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8 - The United States and French Indochina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2009

Irwin M. Wall
Affiliation:
University of California, Riverside
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Summary

THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN INTERVENTION

The Indochina drama became the central concern of American–French relations in the 1950s, virtually dominating every other issue in bilateral relations by 1953–4. It was also the issue over which Paris finally declared its independence of Washington in 1954, under the government of Pierre Mendés France. Among other questions only the European Defense Community could again cause the two nations so much mutual recrimination, bitterness, and grief, and its fate was tied to the Indochina War as well. It was perhaps appropriate that Indochina, rather than the EDC, should have been the main bone of contention between the two countries. For while the latter is now a minor footnote to history, Vietnam emerged as the central problem of American life in the 1960s and 1970s.

There were three periods in the evolution of American policy toward Indochina: 1945–9, during which the Americans remained anticolonial; 1950–2, when anticommunism and the Korean War led to deeper involvement in Indochina alongside the French; and 1953–4, when the new Republican administration in Washington seized direction of the war. From 1945 to 1949 American policy was the most liberal, but also the least effective in terms of exercising real influence over Paris. American policymakers regarded the old colonial systems as moribund and slated to disappear.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1991

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  • The United States and French Indochina
  • Irwin M. Wall, University of California, Riverside
  • Book: The United States and the Making of Postwar France, 1945–1954
  • Online publication: 04 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511523779.009
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  • The United States and French Indochina
  • Irwin M. Wall, University of California, Riverside
  • Book: The United States and the Making of Postwar France, 1945–1954
  • Online publication: 04 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511523779.009
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The United States and French Indochina
  • Irwin M. Wall, University of California, Riverside
  • Book: The United States and the Making of Postwar France, 1945–1954
  • Online publication: 04 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511523779.009
Available formats
×