Operation Smallbridge: Chester Ronning, the Second Indochina War, and the Challenge to the United States in Asia
In 1966 Canadian diplomats and politicians sought to bring the United States and North Vietnam to the negotiating table. Canada9s secret search for peace, code-named Operation Smallbridge, was led by retired
 diplomat Chester Ronning, who twice traveled to North Vietnam. Although Ronning9s first mission convinced him that Hanoi was willing to discuss terms, U.S. escalation of the war continued. On his second
 mission, Ronning discovered that Washington9s rejection of Hanoi9s overture had hardened the official attitude in North Vietnam. Ronning may have exaggerated the breakthrough from his earlier visit, and
 his efforts may have unrealistically raised expectations for a settlement. Instead of bringing the adversaries closer together, Operation Smallbridge inadvertently made the Vietnam conflict and its belligerents
 more intractable and the prospects for a peaceful political solution more unlikely.
The Wilson government and the Davies peace mission to North Vietnam, July 1965
The British Labour government under Harold Wilson was involved in several attempts to negotiate an early end to the Vietnam War. Such efforts helped to satisfy critics of the war on the Labour left and in the Commonwealth, to neutralize US pressure to join in the conflict and to emphasize Britain's importance on the world stage. The Davies mission, in which a left-leaning junior minister was sent to Hanoi, was Wilson's most unusual peace bid which ended as a much-criticized fiasco. This story helps to illuminate Wilson's approach to foreign policy-making, the difficulty of pursuing talks without normal diplomatic relations and the obstacles preventing a Vietnam settlement in 1965. The reluctance of both Washington and Hanoi, as well as flaws in the mission's execution, condemned it to failure.
Kennedy's quest for victory : American foreign policy, 1961-1963
This book covers every aspect of Kennedy's foreign policy - Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, Vietnam, the Middle East, and Canada, and subjects such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, atomic policy, economic policy, and the Peace Corps.