Overview
In the spring of 1954, after eight years of bitter fighting, the war in Vietnam between the French and the communist-led Vietminh came to a head. With French forces reeling, the United States planned to intervene militarily to shore-up the anti-communist position. Turning to its allies for support, first and foremost Great Britain, the US administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower sought to create what Secretary of State John Foster Dulles called a “united action” coalition. In the event, Winston Churchill’s Conservative government refused to back the plan. Fearing that US-led intervention could trigger a wider war in which the United Kingdom would be the first target for Soviet nuclear attack, the British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, was determined to act as Indochina peacemaker – even at the cost of damage to the Anglo-American “special relationship”. In this important study, Kevin Ruane and Matthew Jones revisit a Cold War episode in which British diplomacy played a vital role in settling a crucial question of international war and peace. Eden’s diplomatic triumph at the 1954 Geneva Conference on Indochina is often overshadowed by the 1956 Suez Crisis which led to his political downfall. This book, however, recalls an earlier Eden: a skilled and experienced international diplomatist at the height of his powers who may well have prevented a localised Cold War crisis escalating into a general Third World War.
Full Product Details
Author: Kevin Ruane ,
Matthew Jones
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Weight: 0.667kg
ISBN: 9781350021174
ISBN 10: 1350021172
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 25 July 2019
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
[The] definitive study on the subject of Eden and Indochina. * A Blog on Winston Churchill * A lively and incisive account by two of Britain's leading international historians, this book sheds new light on many aspects of the 1954 Indochina crisis but, most importantly, draws a close link between Anthony Eden's successful diplomacy and the looming danger of thermo-nuclear war. * John W. Young, Professor of History, University of Nottingham, UK * Kevin Ruane and Matthew Jones have written a meticulously researched and eminently readable account of arguably the high-point of British influence in the so-called Anglo-American special relationship during the Cold War, when Anthony Eden played a vital part in preventing a possible world conflict. * Geoffrey Warner, Professor of Modern History and Former Fellow at Brasenose College, University of Oxford, UK * Anthony Eden, Anglo-American Relations and the 1954 Indochina Crisis brilliantly upends the view of Eisenhower and Dulles as responsible stewards of nuclear weapons. Comprehensively researched and elegantly written, it convincingly argues that Anthony Eden's shrewd and heroic efforts at the 1954 Geneva Conference saved the world from the war that the unbridled nuclear adventurism and brinksmanship of the Eisenhower administration was likely to cause. * Martin J. Sherwin, University Professor at George Mason University, is author (with Kai Bird) of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, recipient of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize *
A lively and incisive account by two of Britain's leading international historians, this book sheds new light on many aspects of the 1954 Indochina crisis but, most importantly, draws a close link between Anthony Eden's successful diplomacy and the looming danger of thermo-nuclear war. * John W. Young, Professor of History, University of Nottingham, UK * Kevin Ruane and Matthew Jones have written a meticulously researched and eminently readable account of the British role in the ending of the First Vietnam War in 1954, an episode which was arguably the high-point of British influence in the so-called Anglo-American 'special relationship' during the Cold War when the British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden played a vital part in preventing a possible world war. * Geoffrey Warner, Professor of Modern History and Former Fellow at Brasenose College, University of Oxford, UK * Anthony Eden, Anglo-American Relations and the 1954 Indochina Crisis brilliantly upends the view of Eisenhower and Dulles as responsible stewards of nuclear weapons. Comprehensively researched and elegantly written, it convincingly argues that Anthony Eden's shrewd and heroic efforts at the 1954 Geneva Conference saved the world from the war that the unbridled nuclear adventurism and brinksmanship of the Eisenhower administration was likely to cause. * Martin J. Sherwin, University Professor at George Mason University, is author (with Kai Bird) of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, recipient of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize *
A lively and incisive account by two of Britain's leading international historians, this book sheds new light on many aspects of the 1954 Indochina crisis but, most importantly, draws a close link between Anthony Eden's successful diplomacy and the looming danger of thermo-nuclear war. * John W. Young, Professor of History, University of Nottingham, UK * Kevin Ruane and Matthew Jones have written a meticulously researched and eminently readable account of arguably the high-point of British influence in the so-called Anglo-American special relationship during the Cold War, when Anthony Eden played a vital part in preventing a possible world conflict. * Geoffrey Warner, Professor of Modern History and Former Fellow at Brasenose College, University of Oxford, UK * Anthony Eden, Anglo-American Relations and the 1954 Indochina Crisis brilliantly upends the view of Eisenhower and Dulles as responsible stewards of nuclear weapons. Comprehensively researched and elegantly written, it convincingly argues that Anthony Eden's shrewd and heroic efforts at the 1954 Geneva Conference saved the world from the war that the unbridled nuclear adventurism and brinksmanship of the Eisenhower administration was likely to cause. * Martin J. Sherwin, University Professor at George Mason University, is author (with Kai Bird) of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, recipient of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize *
Author Information
Kevin Ruane is Professor of Modern History at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. Matthew Jones is Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
