Born Austin, Texas, 1946
B.A. (1967), History, Harvard University
M.A. (1972), Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan
Ph.D. (1977), History, University of Michigan
ROTC Workshop in Military History, U.S.M.A., West Point, summer 1982.
1969-70 (two full years): U.S. Peace Corps, Miri, Sarawak, East Malaysia. Teaching History, Economics, Mathematics, and English, first form (equivalent to U.S. junior high) to upper sixth form (equivalent to U.S. junior college).
1976-77: Instructor in History, Appalachian State University.
1978: Adjunct Professor of History, University of Detroit
1979-present: Clemson University (Visiting Assistant Professor 1979-81, Assistant Professor 1981-84, Associate Professor 1984-88, Professor 1988-). Courses taught:
Land Reform in China and North Vietnam: Consolidating the Revolution at the Village Level. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983.
Modern China: A History. London and New York: Longman, 1986. Second edition London and New York: Longman, 1994. Third Edition London and New York: Longman, 2008.
Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.
Historical Dictionary of the Vietnam War. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2001.
The A to Z of the Vietnam War. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005. (A revised and updated version of the preceding work.)
"Land Reform and Land Reform Errors in North Vietnam", Pacific Affairs, 49:1 (Spring 1976), pp. 70-92. The text is available to subscribers on JSTOR.
"Downward Social Mobility in Pre-revolutionary China", Modern China, 3:1 (January 1977), pp. 3-31. The text is available to subscribers on JSTOR.
"Radical, Moderate and Optimal Patterns of Land Reform", Modern China, 4:1 (January 1978), pp. 79-90. The text and errata are available to subscribers on JSTOR.
"Class-ism in Vietnam", in William S. Turley, ed., Vietnamese Communism in Comparative Perspective, Westview Press, 1980, pp. 91-105. Online to paid subscribers of Questia.
"The Moral Economy Dispute" (review essay), Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 14:1 (January-March 1982), pp. 72-77. Online to paid subscribers of Questia.
"Why Westmoreland Gave Up" (review essay), Pacific Affairs, 58:4 (winter 1985-86), pp. 663-73. The text is available to subscribers on JSTOR.
"Tonkin Gulf: Reconsidered", in William Cogar, ed., New Interpretations in Naval History: Selected Papers from the Eighth Naval History Symposium (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1989), pp. 304-22.
"Nationalism and Communism in Vietnam", Journal of Third World Studies, V:2 (Fall 1988), pp. 6-22.
"The Domino Theory", in Alexander DeConde et. al., eds., Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy, 2d ed. (New York: Scribners, 2002), vol. 1, pp. 551-559.
"JFK and the Myth of Withdrawal," in Marilyn B. Young and Robert Buzzanco, eds., A Companion to the Vietnam War (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002), pp. 162-173.
"The Mirage of Negotiations," in Lloyd Gardner and Ted Gittinger, eds., The Search for Peace in Vietnam, 1964-1968 (Texas A&M University Press, 2004), pp. 73-82.
"Agricultural Producers' Cooperatives" (vol. I, pp. 21–22)
"Agriculture, Collectivization of" (vol. I, pp. 26–28)
"Geneva Conference, 1954" (vol. I, p. 495) [the numerous errors in this one were put there by an editor; they were not in the version I wrote]
"Indochina War, 1959–1975" (vol. II, pp. 134–37)
"Land Tenure and Reform: Land Reform in Modern China" (vol. II, pp. 392–94)
"Paris Peace Conference" (vol. III, p. 209)
"Sino-Vietnamese Relations" (vol. III, pp. 478–79)
John Johnson, ed., Encyclopedia of Historic U.S. Court Cases, 1640–1990 (New York: Garland, 1992; 2d ed. New York: Routledge, 2001):
"Did CBS Libel General Westmoreland?", pp. 544–47 (pp. 928–31 in 2d ed.)
"The Pentagon Papers", pp. 726–32 (918–24 in 2d ed.)
Spencer C. Tucker, ed., Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War (Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio, 1998).
"Geneva Conference and Geneva Accords (1954)", I:241–42.
"Land Reform", I:357–58.
"Order of Battle Dispute (1967)", II:543–44.
"Pentagon Papers and Trial (1971)", II:559–61.
"PIERCE ARROW, Operation (1964)", II:573.
"Tonkin Gulf Incidents (1964)", II:694–95.
"Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964)", II:695.
"Gulf of Tonkin Incidents", in John W. Chamber II, ed., The Oxford Companion to American Military History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 307.
James I. Matray, ed., East Asia and the United States: An Encyclopedia of Relations since 1784, 2 vols. (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002).
"Domino Theory", pp. 133-34.
"First Indochina War", pp. 161-62.
"Gulf of Tonkin Incidents", pp. 207-8.
"My Lai Massacre", pp. 411-12.
"National Liberation Front", pp. 416-17.
"OPLAN 34A", p. 454.
"Phoenix Program", p. 483.
"Second Indochina War", pp. 539-41.
"Viet Cong", pp. 657-58.
"Vietminh", pp 658-59.
"The Pentagon Papers," in John P. Resch, et al., eds., Americans at War, vol. 4 (New York: Macmillan, 2004).
Yuwu Song, ed., Encyclopedia of Chinese-American Relations (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006).
"Cambodia", p. 49.
"First Indochina War", pp. 106-107.
"Geneva Conference (1954)", pp. 117-118.
"Geneva Conference (1961-1962)", pp. 118-119.
"Laos", pp. 168-169.
"Peiping", p. 218.
"Second Indochina War", pp. 248-249.
"United Nations", p. 295.
"Vietnam", pp. 299-300.
"Iraq - U.S. War," in William A. Darity Jr., ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2d ed. (Detroit: Macmillan Reference, 2007), vol. 4, pp. 145-148.
Ruud van Dijk et al., eds., Encyclopedia of the Cold War (New York and London: Routledge, 2008), vol. 1.
"Bao Dai", pp. 67-68.
"Gulf of Tonkin Resolution", pp. 395-96.
"Ho Chi Minh", pp. 409-12.
We Came to Help, by Monika Schwinn and Bernhard Diehl. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976. In Pacific Affairs, 50:4 (Winter 1977–78), pp. 738–39.
The Rational Peasant: The Political Economy of Rural Society in Vietnam, by Samuel L. Popkin. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. In Journal of Asian History, 14:2 (1981), pp. 172–73.
The Chinese Welfare System, 1949–1979, by John Dixon. New York: Praeger, 1981. In History: Reviews of New Books, 10:3 (January 1982), p. 75.
The Endless War: Fifty Years of Struggle in Vietnam, by James P. Harrison. New York: Macmillan, 1982. In History: Reviews of New Books, 10:9 (August 1982), pp. 235–36.
Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920–1945, by David Marr. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. In Pacific Affairs, 55:3 (Fall 1982), pp. 536–38.
Vietnamese Communism, 1925–1945, by Huynh Kim Khanh. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982. In History: Reviews of New Books 11:4 (February 1983), p. 96.
Operation Ranch Hand: The Air Force and Herbicides in Southeast Asia, 1961–1971, by William A. Buckingham, Jr. Washington: Office of Air Force History, 1982. In Aerospace Historian 30:3 (September 1983), p. 217.
Peasant China in Transition: The Dynamics of Development Toward Socialism, 1949–1956, by Vivienne Shue. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980. In American Historical Review 89:1 (February 1984), 184–85.
The United States Air Force in Southeast Asia: Tactical Airlift, by Ray L. Bowers. Washington, DC: Office of Air Force History and U.S. Government Printing Office, 1983. In Aerospace Historian 31:2 (June 1984), 154.
Charles Callison, Land-to-the-Tiller in the Mekong Delta. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1983. Pacific Affairs 57:4 (Winter 1984–85), pp. 730–31.
Alan Winnington, Breakfast with Mao: Memoirs of a Foreign Correspondent. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1986. London Review of Books 8:20 (November 20, 1986), p. 19.
Tiziano Terzani, Behind the Forbidden Door: Travels in China. London: Allen & Unwin, 1986. London Review of Books, 8:20 (November 20, 1986), p. 19.
William S. Turley, The Second Indochina War: A Short Political and Military History, 1954–1975. Boulder: Westview Press, 1986. Pacific Affairs, 60:1 (Spring 1987), pp. 138–39.
Bob Brewin and Sydney Shaw, Vietnam on Trial: Westmoreland vs. CBS. New York: Atheneum, 1987. Pacific Affairs, 60:2 (Summer 1987), pp. 373–74.
Allan E. Goodman, The Search for a Negotiated Settlement of the Vietnam War. Berkeley: University of California, 1986 (Institute of East Asian Studies, Indochina Research Monograph No. 2). Pacific Affairs, 60:2 (Summer 1987), pp. 374–75.
Col. Gerald H. Turley, The Easter Offensive: Vietnam, 1972. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1985. 344 pp. Journal of Third World Studies, 4:2 (Fall 1987), pp. 186–88.
Paul Gordon Lauren, ed., The China Hands' Legacy: Ethics and Diplomacy. Boulder and London: Westview, 1987. Journal of Third World Studies, 5:2 (Fall 1988), pp. 210–14.
Andrew Vickerman, The Fate of the Peasantry: Premature Transition to Socialism in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, 1986. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 20:1 (March 1989), pp. 155–57.
Anthony James Joes, The War for South Vietnam: 1954–1975. New York: Praeger, 1989. Journal of Asian Studies, 49:1 (February 1990), pp. 209–10.
William Colby with James McCargar, Lost Victory: A Firsthand Account of America's Sixteen-Year Involvement in Vietnam. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1989. In Journal of Asian Studies, 49:4 (November 1990), pp. 986–88.
Phillip B. Davidson, Vietnam at War: The History, 1946–1975. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1988. In Journal of Asian Studies, 49:4 (November 1990), pp. 986–88.
Dale Andrade, Ashes to Ashes: The Phoenix Program and the Vietnam War. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1990. Douglas Valentine, The Phoenix Program. New York: Morrow, 1990. In Journal of Asian Studies, 50:4 (November 1991), pp. 983–85.
Douglas Pike, ed., The Bunker Papers: Reports to the President from Vietnam, 1967–1973. 3 vols. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, 1990. In Journal of Asian Studies, 52:1 (February 1993), pp. 222–23.
Eric M. Bergerud, Red Thunder, Tropic Lighting: The World of a Combat Division in Vietnam. Boulder: Westview Press, 1993. In Journal of Asian Studies, 52:4 (November 1993), pp. 1072–73.
Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Radicalism and the Origins of the Vietnamese Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992. In History: Reviews of New Books, 22:2 (Winter 1994), pp. 84–85.
William Head and Lawrence E. Grinter, eds., Looking Back on the Vietnam War: A 1990s Perspective on the Decisions, Combat, and Legacies. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993. In Journal of Asian Studies, 53:2 (May 1994), pp. 629–30.
Sam Adams, War of Numbers: An Intelligence Memoir. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press, 1994. In Journal of Asian Studies, 53:4 (November 1994), pp. 1312–13.
Edward P. Metzner, More than a Soldier's War: Pacification in Vietnam. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1995. In Journal of Asian Studies, 55:4 (November 1996), pp. 1070–71.
Jeffrey D. Glasser, The Secret Vietnam War: The United States Air Force in Thailand, 1961–1975. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1995. In Journal of Asian Studies, 56:3 (August 1997), pp. 848–49.
David M. Barrett, ed., Lyndon B. Johnson's Vietnam Papers: A Documentary Collection. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997. Electronic review on H-Pol (Pol@h-net.msu.edu), November 1998.
Francis X. Winters, The Year of the Hare: America in Vietnam, January 25, 1963-February 15, 1964. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997. In American Historical Review, 104:1 (February 1999), p. 226.
Ray Huang, China: A Macro History. Armonk and London: M.E. Sharpe, 1997. In The China Quarterly, no. 153 (March 1998), pp. 182–83.
Robert Buzzanco, Masters of War: Military Dissent and Politics in the Vietnam Era. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. In Journal of Asian Studies, 57:2 (May 1998), pp. 597–98.
Wilfred Deac, Road to the Killing Fields: The Cambodian War of 1970–1975. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997. In Pacific Historical Review, 68:1 (February 1999), pp. 132–33.
John Prados, The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War. New York: Wiley, 1999. In American Historical Review, February 2000, pp. 194–95.
Harold A. Winters et. al., Battling the Elements: Weather and Terrain in the Conduct of War. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. In Historical Geography, vol. 28 (2000), pp. 278–79.
Ezra Y. Siff, Why the Senate Slept: The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and the Beginning of the Vietnam War. Westport: Praeger, 1999. In Canadian Journal of History, vol. XXXV, August 2000, pp. 382–84.
Charles E. Neu, ed., After Vietnam: Legacies of a Lost War. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. Electronic review on H-Diplo (H-DIPLO@H-NET.MSU.EDU), January 2001.
Jeffrey Kimball, Nixon's Vietnam War. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998. In Pacific Historical Review, 70:1 (February 2001), pp. 171–72.
Mark Bradley, Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919–1950. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. In Pacific Historical Review, 71:1 (February 2002), pp. 166–67.
George W. Allen, None So Blind: A Personal Account of Intelligence Failure in Vietnam. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2001. Electronic review on H-Diplo (H-DIPLO@H-NET.MSU.EDU), July 2002.
Marc Jason Gilbert, ed., Why the North Won the Vietnam War. New York: Palgrave, 2002. In American Historical Review, 108:3 (June 2003), pp. 805–6.
Daniel Ellsberg, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers. New York: Viking, 2002. In Intelligence and National Security, 18:3 (Autumn 2003), pp. 202-204.
Robert J. Topmiller, The Lotus Unleashed: The Buddhist Peace Movement in South Vietnam, 1964-1966. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002. In The International History Review, XXVI:1 (March 2004), pp. 208-210.
Gareth Porter, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to Vietnam. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. Review in Passport: The Newsletter of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, 37:2 (August 2006), pp. 6-9.
Virginia Morris with Clive Hills, A History of the Ho Chi Minh Trail: The Road to Freedom. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2006. In Pacific Affairs, 79:3 (Fall 2006), pp. 558-59.
Lawrence W. Serewicz,
America at the Brink of Empire: Rusk,
Kissinger, and the Vietnam War. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007. x,
233 pp. Electronic review on H-1960s
David Schmitz,
The Tet Offensive: Politics, War, and Public Opinion.
Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. In Pacific Historical Review,
76:2 (May 2007), pp. 333-334.
Seth Jacobs,
Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and the Origins of America's War
in Vietnam, 1950-1963. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. In
Journal of American History, 94:2 (September 2007), pp. 641-42.
"Recent Accounts of the Vietnam War" (review essay),
Journal of Asian Studies 44:2 (February 1985), pp. 343-48.
"War and Revolution in Vietnam" (review essay),
Asian Studies Review 14:2 (November 1990), pp. 214-17.
"Better Late than Never? The Delayed Debate over the Costs of Vietnam" (review essay),
Journal of Cold War Studies, 5:2 (Spring 2003), pp. 73-77.
The text
is available to subscribers on Project Muse.
"The Vietnam War: Scholars and Witnesses" (review essay). Pacific Affairs,
78:4 (Winter 2005-2006), pp. 631-37.
Iraq Wars Bibliography. A much more modest effort, currently listing about 900 items.
"Land Reform and Land Reform Errors in North Vietnam", Asian Studies Section, Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, Ann Arbor, April 4, 1975.
"Classism: Vietnamese Class Struggle in a Comparative Marxist Perspective", Association for Asian Studies conference on Vietnamese Marxism in Comparative Perspective, Washington, October 29, 1978.
Commentator at a panel "Chinese Politics and Military Affairs", Southeast Conference, Association for Asian Studies, 21 January 1983.
"Tonkin Gulf Reconsidered", Naval History Symposium, U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD, September 25, 1987.
"Nationalism and Communism in Vietnam", presented to the Association for Third World Studies, Americus, GA, April 15, 1988.
"Press Coverage of the Tonkin Gulf Incidents: August 1964", Popular Culture Association, St. Louis, MO, April 7, 1989.
"Limited War", Association for Asian Studies, Chicago, April 7, 1990.
"Guerrilla Warfare", Association of Third World Studies, Columbia, SC, October 12, 1990.
"Escalation Planning in 1964", Seminar on the History of the Vietnam/Indochina War, Columbia University, November 16, 1990.
"Herman Kahn's Model and the Escalation of the Vietnam War", Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, Washington, DC, June 22, 1991.
"The Domino Theory", Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, University of Maryland, June 19, 1998.
"Land Reform in North Vietnam, 1953-1956", at the 18th Annual Conference on Southeast Asian Studies, "Mass Political Violence in 20th Century Southeast Asia", Center for Southeast Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley, February 16, 2001.
"The Mirage of Negotiations", at the conference "The Vietnam War: The Search for Peace in the Johnson Years", LBJ Presidential Library, April 22, 2001.
"Tonkin Gulf and the WMD Issue," at the 5th Triennial Vietnam Symposium, Texas Tech University, March 17, 2005.
Participant in the panel "Teaching the Tet Offensive and 1968: A Roundtable Discussion" at the Sixth Triennial Vietnam Symposium, The Vietnam Center, Texas Tech University, March 14, 2008.
Provost's Award for Scholarly Achievement, 2002
Publication of my book on the Tonkin Gulf incidents does not really mean I am finished with that topic and am ready to move on. There have to be errors in the book; the topic is too complex, and the sources too confused, for me not to have gotten something wrong. I would be most grateful to anyone who can point out to me where the errors are.
I am writing an overall history of the Vietnam War, tentatively titled Means and Ends: The Logic of Vietnam. I have a draft of about 100,000 words, but completion is still years away. My book on Tonkin Gulf was a section of this that grew to become a separate book, and other sections will probably do the same before I complete and publish the overall history. I am thinking of expanding the section on the 1967 dispute within the U.S. intelligence community, over estimates of enemy strength in South Vietnam, into a major separate study.
Revised July 17, 2008.