Laura M. Calkins

Select Publications

China and The First Vietnam War, 1947-1954
Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia. Abingdon UK: Routledge, 2013

This book charts the development of the First Vietnam War – the war between the Vietnamese Communists (the Viet Minh) and the French colonial power—considering especially how relations between the Viet Minh and the Chinese Communists had a profound impact on the course of the war. It shows how the Chinese provided finance, training, and weapons to the Viet Minh, but how differences about strategy emerged, particularly when China became involved in the Korean War and the subsequent peace negotiations, when the need to placate the United States and to prevent US military involvement in Southeast Asia became a key concern for the Chinese. The book shows how the Viet Minh strategy of all-out war in the North and limited guerrilla warfare in the South developed from this situation, and how the war then unfolded.

Voices From Vietnam
Eye-witness Accounts of the War 1954-1975
(with Richard Burks Verrone) London: David & Charles, 2005.

The political and military struggles in Vietnam consumed the resources of both the East and the West. Once the United States committed its armed forces in 1965 to defend South Vietnam's independence, the conflict took on epic dimensions. The Vietnam War marked the largest commitment of American combat forces since World War II and became the longest war in US history. This remarkable collection of human stories from all sides of the conflict charts the war from its opening stages to the dramatic evacuation of Saigon in April 1975. Compiled from hundreds of interviews with veterans and eye-witnesses, and including rare archival photographs, it provides a unique insight into the most socially and politically divisive war of recent times.

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