Drawn Swords in a Distant Land

South Vietnam's Shattered Dreams

George J. Veith

• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Year: 2021
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781641771733
• Subtopic: Military Biographies
• Index: History

Drawn Swords in a Distant Land showcases the fascinating, untold story of the rise and fall of the Republic of Vietnam. Putting aside outdated ideological debates, it offers the first in-depth review of the South Vietnamese successes and failures in building and defending their state.

Drawn Swords highlights the career of President Nguyen Van Thieu, who in many ways embodied the hopes, dreams, and innumerable tragedies of the South Vietnamese people. It details the extent to which the Vietnamese Nationalists under his leadership built a viable state after the 1968 Tet Offensive; weaves together the policy decisions made in Washington, Hanoi, and Saigon that significantly determined the course of the war; and explains why South Vietnam was defeated in April 1975. Equally important, it provides stunning new details about how the coup against Ngo Dinh Diem was almost halted, describes the backroom maneuvering that chose Thieu for the presidency over Nguyen Cao Ky, and demonstrates that Richard Nixon was not the instigator of a conspiracy with Thieu known as the "Chennault Affair" to win the 1968 election.

Even more explosive, Drawn Swords reveals the last, great secret of the Vietnam War: a plot by France during the last days, in conjunction with one of Hanoi's allies, to prevent North Vietnam from conquering Saigon. This previously unknown scheme, along with many other intriguing new insights, sheds fresh light on the tumultuous struggle called the Vietnam War. Drawn Swords is the definitive and much overdue account of Thieu and the Second Republic.

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