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Title: The Mekong: Turbulent Past, Uncertain Future by Milton Osborne ISBN: 0-8021-3802-0 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: 09 June, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Civilizations on the Mekong
Comment: This book covers the history of the Mekong River, of southeast Asia, and the adjacent nations. It's history is the history of the various peoples of the region and of French and American involvement in the area.
This is the story of the rise of the native civilizations of Malaysian and / or Indonesian origin and their displacement by newcomers from the north who vie with one another (and with Europeans) for control of the region. The early inhabitants of Cambodia were replaced by Khymer immigrants who established the state of Chenla and founded Angkor Thom in the 400s AD. They, along with the Cham people of Champa (present-day Central Vietnam) became the major regional powers. The Thais, a people formerly subjugated by the Khymer rose to power in the north and, in 1431, drove the Khymer from Angkor Then, in the 1500s, the Portuguese reach the region and begin exploring.
In the late 1600s, Vietnamese colonists begin settling in the territory of the declining Champa state (around present-day Ho Chi Minh) and push into Cambodia. Vietnam, along with the older powers of Siam and Burma vie for control of Laos and Cambodia while the Vietnamese people slowly consolidate control of the Mekong Delta in the 1700s and, with the help of the French, the entirety of this greatly expanded Vietnam is united under the Nguyen emperors. Fifty-odd years later, Napoleon III invades the South, defeats the Vietnamese emperor forces and gains possession of the South (Cochinchina).
Over the next two decades, the French push further north and, by 1887, extended their control over the entirety of Vietnam. France also extend its control over most of Cambodia and Laos.
Civil unrest develops as a small number of native Vietnamese control most of the arable land and bleed the peasants. These conditions, exacerbated by the Great Depression, helped expand the fledgling Indonchina Communist Party in the 1930s and, amid growing unrest due to famine and economic conditions and Communist-led uprisings, the French crack-down.
The Japanese temporarily replace the French and French efforts to reinstate their control result in the 1st Indochine War - which France loses. North Vietnam is controlled by Communists and South Vietnam comes under the control of an anti-communist nationalist, Ngo Dinh Diem. The United States presents a plan to develop the Mekong Delta region to create economic progress and undermine support for Communist there, but the plan dies when the 2nd Indochine (or Vietnam)War begins.
After the United States exits the region, hundreds of thousands of southern Vietnames face harsh conditions at "re-education camps" and northern Vietnamese are brought in to police the South, including Ho Chi Minh (still defiantly called Saigon by its natives). The North's former allies in the South were quickly disbanded as the "northern-dominated regime" took control while the problems of the Mekong Delta remain.
A dispassionate and informative look at the history of the region and the various stages of invaders from near and far. Excellent for understanding the conditions which led to the infamous conflict and the spread of Communism in southeast Asia.
Rating: 4
Summary: The History of a river.
Comment: These are the reflections of a man who had studied this powerful river for the last 40 years.
The river ran through six countries and had seen civilizations emerge and disappear. It had also seen revolution, war, pollution, and destruction. Countries in the upper Mekong liked to dam the river to harness electricity while people in the lower part of the river need its water for agriculture and for its fish. Building dams in the upper Mekong could affect the ecology in the lower Mekong delta. The balance of these antagonistic goals could only be solved if the governments involved were more considerate to each other.
No one could tell the history of the Mekong better than the author.
Rating: 2
Summary: Ok look at the Mekong Area
Comment: I Read The Mekong as part of an intensive preperation for a trip to Southeast Asia this summer. It is a decent book with some interesting information about exploration in Cambodia and Laos.
The book starts off a little slow but gets much better as it tells the stories of explorers from Europe attempting to navigate the Mekong River. I had never heard of some of these guys and there stories were very interesting.
However, I was surprized that the stories were mostly about Laos and Cambodia and not much was written about Vietnam.
I was also surprized at how light the chapters dealing with the war in IndoChina and their aftermaths were. He never goes into deep detail about anything. What he writes about is interesting but it never gets into anything beyond the surface. I understand this is not a book about the war, but on the otherhand he does not reveal enough of his own experiences to make this fully a travel book.
I feel the book gets muddled again towards the end while discussing the impacts of building dams along the Mekong. The author repeats himself quite a bit at this point. I also felt his conclusions were a little weak, again not really revealing anything
The bottom line on the book is this: it is interesting in parts and is decent enough reading. But I do not recommend dropping everything and reading it. It is not horrible, but at the same time it is not THE book on Southeast Asia.
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Title: River Road to China: The Search for the Source of the Mekong, 1866-73 by Milton E. Osborne, Louis Delaporte, Milton Csborne ISBN: 0871137526 Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: The Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk by Palden Gyatso, Palden Gyatso, Tsering Shakya, Dalai Lama, Palden ISBN: 0802135749 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia by Karl Ernest Meyer, Shareen Blair Brysac ISBN: 158243106X Publisher: Counterpoint Press Pub. Date: 25 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: Up From Serfdom: My Childhood and Youth in Russia, 1804-1824 by Alexsandr Nikitenko, Helen Saltz Jacobson, Peter Kolchin, Aleksandr Nikitenko ISBN: 0300097166 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia by James L. Watson ISBN: 0804732078 Publisher: Stanford Univ Pr Pub. Date: January, 1998 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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