So much to lose [electronic resource] : John F. Kennedy and American policy in Laos / William J. Rust.

9780813144788 electronic book
9780813144764

Lexington, Kentucky : University Press of Kentucky, [2014]

©2014

English

1 online resource (xii, 345 pages) : illustrations, maps

E183.8.L3 .R88 2014eb

327.730594090/46

Before U.S. combat units were deployed in Vietnam, presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy strove to defeat a communist-led insurgency in Laos. This impoverished, landlocked Southeast Asian kingdom was geopolitically significant because it bordered more powerful communist and anticommunist nations. The Ho Chi Minh Trail, which traversed the country, provided a critical route for North Vietnamese infiltration into South Vietnam. The Declaration on the Neutrality of Laos, signed in Geneva in 1962, ostensibly accomplished President John F. Kennedy's goal of preventing a communist victory without committing American combat troops. However, like Eisenhower's policies in the 1950s, Kennedy's attempts to contain communist expansion in Laos foundered, and the embattled nation became one of his administration's most persistent foreign policy problems. In So Much to Lose, William J. Rust continues his definitive examination of U.S. - Lao relations during the Cold War, providing an extensive analysis of their impact on U.S. policy decisions in Vietnam. -- dust jacket.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Description based on print version record.

Studies in conflict, diplomacy, and peace.

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