assistance program -- Defeats in Tonkin, deliberations in Washington -- The de Lattre interlude, 1950 -- 1951 -- Looking for a way out, January 1952 -- February 1953 -- The road to Dien Bien Phu -- The question of intervention -- "Political considerations are overriding" : the decision on training -- The Collins mission -- Picking up the pieces, 1955 -- 1956 -- Building a Vietnamese Army, 1956 -- 1959 -- Roots of a new war, 1957 -- 1959 -- Things fall apart, July 1959 -- June 1960 -- "Something extra and special" -- Assessment.

Advice and Support describes the activities of the U.S. Army in Vietnam during World War II, military advice and assistance to the French government during the immediate postwar years, and the advisory program that developed after the Geneva Agreements of 1954. Its scope ranges from high-level policy decisions to low-echelon advisory operations in the field, presented against a background of relevant military and political developments. Useful not only as a study of military assistance but as a view of the Army as an agent of national policy, Ronald Spector interesting book is a fitting introduction to the overall study of the conflict in Vietnam.