Drawn Swords in a Distant Land

A History of South Vietnam

George J. Veith

• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781641771733
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Vietnam War
• Index: History

Drawn Swords in a Distant Land tracks the rise and fall of South Vietnam. This book highlights the South Vietnamese effort to build and defend their country, while weaving in the policy decisions made in Washington and Hanoi that significantly influenced the course of the war. A huge historical gap exists in understanding the motivations and policies of the Saigon government, mainly due to ideological blinders,misinformation, and outright lies. By providing the South Vietnamese story and perspectives, DrawnSwords sets the record straight and offers the first detailed overview of their successes and failures inthe democratic experiment known as the Republic of Vietnam. Many books have aptly chronicled thepresidency of Ngo Dinh Diem, but few scholars have delved deeply into the years following the coup.This has left a tremendous historical void. Thus, this exploration of the presidency of Nguyen VanThieu, the American withdrawal, and the eventual fall of the Second Republic of Vietnam. Equallyimportant, Drawn Swords provides fascinating new evidence on how the Diem coup was almost halted,the backroom maneuvering that allowed Thieu to run for the president over Nguyen Cao Ky, and the truestory behind the infamous "Anna Chennault Affair," which shows that Richard Nixon was not theinstigator of a plot to win the 1968 election.Even more explosive, Drawn Swords provides the incredible details on the last, great, secret of the Vietnam War: a plot during the last days of the war by France, inconjunction with one of Hanoi's allies, to prevent North Vietnam from conquering Saigon. This previouslyunknown scheme, along with many other fascinating new insights, sheds fresh light on the tumultuousstruggle called the Vietnam War.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Maps
• Introduction
• 1 “The Best Days of My Life”: The Rise of the Republic of Vietnam
• 2 “If the Army Was Weak, the Regime Would Become Weak”: The Struggle for Supremacy
• 3 “Either Diem Changed His Policies, or We Would Change Diem”: Death of Diem
• 4 “Representing All Nationalist Tendencies”: Duong Van Minh Charts a New Course
• 5 “The Earth Is Round. We Will Meet Again One Day”: Nguyen Khanh’s Countercoup
• 6 “A Real Military Government Needed”: Reaping What They Sowed
• 7 “We Are Fed Up with Coups”: The Return to Civilian Rule
• 8 “I Want to Truly Change the Lives of the People”: New Leadership
• 9 “Only One Shot for Madness to Follow”: The Long First Year of Nguyen Cao Ky
• 10 “Rice Is as Important as Bullets”: Building the Country
• 11 “This Constitution Is Officially Adopted”: Showdown with the Directorate
• 12 “From the Moment I Take Office, I Belong to You”: Birth of the Second Republic
• 13 “This Is Our Country”: Defeating the Tet Offensive
• 14 “A Country that Cannot Organize Itself Is Not a Country”: Thieu Breaks His Chains
• 15 “This Conference Will Decide the Fate of My Nation”: Searching for Peace
• 16 “We Who Run This Country Are Not Warlords”: Thieu Offers Peace
• 17 “Long Haul, Low Cost”: Thieu Proposes a New Strategy
• 18 “We Seldom Understood the Financial Costs of Victory”: Finding Economic Security
• 19 “The War Will Fade Away”: Fanciful Notions and Other Thoughts
• 20 “Thieu Overreached Himself”: Laos, the Election, and the Beginning of the End
• 21 “Only a Step Between Me and Death”: The Easter Offensive and the Paris Accords
• 22 “We Must Keep Our Hands Firmly on Our Guns”: In the Shadow of Peace
• 23 “The War Has Begun Again”: South Vietnam Starts to Unravel
• 24 “I Will Draw Out My Sword”: Diplomacy’s Final Dance
• Bibliography
• Notes
• Index