All the Way With JFK? Britain, the US and the Vietnam War [Hardcover]

Peter Busch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2003

All the Way with JFK? demolishes the myth that Britain always worked for peace in Indochina. Drawing on new evidence from archives all over the world, Peter Busch shows that the British government whole-heartedly supported John F. Kennedy's Vietnam policy. It opposed negotiations, and even sent its own experts in anti-guerrilla warfare to Vietnam. Ultimately, British decision-makers were no wiser than Kennedy and his advisers; they all believed that the communist advance in Vietnam had to be resisted by military force.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"All the Way with JFK? is a good book, thoroughly researched, well written, and persuasive."--MUSE

About the Author

Peter Busch is a Broadcast journalist, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 268 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (April 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019925639X
• ISBN-13: 978-0199256396
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,583,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb account of British support for US aggression, May 27, 2003

By 

William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All the Way With JFK? Britain, the US and the Vietnam War (Hardcover)

In this brilliantly-researched study, Peter Busch examines the Conservative government's policy towards the US war against Vietnam for the years 1961 to 1963. The author, who formerly worked at the Public Record Office at Kew, has thoroughly mined newly available records from Britain, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Germany. He also shows how British policy towards Vietnam related to wider policy towards South-East Asia, especially towards Indonesia. In both cases, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan ruled out negotiated settlements and preferred to use force.

Busch shows how Macmillan fully backed President Kennedy's aggressive military build-up in Vietnam, `a clear breach' of the Geneva agreements, while advising him to conceal it. Macmillan pretended to be a peacemaker, while actually supporting the US war. He aimed to keep Britain's `great power' status and prove its value as a US ally.

As co-chairman of the International Control Commission set up by the 1954 Geneva Conference, the British state abused its role in order to support the illegal, dictatorial Diem regime in the south. It backed up Diem's unwarranted claims that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was responsible, `whether there was evidence or not', for starting the civil war in the south. It used these claims to rule out the DRV's call for reconvening the Conference to negotiate the peaceful reunification of Vietnam.

Macmillan helped the US counter-insurgency effort, setting up the British Advisory Mission in 1961. British forces also trained Diem's troops in Malaysia. In 1962, the British Ambassador to Saigon urged the USA to `crush and eradicate the Viet Cong'.

The British government only dropped Diem when it discovered that his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, was willing to discuss peace with the DRV. It then backed the US coup against Diem that sabotaged the chances of peacefully reunifying Vietnam.

Busch concludes that the British government did not pursue peace. "Britain supported the American policy in Vietnam wholeheartedly. The British only wanted to `sell' this policy in a different, less confrontational way." Plus ca change! This superb book vindicates all those who opposed the US aggression against Vietnam.

5.0 out of 5 stars Very informative and original, April 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: All the Way With JFK? Britain, the US and the Vietnam War (Hardcover)

This book is an excellent addition to the literature on the Vietnam war, providing us with a new perspective. It is full of novel information but still easy to read, which is quite an achievement. It is particularly interesting -- given the current political situation -- to learn how eager the British government was to support Kennedy's Vietnam policy. This is a real revelation.
The book's approach is truly international, and the research is more than impressive. Among the archives the author used are the national archive of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, and of course Britain.