixon Administration's Dilemmas of Power - 470
37 Recovery and Response: The Communist Party's Strategy until Mid-1974 - 476
38 The Deepening Crisis of the RVN Social System - 483
39 Saigon and Washington, Mid- 1974: The Conjunction of Two Crises - 499
40 The Revolution's Perceptions and Plans, Late 1974 - 513
41 The End of the War - 521

Conclusion - 545
Sources and Notes - 559
Chronology - 607
Glossary - 612
Index - 615