America, France and Vietnam : Cultural History and Ideas of Conflict

Many commentaries use Vietnam as an excuse to investigate American thought and values.

They ignore the Vietnamese or at best they patronize them.

The central theme of this book is that these various approaches merely repeat the fundamental military error in Vietnam - which was to pay too little attention to the Vietnamese people and the structures which governed their society.

The editors consider those writers who explore a different perspective, and the implications of American ethnocentrism which, it is suggested, have not only led to a justification for the legitimacy of policies of containment and the promotion of American values abroad, but which also continue to inform the political and military thinking in American life.