Drawn Swords in a Distant Land: South Vietnam's Shattered Dreams

Description

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, Drawn Swords sets the record straight and offers the first detailed overview of their successes and failures in the democratic experiment known as the Republic of Vietnam. Many books have aptly chronicled the presidency 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 Van Thieu, the American withdrawal, and the eventual fall of the Second Republic of Vietnam. Equally important, 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 true story behind the infamous "Anna Chennault Affair," which shows that Richard Nixon was not the instigator 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, in conjunction with one of Hanoi's allies, to prevent North Vietnam from conquering Saigon. This previously unknown scheme, along with many other fascinating new insights, sheds fresh light on the tumultuous struggle called the Vietnam War.