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All the Way with JFK? Britain, the US, and the Vietnam
War
a
Judith R. Johnson
a
Wichita State University
Published online: 24 Jul 2012.

To cite this article: Judith R. Johnson (2003) All the Way with JFK? Britain, the US, and the Vietnam War, History: Reviews of
New Books, 32:1, 14-14, DOI: 10.1080/03612759.2003.10527651

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 rosturerita 9ue did a9uel ma1 paso (“the little
seamstress who stumbled“ [103]) the popular
image of working class women who move to
the city seeking a better life and end up in
poverty and prostitution. The essay reveals
much about male attitudes and anxieties
toward women’s changing role in Brazilian
society.
The “diseases” here are not always the
center of attention. Equally important are the
roles of medical power. Gabriella
Nouzeilles’s study of hysteria explores how
medical control over numerous plagues
affected and possibly even created a “plague”
of hysteria between 1875 and 1905.
Nouzeilles argues that in these cases “hyste-
ria could as much embody an act of displaced
resistance [by the women in question] as
manifest an exasperated abjection” and that
doctors, the “policemen of sex . . . systemati-
Downloaded by [Duke University Medical Center] at 02:32 07 October 2014
cally and meticulously rewrote the sympto-
matic inscriptions of hysteria as fables of
control” (72).
Ann Zulawski’s study of the Manicomio
Pacheco asylum in Bolivia looks at the atti-
tudes of hospital physicians during a time of
social change and democratization. She
observes that, although some physicians
became swept up in the democratic movement,
many who came from privileged backgrounds
“had difficulty recognizing or accepting [the
movement for democracy’s] implications for
their professional lives” (262).
This collection will appeal to a broad audi-
ence, including readers studying diseases
from well beyond the geographic limits of
these essays. Editor Diego Armus-whose
introduction is an excellent historiography-
observes that the Foucauldian framework was
“embraced much earlier and more intensely
in Latin America than in the Anglo-American
academic world” ( 1 I ) . This perspective has
informed a variety of the studies, but those
wary of Foucault should not shy from these
invigorating essays. The Latin American
experiences with post-colonial institutions,
industrialization, modernization, and tropical
medicine, all of which are represented well in
Diseirse in the History of Latin America, will
be of interest to individuals from a variety of
academic backgrounds.
DAN MALLECK
Brock University
Lupher, David A.
Romans in a New World:
Classical Models in Sixteenth-
Century Spanish America
Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press
440 pp., $59.50, ISBN 0-472- 1 1275-9
Publication Date: April 2003
In Romcins in a New World, David A. Lupher,
a professor of classics at the University of
Puget Sound, adds a perceptive volume to the
study of the classics’ influence on Latin
American historiography.
14
Professor Lupher initiates his study with an
examination of how the chroniclers of the con-
quistadors compared them to the ancients,
especially the Romans. Based upon their unfa-
miliarity with the new world and the distance
traveled, the conquistadors supposed their
feats were greater than those of the greatest of
the ancient Romans. In chapter 2, the author
examines the use of these comparisons to the
Romans to justify the conquest of the Indies.
Obviously, such a study raised a controversy
that climaxed in 1550-1551 in a debate
between Juan Gines de Sepulveda and Bishop
Bartolome de las Casas, which is the content of
chapter 3. The debate itself aroused opposi-
tion, and in chapter 4 Lupher presents four
treatments of the issue-three supporting the
Roman model and one opposing it. In the final
two chapters, the author examines the analogy
of the Spanish conquest of Latin America with
the Roman conquest of Spain, and the compar-
ison of the native cultures of Latin America
with those of the ancient Mediterranean. Many
of these efforts created intellectual tension
between various scholastics.
This volume provides a fine addition to the
University of Michigan’s History, Languages,
and Culture of the Spanish and Portuguese
Worlds, an “interdisciplinary series” that
“promotes scholarship in studies on Iberian
cultures and contacts from the premodern and
early modem periods.” Although one might
suspect a book on Latin American historiog-
raphy by a classicist, Lupher has provided a
work of first rate scholarship. It fits well into
the field of Latin American historiography
and complements other works in that area.
Romans in a New World will attract histori-
ans, those interested in historiography and lit-
erature, upper class students, and scholars.
J. DREW HARRINGTON
Troy State University Montgomery
Busch, Peter
All the Way with JFK?
Britain, the US, and the Vietnam War
New York: Oxford University Press
256 pp., $45.00, ISBN 0-19-925639-X
Publication Date: January 2003
The Vietnam War remains a focus of attention
for scholars, former combatants, and the gen-
eral public. Many recount personal experi-
ences, some challenge or revise what histori-
ans have written, but few books have explored
the war within the context of the cold war and
the actions of American allies. In All the Way
with JFK? Peter Busch examines British
involvement in Vietnam in the early 1960s.
During the years 1961 to 1963 Great
Britain chose to support President John F.
Kennedy’s policies rather than pursue a nego-
tiated peace with the National Liberation
Front in Vietnam. Although this conclusion
contradicts traditional interpretations, Busch
nevertheless demonstrates that the British
wanted to remain a political influence in
Southeast Asia, strengthen the ties of Com-
monwealth members such as Australia and
New Zealand, and counter communist expan-
sion during the cold war. He acknowledges
that economic factors exerted some influence.
However, Busch maintains that Britain’s per-
ception of its role and place in the world dom-
inated its decision making process.
Robert Thompson, who served his govern-
ment in Malaya, plays a major role in this
study. Known for both his success in prevent-
ing a communist takeover and his involve-
ment in the eventual formation of Malaysia,
Thompson arrived in Vietnam in 1961, and
his position as head of the British Advisory
Mission (BRIAM) brought him in immediate
contact with South Vietnamese as well as
U.S. military and diplomatic officials. Busch
notes that many writers wrongly credit
Thompson with the “strategic hamlet” pro-
gram in Vietnam. According to Busch, how-
ever, the South Vietnamese government
began a resettlement program and forced the
removal of villagers before Thompson
reached Vietnam.
All the Way with JFK? is an extremely
well-written and extensively researched
study. The arguments are clearly presented
and the sources appropriately noted. Of par-
ticular benefit to the reader is the author’s
introduction and conclusion to each chapter
where he explains what he will address and
then summarizes his findings and interpreta-
tions. The photographs enhance the presenta-
tion of this study as do the maps. For those
unfamiliar with the many organizations and
agencies from the United States and Great
Britain, Busch has included a list of the
abbreviations. This is definitely more appro-
priate for college students than for general
readers, but it does contain information that
all will find useful.
JUDITH R. JOHNSON
Wichita State University
Epstein, James
In Practice: Studies
in the Language and Culture
of Popular Politics in Modern Britain
Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press
206 pp., $21.95, ISBN 0-8047-4662-1
Publication Date: January 2003
In Practice: Studies in the Language and Cul-
ture of Popular Politics in Modem Britain is a
short volume of essays exploring the utility of
the linguistic turn in looking at the cultural
history of popular politics in early nineteenth-
century Britain. James Epstein, a professor of
history at Vanderbilt University and co-editor
HISTORY