Historical Dictionary of Vietnam
Historical Dictionary of Vietnam, Third Edition
By Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker.
Published by Scarecrow Press, 2006, as No. 57 in their series, "Historical Dictionaries of Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East."
This is a 6" by 9" hardcover book running to 514 pages including the introduction, nine appendices, and the bibliography, plus a 39 page preferatory section that includes a foreword, a preface, notes describing changes in the new edition that are helpfun in using the book, acronyms and abbreviations, maps, and a lengthy chronology.
In short, this book is a compact, well done, substantive and serious historical dictionary of Vietnam. The average entry is about a half a page in length, so there are a lot of them.
For this edition the authors decided to follow Vietnamese conventions in a number of ways. They are using Vietname diacritical marks in all but a few entries; they are referring to names in the Vietnames fashion (family name followed by given name, but also in most cases referring to a person only by given name); and indexing organizations by their actual Vietnamese names instead of by translations. These changes make the book harder for us to use but more accurate and authentic in its representation of Vietnamese history.
I often like to test reference books for bias and point-of-view by looking up a controversial topic, if I can find one, to examine how they deal with it. So, how about the Gulf of Tonkin? The book has entries for Tonkin, Tonkin Free School (actually a see reference to the Vietnamese name), Tonkin Gulf (with the Vietnamese name in parentheses), Tonkin Gulf Incidents, and Tonkin Gulf Resolution. The entry on the Tonkin Gulf Incidents is in two paragraphs; here are both:
TONKIN GULF INCIDENTS
Two alleged clashes between naval craft of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and the United States in August 1964. The administration of Lyndon Johnson contended that Vietnamese ships fired on two U.S. destroyers, the Maddox and the C. Turner Joy, without provocation and in the open sea. According to the United States, a second incident took place a few days later. The Johnson administration retaliated by launching air strikes against North Vietnamese cities and seeking a resolution from Congress authorizing the White House to take appropriate military measures to protect U.S. security interests in the area.
Further investigation revealed that the two U.S. warships operating near the North Vietnamese coast were monitoring Vietnamese radar capabilities in the area. The Hanoi regime might have identified the presence of the U.S. ships with South Vietnamese guerrilla operations on the nearby coast. The second incident probably never occurred, although it is still a matter of debate among scholars whether it was a geniune false alarm or a complete fabrication by the American military.
I'd say that's about what's to be expected from a scholarly source, in that it takes pains to be unbiased in the sense that it accomodates a range of scholarly opinion. It could be a lot worse in terms of point-of-view.
This is a useful book for someone researching Vietnamese history.
By Bruce Lockhart and William J. Duiker.
Published by Scarecrow Press, 2006, as No. 57 in their series, "Historical Dictionaries of Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East."
This is a 6" by 9" hardcover book running to 514 pages including the introduction, nine appendices, and the bibliography, plus a 39 page preferatory section that includes a foreword, a preface, notes describing changes in the new edition that are helpfun in using the book, acronyms and abbreviations, maps, and a lengthy chronology.
In short, this book is a compact, well done, substantive and serious historical dictionary of Vietnam. The average entry is about a half a page in length, so there are a lot of them.
For this edition the authors decided to follow Vietnamese conventions in a number of ways. They are using Vietname diacritical marks in all but a few entries; they are referring to names in the Vietnames fashion (family name followed by given name, but also in most cases referring to a person only by given name); and indexing organizations by their actual Vietnamese names instead of by translations. These changes make the book harder for us to use but more accurate and authentic in its representation of Vietnamese history.
I often like to test reference books for bias and point-of-view by looking up a controversial topic, if I can find one, to examine how they deal with it. So, how about the Gulf of Tonkin? The book has entries for Tonkin, Tonkin Free School (actually a see reference to the Vietnamese name), Tonkin Gulf (with the Vietnamese name in parentheses), Tonkin Gulf Incidents, and Tonkin Gulf Resolution. The entry on the Tonkin Gulf Incidents is in two paragraphs; here are both:
TONKIN GULF INCIDENTS
Two alleged clashes between naval craft of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) and the United States in August 1964. The administration of Lyndon Johnson contended that Vietnamese ships fired on two U.S. destroyers, the Maddox and the C. Turner Joy, without provocation and in the open sea. According to the United States, a second incident took place a few days later. The Johnson administration retaliated by launching air strikes against North Vietnamese cities and seeking a resolution from Congress authorizing the White House to take appropriate military measures to protect U.S. security interests in the area.
Further investigation revealed that the two U.S. warships operating near the North Vietnamese coast were monitoring Vietnamese radar capabilities in the area. The Hanoi regime might have identified the presence of the U.S. ships with South Vietnamese guerrilla operations on the nearby coast. The second incident probably never occurred, although it is still a matter of debate among scholars whether it was a geniune false alarm or a complete fabrication by the American military.
I'd say that's about what's to be expected from a scholarly source, in that it takes pains to be unbiased in the sense that it accomodates a range of scholarly opinion. It could be a lot worse in terms of point-of-view.
This is a useful book for someone researching Vietnamese history.