The First Vietnam War

The First Vietnam War

Shawn McHale explores why the communist-led resistance in Vietnam won the anticolonial war against France (1945–54), except in the south. He shows how broad swaths of Vietnamese people were uneasily united in 1945 under the Viet Minh Resistance banner, all opposing the French attempt to reclaim control of the country. By 1947, resistance unity had shattered and Khmer-Vietnamese ethnic violence had divided the Mekong delta. From this point on, the war in the south turned into an overt civil war wrapped up in a war against France. Based on extensive archival research in four countries and in three languages, this is the first substantive English-language book focused on southern Vietnam's transition from colonialism to independence. "I strongly recommend The First Vietnam War. Its complex discussion of how the war magnified power dynamics and local conflicts would appeal to specialist scholars, while general readers would appreciate how different the war looked from the Mekong Delta. " --Phi-Van Nguyen, Journal of Vietnamese Studies "McHale provides a nuanced picture of how the war was fought, the complex strategic thinking of the combatants, and the societal after-effects of the violence. Military historians will be especially interested in his careful analysis of the differing practices and logics of violence in the fractured Mekong Delta, which was 'a laboratory for experimentation, backed by violence'" - Justin Simundson, Journal of Military History "The mastery of sources (the book contains fine discoveries of secondary works) makes it a clear contribution to several aspects of the war that have remained blind spots to this day, in particular the Khmer question, biological nationalism or the analysis of certain social imaginaries." --Pascal Bourdeaux, Moussons [translated from the French review] " A provocative new history of southern Vietnam's transition from colonialism to independence against the backdrop of anticolonial and civil war. "Finally a book on the First Indochina War that goes beyond the standard account of a simple conflict between Ho Chi Minh's Vietnam and the French. The war against the colonizer is there, but so is the one that divided Vietnamese until the bitter end. McHale provides a wonderfully researched and impressively argued story of violence and statecraft in southern Vietnam. It is a major contribution to our understanding of Vietnam." —Christopher Goscha, Université du Québec à Montréal "In this pathbreaking book, Shawn F. McHale overturns much of the conventional historical wisdom about the Indochina War of 1945-1954 in the Mekong Delta. He shows that the war in the delta differed in crucial ways from the better-studied campaigns and battles that took place in central and northern Indochina. Instead of a straightforward narrative of anticolonial struggle and national liberation, The First Vietnam War reveals a complex and fragmented conflict shaped by local rivalries, ethnic violence, and civil warfare.".—Edward Miller, Dartmouth College "McHale's innovative study is a welcome departure from the standard scholarship on the First Indochina. War. Creatively combining 'bottom up' and 'top down' approaches, McHale demonstrates that local, ethnic, and religious conflicts shaped the war in the Mekong delta as much as larger imperial and nationalist forces." —Nu-Anh Tran, University of Connecticut Shawn McHale  is Professor of History and International Affairs, George Washington University, where he teaches courses on Southeast Asian history and Vietnam.