Asian History

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  Passing the Test: Combat in Korea, April-June 1951

  For U.S. and UN soldiers fighting the Korean War, the spring of 1951 was brutal. The troops faced a tough and determined foe under challenging conditions. The Chinese Spring Offensive of 1951 exemplified the hardships of the war, as the UN forces struggled with the Chinese troops over Line Kansas, a phase line north of the 38th parallel, in a conflict that led to the war's final stalemate. This book explores the UN responses to the offensive in detail, looking closely at combat from the perspectives of platoons, squads, and the men themselves. The book emphasizes the tactical operations on ...Read More

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  Korean Democracy in Transition: A Rational Blueprint for Developing Societies

  As Asian countries emerge as global economic powers, many undergo fundamental political transformations. This book evaluates the past thirty years of political change in South Korea, including the decision of the authoritarian government to open up the political process in 1987 and the presidential impeachment of 2004. The book uses rational choice theory—which holds that individuals choose to act in ways that they think will give them the most benefit for the least cost—to explain events central to South Korea's democratization process. The book's theoretical and quantitative analysis provides a context for South Korea's remarkable transformation and offers predictions of ...Read More

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  The Mind of Empire: China's History and Modern Foreign Relations

  In the last century, no other nation has grown and transformed itself with such zeal as China. With a booming economy, a formidable military, and a rapidly expanding population, China is emerging as a twenty-first-century global superpower. China's prosperity has increased dramatically in the last two decades, propelling the nation to a prominent position in the international community. Yet China's ancient history still informs and shapes its understanding of itself in relation to the world. As a highly developed and modern nation, China is something of a paradox. Though China is an international leader in modern business and technology, its ...Read More

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  The 9th Infantry Division in Vietnam: Unparalleled and Unequaled

  Of all the military assignments in Vietnam, perhaps none was more challenging than the defense of the Mekong River Delta region. Operating deep within the Viet Cong-controlled Delta, the 9th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army was charged with protecting the area and its population against Communist insurgents and ensuring the success of the South Vietnamese government's pacification program. Faced with unrelenting physical hardships, a tenacious enemy, and the region's rugged terrain, the 9th Division established strategies and quantifiable goals for completing their mission, effectively writing a blueprint for combating guerrilla warfare that influenced army tacticians for decades to come. ...Read More

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  Inside China's Grand Strategy: The Perspective from the People's Republic

  China's enormous size, vast population, abundant natural resources, robust economy, and modern military suggest that it will emerge as a great world power. This book offers unique insights about the country's geopolitical ambitions and strategic thinking. The book examines China's interactions with current world powers as well as its policies toward neighboring countries. Despite claims that repressive domestic policies and an economic slowdown are evidence that the country's efforts toward modernization will fail, the book points to China's inclusion in the G-20 as an indicator of success. It compares China's global ascension, particularly its emphasis on peace, to the historical ...Read More

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  Vietnam Declassified: The CIA and Counterinsurgency

  This book offers a detailed account of the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) effort to help South Vietnamese authorities win the loyalty of the Vietnamese peasantry and suppress the Viet Cong. Covering the CIA engagement from 1954 to mid-1972, it provides a thorough analysis of the agency and its partners. The book comprehensively documents the CIA's role in the rural pacification of South Vietnam, drawing from secret archives to which the author had unrestricted access. In addition to a chronology of operations, the book explores the assumptions, political values, and cultural outlooks of not only the CIA and other United States ...Read More

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  Striking Back: Combat in Korea, March-April 1951

  This is the second book in a three-volume series about the Korean War, examining the fighting that occurred during the late winter and early spring of the war's first year. By the beginning of March, UN forces shifted strategic focus from defense to offense. In April, the combination of stabilized fronts and the enemy's failed attacks made conditions ideal for launching combat offensives. The brutal nature and strategic significance of these campaigns is described in the book, which includes analysis of their profound influence on the remainder of the war. The book provides detailed battle narratives based on eyewitness accounts ...Read More

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  Replacing France: The Origins of American Intervention in Vietnam

  Using recently released archival materials from the United States and Europe, this book explains how and why the United States came to assume control as the dominant Western power in Vietnam during the 1950s. Acting on their conviction that American methods had a better chance of building a stable, noncommunist South Vietnamese nation, Eisenhower administration officials systematically ejected French military, economic, political, bureaucratic, and cultural institutions from Vietnam. This book examines diplomatic maneuvers in Paris, Washington, London, and Saigon to detail how Western alliance members sought to transform South Vietnam into a modern, Westernized, and democratic ally, but ultimately failed ...Read More

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  V.K. Wellington Koo and the Emergence of Modern China

  Chinese diplomat V.K. Wellington Koo (1888-1985) was involved in virtually every foreign and domestic crisis in twentieth-century China. After earning a Ph.D. from Columbia University, Koo entered government service in 1912 intent on revising the unequal treaty system imposed on China in the nineteenth century, believing that breaking the shackles of imperialism would bring China into the “family of nations.”

  His pursuit of this nationalistic agenda was immediately interrupted by Chinese civil war and Japanese imperialism during World War I. In the 1930s Koo attempted to use international law to force western powers to honor their treaty obligations to punish ...Read More

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  Japanese Landscapes: Where Land and Culture Merge

  From the busy streets of Tokyo to the secluded shores of Kyushu, from the volcanoes of Hokkaido to the temples of Kyoto, the treasured landscapes of Japan are brought to life in this concise visual guide. Drawing upon years of observation, Cotton Mather, P.P. Karan, and Shigeru Iijima explore the complex interaction of culture, time, and space in the evolution of landscapes in Japan. The authors begin with a discussion of the landscape's general characteristics, including paucity of idle land, scarcity of level land, and its meticulous organization and immaculate nature. They then apply those characteristics to such favorite subjects ...Read More