This new collection of essays develops an international history of the Third Indochina War with participants from many different countries and scholarly traditions, building on fresh research of the last ten years, including new work carried out in Vietnam.
The wars between Vietnam, China and Cambodia at the end of the 1970s redefined international relations in Eastern Asia to a larger degree than any other set of events since the American opening to China. However, there have been few attempts at revisiting the causes and effects of these wars since scholars started having access to Russian and (to a lesser extent) Chinese sources in the early 1990s. Among the key issues discussed are the intellectual origins of Khmer Rouge nationalism, the effects of political and social changes in Vietnam in the years after reunification, China's redefinition of its aims in Southeast Asia, and the effects of changes in the international policies of the United States on the region.
The book will be of great interest to students of Vietnam, international history, Cold War studies and Asian politics in general.
This new collection explores the origins and key issues of the Third Indochina War, which began in 1979.
Drawing on unique documentation from all sides, leading contributors reinterpret and demystify the long-term and immediate causes of the Vietnamese-Cambodian and Sino-Vietnamese conflicts. They closely examine how both the links between policies and policy assumptions in the countries involved, and the dynamics - national, regional and international - drove them towards war. Rather than explaining the conflicts as determined by age-old resentments and suspicions or seeing war between the former allies as the necessary outcome of the conflicts of the 1970s, the contributors to this volume look at the concrete causes for the breakdown in cooperation and the road to war.
This volume includes even-handed assessments of the roles of the major players, including a look at the beginnings of Thai-Chinese military cooperation in support of the Khmer Rouge. The subjects covered remain highly relevant to inter-state relations in South East Asia, where border issues are still a cause of tension. An updated chronology of events leading to the outbreak of hostilities is also included.
This book will be of immense interest to all students of the Third Indochina War, Southeast Asian history and of international relations and war studies in general.
