The Road to War: France and Vietnam 1944-1947 (Contemporary France) [Hardcover]

Martin Shipway (Author)

Book Description

Series: Contemporary France | Publication Date: October 1996

Shipway (French, U. of London) draws on archival sources, most unavailable to English monoglots, to recount and assess the French policy that emerged from the 1944 Brazzaville Conference and the doomed attempt to apply it in Indochina. He explains why in 1946 the French colonial administration, afte

Editorial Reviews

Review

Could the French war in Indochina (1947-54) have been avoided? This unstated question provides a leitmotif for Martin Shipways analysis of how war came to Indochina. In his carefully researched and closely argued analysis Shipway focuses upon the way in which French policy towards Indochina emerged as the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) sought to restore France as an imperial power within an international and colonial environment that World War II had decisively altered...[he] provides a sure guide to the complexities of French choices that at each turn in the road took the direction leading to war. -- Military Histoy

Martin Shipway's The Road To War: France And Vietnam 1944-1947 answers the question of how France became embroiled in Vietnam, in the first of the long wars of decolonization. The Road To War also explains why the French colonial administration, in late 1946, having negotiated with Ho Chi Minh for a year, adopted a warlike stance towards Ho's regime that ran counter to the liberal colonial doctrine of a France newly liberated from German occupation. Based on French archival sources (almost all of the previously unavailable to the English-speaking reader) Shipway assesses the policy that emerged from the 1944 Brazzaville Conference, and the doomed attempt to apply that policy in Indochina. The Road To War is exceptionally well researched, ably written, and highly informative. -- Midwest Book Review

Shipway (University of London) analyses Frances decision to reassert its hegemony over Indochina after WW II and to fight Ho Chi Minh when he and his followers challenged this reimposition of colonial rule. France adopted a liberal colonial policy in response to perceptions of a colonial crisis and the powerful rising rhetoric of anti-imperialism. The French attempted to make concessions to Ho and the nationalists, and at the same time to maintain an empire. Shipway shows how competing colonial visions, heavily influenced by domestic political problems, merged, flirted with accommodations with Ho Chi Minh, and ultimately opted for war...Based on extensive use of French diplomatic and national archives, the book is...an important contribution to understanding the tangled and tragic unfolding of the modern history of Indochina. -- CHOICE

This is an important book...If I have gone on so long, it is out of enthusiasm for the story Shipway has to tell and the skillful way he tells it. This book is extremely well written, and I found reading it almost effortless...I recommend this book to anyone interested in the origins of what may one day be considered the second thirty-years war of our short century. -- H-Net Reviews

About the Author

Martin Shipway teaches in the Department of French, Birkbeck College, University of London.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Berghahn Books (October 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571818944
• ISBN-13: 978-1571818942
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,302,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.