James M. Carter obtained his PhD from the University of Houston in 2004 and is currently Assistant Professor of History at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi. His research specialties include U.S. foreign relations, the Vietnam War and the Cold War. His publications include several articles on nation building in Vietnam and private contractors in both Vietnam and Iraq as well as book reviews in Itinerario, The Journal of Military History, Education About Asia, and on H-Diplo. In summer, 2007, he was appointed a Fellow of the Summer Military History Seminar at West Point Military Academy.
1. Introduction; 2. The Cold War
colonialism
and the origins of the American commitment to Vietnam
1945-1954; 3. 'The needs are enormous
the time short': Michigan State University
the United States operations mission
nation building
and Vietnam; 4. Surviving the crises: Southern Vietnam
1958-1960; 5. 'A permanent mendicant': Southern Vietnam
1960-1963; 6. A period of shakedown: Southern Vietnam
1963-1965; The paradox of construction and destruction: Southern Vietnam 1966-1968; 8. Epilogue: war
politics
and the end in Vietnam.
