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Book Review
Asia
Nguyen Thi Dieu. The Mekong River and the Struggle for Indochina: Water, War, and Peace. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. 1999. Pp. xvi, 264. $59.95.
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In April 1965, as the United States was committing its ground forces and air power to the defense of South Vietnam, President Lyndon B. Johnson made a dramatic offer to North Vietnam. In a speech at Johns Hopkins University, Johnson proposed a vast program of regional economic development, backed by a pledge of $1 billion from the United States, in return for North Vietnam's acceptance of peace on American terms. Johnson's project envisioned cooperation among the countries of the greater Mekong River region and contributions from multilateral agencies and other industrialized countries. This proposal for developing the Mekong River region on a scale comparable to the Tennessee Valley Authority won wide praise at home and overseas and enabled Johnson to appear as a "man of peace." Once North Vietnam rejected the overture, however, Johnson's project became a casualty of the escalating military conflict. |
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