New Perspectives on the Vietnam War: Our Allies’ Views

In New Perspectives of the Vietnam War, editor William Schoenl has focused on the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) allies of the United States to get beyond the ethnocentrism of US views and the amorphousness of international perspectives. With the exception of South Korea, only SEATO allies- Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand- sent troops to support the US in the Vietnam War. Great Britain, a SEATO ally, adopted a middle-ground position that supported the US diplomatically but refused to send troops. France and Pakistan, the remaining SEATO allies, opposed the War. Edited in a way to present a continuous story of the Vietnam War, from the escalation of the Johnson years to the gradual withdrawal of the Nixon-Ford years, Schoenl provides a provocative work, based on multiple perspectives, to get people thinking about the war.