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The main premise The Vietnam Wars is that Vietnam experienced not one but several over-lapping and often inter-dependent wars. This lively new source book chronicles the history of one of the bloodiest and most controversial conflicts of the twentieth century, beginning with the birth of the Vietnamese communist party in 1930 and ending with the triumph of the Vietnamese revolution in 1975. Through a series of short essays, but most especially through the documents themselves, the book illustrates and illuminates both the conflict and the main historical debates about its origins, course and consequences.
Written for undergradaute courses on postwar American foreign policy, Southeast Asian history, the Cold War, the Vietnam war, international relations, decolonization, and third world communism, this introduction uses the wealth of recent research to place the Vietnam war within the contexts of European colonization, American Cold War strategy and Vietnam's own political history
Covering the development of the atomic bomb during the Second World War, the origins and early course of the Cold War, and the advent of the hydrogen bomb in the early 1950s, Churchill and the Bomb explores a still neglected aspect of Winston Churchill's career – his relationship with and thinking on nuclear weapons. Kevin Ruane shows how Churchill went from regarding the bomb as a weapon of war in the struggle with Nazi Germany to viewing it as a weapon of communist containment (and even punishment) in the early Cold War before, in the 1950s, advocating and arguably pioneering what would become known as “mutually assured destruction” as the key to preventing the Cold War flaring into ...
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To Kill a Priest captures the wide ramifications of the story of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, a popular young parish priest in a Warsaw suburb who steadfastly spoke out from his pulpit against the abuses of communism and supported the then-banned Solidarity trade union. Abducted by the Polish secret police on 19th October 1984, his savagely beaten body was found 11 days later in an icy reservoir.Kevin Ruane documents how, for the first time, a communist government was forced to try and condemn the repressive actions of its own security agents and admit its own wrong-doing. It proved to be the decisive crack in the fortress of Eastern Block Communism, forcing it - for the first time within its own boundaries - to share power with a non-Communist organisation: the Solidarity trade union.
This book examines the evolution of the Foreign Office in the 20th century and the way in which it has responded to Britain's changing role in international affairs. The last century was one of unprecedented change in the way foreign policy and diplomacy were conducted. The work of 'The Office' expanded enormously in the 20th century, and oversaw the transition from Empire to Commonwealth, with the merger of the Foreign and Colonial Offices taking place in the 1960s. The book focuses on the challenges posed by waging world war and the process of peacemaking, as well as the diplomatic gridlock of the Cold War. Contributions also discusses ways in which the Foreign and Commonwealth Office continues to modernise to meet the challenges of diplomacy in the 21st century. This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Contemporary British History.
This collection of essays examines the British and American experience in the Middle East from 1950 to 1980. The book compares British and American foreign policy in the Far East and the Persian Gulf, explaining that the Anglo-American relationship was far from harmonious. Both powers tried to manipulate the other to its own advantage. While Washington was clearly the stronger power, London was never reduced to subservience. The book looks at the often neglected role of Egypt's King Farouk, arguing that Egypt was forced to contend with Britain's imperial power, which could, at a few hours notice, overwhelm or undermine Egypt's supposed sovereign institutions. At the same time, however, Londo...
Using the European Defence Community (EDC) as a case-study, this book examines the competing and often conflicting view of the British and American governments towards European integration in the early 1950s. The British, fearing an 'agonizing reappraisal' of the American defence commitment to Europe if the supranational EDC failed, went to great lengths to ensure the success of the scheme. When, despite these efforts, the EDC finally collapsed in August 1954, NATO was plunged into arguably the most severe crisis in its history. The crisis also possessed an Anglo-American dimension, with London and Washington badly divided on how it should be resolved. In the end, the British were instrumental in the creation of the Western European Union as a successor to the EDC. Their crisis management, however, had been rooted in fear of the 'agonizing reappraisal', a danger dismissed by many historians as exaggerated but which the British, in 1954, were perhaps right to take seriously.
“Well there it is. It won’t work, but you must bloody well make it,” said the chief of Britain’s military leaders, when he gave orders to begin planning for what became known as Operation Overlord. While many view D-Day as one of the most successful operations of World War II, most aren’t aware of the intensive year of planning and political tension between the Allies that preceded the amphibious military landing on June 6, 1944. This intriguing history reveals how President Franklin D. Roosevelt, while on a fishing trip in the middle of World War II, altered his attitude toward Winston Churchill and became an advocate for Operation Overlord. Philip Padgett challenges the known nar...
'White handles hefty quantities of research effortlessly, combining multiple biographies with a broader overview of the period. His energetic, anecdote-laden prose will have you hooked all the way from Orwell to le Carré' Sunday Times, Books of the Year 'Cold Warriors reads like a thriller . . . ambitious, intelligent, searching history' The Times In this age of 24-hour news coverage, where rallying cries are made on Twitter and wars are waged in cyberspace as much as on the ground, the idea of a novel as a weapon that can wield any power feels almost preposterous. The Cold War was a time when destruction was merely the press of a button away, but when the real battle between East and West ...