In the annals of Vietnam War history, no figure has been more controversial than Ngo Dinh Diem. During the 1950s, U.S. leaders hailed Diem as €œthe miracle man of Southeast Asia€ and funneled huge amounts of aid to his South Vietnamese government. But in 1963 Diem was ousted and assassinated in a coup endorsed by President John F. Kennedy. Diem€s alliance with Washington has long been seen as a Cold War relationship gone bad, undone either by American arrogance or by Diem€s stubbornness. In Misalliance, Edward Miller provides a convincing new explanation for Diem€s downfall and the larger tragedy of South Vietnam.
For Diem and U.S. leaders, Miller argues, the alliance was more than just a joint effort to contain communism. It was also a means for each side to pursue its plans for nation building in South Vietnam. Miller€s definitive portrait of Diem€"based on extensive research in Vietnamese, French, and American archives€"demonstrates that the South Vietnamese leader was neither Washington€s pawn nor a tradition-bound mandarin. Rather, he was a shrewd and ruthless operator with his own vision for Vietnam€s modernization. In 1963, allied clashes over development and reform, combined with rising internal resistance to Diem€s nation building programs, fractured the alliance and changed the course of the Vietnam War.
In depicting the rise and fall of the U.S.€“Diem partnership, Misalliance shows how America€s fate in Vietnam was written not only on the battlefield but also in Washington€s dealings with its Vietnamese allies.
