1945: the most significant year in the modern history of Vietnam. One thousand years of dynastic politics and monarchist ideology came to an end. Eight decades of French rule lay shattered. Five years of Japanese military occupation ceased. Allied leaders determined that Chinese troops in the north of Indochina and British troops in the South would receive the Japanese surrender. Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, with himself as president.

Drawing on extensive archival research, interviews, and an examination of published memoirs and documents, David G. Marr has written a richly detailed and descriptive analysis of this crucial moment in Vietnamese history. He shows how Vietnam became a vortex of intense international and domestic competition for power, and how actions in Washington and Paris, as well as Saigon, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh's mountain headquarters, interacted and clashed, often with surprising results. Marr's book probes the ways in which war and revolution sustain each other, tracing a process that will interest political scientists and sociologists as well as historians and Southeast Asia specialists.

David G. Marr is Senior Fellow at the Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. He is the author of Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885-1925 (California, 1971) and Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945 (California, 1981).

"A winning combination of scholarly tome and readable history. . . . Marr tells this extremely complicated story very well, backing up his sharp analysis with mountains of supporting factual evidence. . . . Meticulous and objective, an indispensable document for understaning the roots of American involvement in Vietnam."—Kirkus Reviews

"Vietnam 1945 is a tour de force by the pre-eminent historian of modern Vietnam. . . . Marr has breathed life into his narrative with anecdotes and vignettes about various colonialists, commanders and nationalists. . . . This detailed approach . . . enables readers to smell the atmosphere of Vietnam in 1945. The author presents a fascinating account of how the Vietnamese nationalists conspired to seize power from the Japanese and confront the machinations of the returning French. . . . Herein lies the beauty of Marr's account. In weaving a complex narrative featuring a wealth of local and foreign actors who knew only partly what they were about and somewhat less about what was going on, he succeeds in showing that the course of events was neither planned nor well-orchestrated. . . . The author masterfully sketches the tensions between the French, British, and U.S. over the future disposition of Vietnam."—Jeff Kingston, Japan Times

"An indispensable document for understanding the roots of American involvement in Vietnam."—The VVA Veteran

"Drawing on an impressive array of materials in several languages, [Marr] presents a detailed account of that complex phenomenon known to the Vietnamese people as the August Revolution. . . . [A] magnificent book. . . . Marr does what he does best—to weave together a rich and complex tapestry of one of the key periods in the history of modern Vietnam."—Association for Asian Studies Journal

"Finely yet colorfully drawn, Marr's book methodically and rationally presents a witch's brew of nationalism, imperialism, and colonialism set against an international background. . . . Scholarly, clearly written, and free of jargon. . . . Highly recommended."—History

"A fascinating, complex, densely detailed account of one crucial year in the history of Vietnam. . . . The book's greatest strengths are its detail and depth. . . . Based on exhaustive archival research and personal interviews, Vietnam 1945 is a masterpiece of the historian's craft. Indispensable reading for scholars in the field."—Choice

Winner, 1996 John K. Fairbank Prize of the American Historical Association
Choice Outstanding Academic Book