Introduction
Chapter 1: "The Kind of Asian We Can Live with": Diem Wins American
Support
Chapter 2: "Let Our People Go!": The Geneva Accords and Passage to
Freedom
Chapter 3: "This Fellow Is Impossible": The Collins Mission
Chapter 4: "Miracle Man": Diem's Regime in Myth and Reality
Chapter 5: "Truth Shall Burst Forth in Irresistible Waves of
Hatred": Cracks in the Facade
Chapter 6: "A Scenario of Torture, Persecution, and Worse": The
Diem Experiment in Decline
Chapter 7: "No Respectable Turning Back": Collapse of the Diem
Experiment
Conclusion
Bibliographic Essay
Seth Jacobs is assistant professor in the Department of History at Boston College. He is the author of America's Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and U.S. Intervention in Southeast Asia. In 2001, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations honored him with its Stuart Bernath Prize for the best article published in the field of diplomatic history.
Seth Jacobs's Cold War Mandarin is a perfect introduction to the
complexities of the U.S. war in Vietnam. Jacobs rescues Ngo Dinh
Diem from the simplicities to which he was often reduced in his
life time and through his life and death offers readers a profound
understanding of how he and the Americans with whom he dealt led
both countries ever deeper into war.
*Marilyn J. Young, professor of history at New York University and
author ofThe Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990*
Seth Jacobs's Cold War Mandarin tells the astonishing and tragic
tale of Ngo Dinh Diem's failed leadership of South Vietnam. This
fast-paced narrative puts readers in the midst of American policy
makers' many miscalculations that set the United States on course
for participation in a doomed war.
*Robert D. Schulzinger, University of Colorado*
Cold War Mandarin is a superb examination of the complicated
relationship between Americans and their difficult ally Ngo Dinh
Diem. Part tragedy, part farce, laden with blundering, cupidity,
and pathos, the story is an object lesson in how not to conduct
foreign policy. Jacobs tells the tale with wit and grace, sensitive
to the parties involved but properly critical of their foolishness
and arrogance. Cold War Mandarin is essential reading for students
and teachers of the Vietnam War.
*Andy Rotter, Colgate University*
Cold War Mandarin is impressively researched, judicious, and reads
like a novel. A natural for classroom use.
*Frank Costigliola, University of Connecticut*
This story is well told and engagingly written. . . .
Recommended.
*CHOICE*
A well-written, well-researched, and considered discussion of the
failures of Diem’s regime. . . . Jacobs’s account is balanced,
informative, and convincing. He outlines the negative effects of
Diem’s regime without an overly critical view of his motives or
capabilities as a public administrator. Jacobs’s work certainly
sheds light on the international and U.S. political context of Cold
War events, Diem’s personal and political background, his actions
and administrative policy, and the collapse of his government.
*H-War*
Cold War Mandarin provides a scholarly investigation of the reasons
why the US support for Diem endured despite his poor leadership.
Whereas other recent biographies...examine how we might interpret
Diem and his actions, Seth Jacobs focuses on Diem's relationship
with US leadership. He pulls Vietnamese and American perceptions to
the forefront to give rich insights into the dynamics of US support
to Diem and the subsequent foundation it provided to the Vietnam
War. I found Jacobs's depth of analysis and rationale satisfying.
His argument is well grounded in a mix of primary and reliable
secondary sources.... In the end, I believe readers will find
themselves agreeing with Jacobs's conclusions and will recommend it
as a starting point for anyone wishing to undertake an in-depth
study of Vietnam.
*H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online*
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